-
When to deinterlace?
Hi. I’m confused about when to deinterlace footage.
As some of you might have read from my panicked earlier post, I’ve been working from DVDs that my professor gives me which had the original footage onto them, probably with a professional DVD Recorder. I do plan on getting the original tapes now and restoring the project.
But anyways, this whole time I’ve been using MPEG Streamclip to get the footage off these, using the DV format, and checking the deinterlace box. Someone told me that deinterlacing the footage was the wrong thing for me to do and that it meant a further loss of quality. So when should this box be checked?
Aside from all the footage and interviews he had someone help him film, we did take some footage off of DVDs of old footage, some TV news documentaries from the 80s. Should this footage have been deinterlaced too? Because I did. Or is it best to not deinterlace anything when you’re going to edit it?
-
6 Replies
-
[zeke meginsky] “I’m confused about when to deinterlace footage.”
If you shoot interlaced or someone gives you interlaced footage to edit, you almost always edit the interlaced footage, period, end of story. When you’re done, if there’s a reason to deinterlace the footage you deinterlace it, but there are very few reasons to deinterlace interlaced footage. Okay, what are the good reasons for deinterlacing?
1) you’re creating a Web video at a size that’s greater than 50% of the dimensions of the original – i.e. if you scale interlaced footage down to 50% or less it essentially removes the interlace
2) you’re mixing interlaced footage with progressive footage and the decision has been made to opt for a progressive finish
3) you’re doing some effects work or green screen work that requires deinterlacing
4) you’re doing a filmout
5) not much else, but I’m sure others will chime in
David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor/Colorist
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los Angeles
https://www.drwfilms.comPOST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™
A forum host of Creative COW’s Business & Marketing and Apple Final Cut Pro forums. Formerly host of the Apple Final Cut Basics, Indie Film & Documentary, and Film History & Appreciations forums.
-
And in most cases, FCP isn’t the tool to deinterlace. I’ll note, that only 50% scale naturally removes deinterlacing. It just removes every other line for a perfect deinterlace. 25% might work too. But for example 33% removes a line and a fraction- creating a field mush issue. That’s my experience.
-
Okay. I used MPEG Streamclip to deinterlace it, not Final Cut Pro.
I don’t know if it was interlaced or not. It was shot with a regular digital camera, not sure what kind, but whatever the college uses.
So then the final answer is..if editing anything that’s not for the web, pretty much never deinterlace footage ?
-
Pretty much…
David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor/Colorist
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los Angeles
https://www.drwfilms.comPOST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™
A forum host of Creative COW’s Business & Marketing and Apple Final Cut Pro forums. Formerly host of the Apple Final Cut Basics, Indie Film & Documentary, and Film History & Appreciations forums.
-
just a thought to bear in mind – as you are importing as DV, you should be aware that DV requires your first field to be on the Lower (even) lines, whereas pretty much every other video format uses the upper (odd) line first except the progressive ones).
So you might be encountering problems of fields being reversed, if you start working with mixed formats.Adam Taylor
Video Editor/Audio Mixer/ Compositor/Motion GFX/Barista
Character Options Ltd
Oldham, UKhttp://www.sculptedbliss.co.uk
-
I don’t really understand what you’re saying. Mostly everything should be in DV now that I’m capturing from a tape. I am getting something else from a DVD, but that will probably be exported as a DV 50 clip.
Reply to this Discussion! Login or Sign Up