Ripping DVDs – always deinterlace ?

[Rafael Amador]

DVDs can have any field order (upper, lower) or being progressive.
Have a look to the Stream Info (Cmd-I) to know what are you dealing with.
In case of being Interlaced, de-interlacing or not is up to you.
If is Progressive, deinterlacing not only will be for nothing, but even will degrade the picture.
rafael

http://www.nagavideo.com

[Rosie Walunas]

Well, wouldn’t an interlaced clip in a progressive timeline be a problem for the online editor and/or colorist down the line?

Or would a deinterlaced clip be better or worse to work with?

(I guess this also spans beyond DVDs as archive could come in interlaced and the project might be progressive.)

Thanks.

[Nick Meyers]

not necessarily.
you’d have to ask them

it would be passing the problem onto them,
but then again, they might be the best person to deal with it.
their de-interlacing tools may be better than yours.

when i use MPEG Streamclip the two checked “intrerlace” options are Interlaced Scaling & Reinterlace Chroma

here’s what the manual says

Interlaced Scaling
If you are scaling an interlaced file to a different height, you can tell MPEG Streamclip to preserve interlacement and scale each video field separately by checking “Interlaced Scaling”. If you don’t, interlacement will be lost in the scaled movie, and, worse, you will get many visual artifacts. This setting is now enabled by default; remember to disable it with progressive files.
Interlacement requires a frame height of more than 288 pixels. If the frame height of the source file is up to 288, interlaced scaling will not be enabled. If the frame height you have chosen for the exported movie is up to 288 and you check “Interlaced Scaling”, MPEG Streamclip discards the lower field before scaling the picture (i.e. it performs a fast deinterlacing by dropping one field).

Reinterlace Chroma
If you are converting an interlaced MPEG-1/MPEG-2 file, you may wish to “reinterlace” chroma. By checking “Reinterlace Chroma” you can enable a special remapping of 4:2:0 chroma lines so they will be split correctly between the two video fields. This is a very advanced option: only professional users may see the difference in the output movie. This option is enabled by default; disable it when you are sure your file is not interlaced.
This option has no effect if the source stream is not an MPEG-1/MPEG-2 stream.

Deinterlace Video
If you have an interlaced file, you may also want to deinterlace it, usually to convert into a progressive format, get a “film” effect and have a better playback on the computer’s display. When you check the option “Deinterlace Video”, MPEG Streamclip enables a special motion-adaptive deinterlacer, and it deinterlaces the lower field in the parts that contain motion, and preserves video quality of all parts that do not contain motion; the upper field is left unchanged. This option slows down the conversion.
Please note that if you are changing the height of an interlaced stream (that is, you are telling MPEG Streamclip to perform vertical scaling) then you must enable either “Interlaced Scaling” or “Deinterlace Video” (at your own choice), otherwise you will see bad video artifacts in the converted movie.

nick

[Rafael Amador]

As Nick said.
If you wan’t to get the best from the DVD, and you don’t know how the clips will be used and delivered the final product, transcode it as it is.
rafael

http://www.nagavideo.com

[Chris Tompkins]

If the DVD video IS interlaced, then YES, keep it that way.

Chris Tompkins
Video Atlanta LLC

[Chris Tompkins]

For the last few years, when I needed to make a SD NTSC DVD from HD NTSC material (Upper Fields) I would create a UFF m2v.
It looks correct when played back off the DVD feeding a TV.

Chris Tompkins
Video Atlanta LLC

[Rafael Amador]

[Dave LaRonde] “Actually, no. All DVDs have a lower field first field order, both PAL and NTSC. “
That’s a myth Dave.
I make my DVDs (PAL land) Lower when the source is Lower (DV) and Upper when the source is HD.
In NTSC land many people think that DVDs are only Lower because most of your SD sources (DV, Uncompressed) are Lwer.
In PAL-land SD Uncompressed is Upper, when that is your source, DVs are made Upper.
I’ve found as well few Hollywood movies DVDs being Upper.
rafael

http://www.nagavideo.com

[Rafael Amador]

[Dave LaRonde] “However, once the mpeg2 file is created — PAL or NTSC — its field order is always lower field first. Lower field first is the technical standard for DVDs”
Again, no.
The standard for MEPG-2 DVD compliant do not define the field order.
Make an MPEG-2 Upper first and open with MPGStreamclip the “Stream Info” window. The application will identify the file as Upper and will be read as Upper.
And if you convert it to QT you have to check it as upper and you will get an Upper .mov.
rafael

http://www.nagavideo.com

[Chris Tompkins]

This has been my understanding as well. You can have a UFF SD DVD in NTSC land.

Chris Tompkins
Video Atlanta LLC

[Rosie Walunas]

So let’s say, when I get Stream Info it shows “lower field first” – but MPEG Streamclip is defaulted to land on Upper Field First in the Export Window. Should I simply select Lower Field First? Or Upper Field First? (When the DVD is going to go to a Progressive project.)

If I do not select De-interlace – sometimes the scan lines are visible – and especially when we have projected on a big screen. However, just as noted above, De-interlacing is a bit degrading. To be extra specific, this was most noticeable on rips of cartoon shows 4:3 DVDs. Both ways look like a huge loss.

I’m constantly thinking forward to the online – so any additional thoughts would be great.

(Not to keep this never-ending argument going.)

Thanks!