[Dan Isaacs]

Can you post some sample output somewhere so I can look at it?

[Dan Isaacs]

The problem is that Premiere assumes any clip with DV compression to be interlaced — and (as it lacks an override via Interpret Footage, etc.) cannot be told that the clip is, in fact, progressive.

Most of the time this does not make a difference. Speed changes, however, is an instance where it will affect the quality.

Like the original poster discovered, there are certain filters that also cause this “auto-deinterlacing” of progressive footage. These are filters built off of the AE model — where fields must be separated in order to achieve interlaced rendering. Premiere assumes your clip is interlaced and separates the fields. Then, since the project is progressive, it applies the effect to and returns only the first field.

I compiled a list of filters that are problematic in this regard:
https://invertedhorn.axspace.com/premiere_cs3_filter_problems.html

Placing a non-problematic filter above one of the problem filters seems to remedy this issue in most cases (but not all). In particular, time-based effects (like Time Warp. Posterize Time, etc.) are apparently always applied first and as such are beyond redemption.

Curiously, one cannot use the 3rd party FieldsKit deinterlacer in progressive projects within Premiere for this reason. It would be nice to import a 60i clip into a 30p timeline — and use FieldsKit to make it progressive. But this cannot be done: by the time FieldsKit processes the frame it has already been destroyed by Premiere’s internal deinterlacing.

Apparently Adobe’s apps append a RIFF header marking whether a clip is interlaced or progressive. Premiere supposedly honors this flag when processing footage. So, a possible workaround would be:

1.) import your 30p DV clips into After Effects
2.) make sure you turned off separate fields on “Interpret Footage” options for all clips
3.) re-output your clips from AE (no field rendering) as DV

Premiere should now see these correctly as progressive. It’s a nightmare, I know. The absence of a field order/progressive frame option in Premiere’s Interpret Footage dialog is a major oversight on Adobe’s part.

[Dan Isaacs]

Premiere generally has problems with all temporally compressed formats. This includes codecs such as TechSmith’s.

Download the Lagarith lossless codec:
https://lags.leetcode.net

Download VirtualDub:
https://virtualdub.org

Assuming you are using Camtasia, I suggest capturing using the TechSmith codec as normal. However, after capturing is complete, open the .avi in VirtualDub and recompress it with the Lagarith codec. Premiere will handle the Lagarith file a lot better than the original.

Here’s a variation of this technique I often use when I want to do zooms on screen captured material (like close-ups of mouse clicks, etc.):

1.) Capture using the TechSmith codec
2.) Open the file in VirtualDub, go to Video / Filters and add a “Resize” filter. Set this to EXACTLY 200% (or even 300%, 400%) of the original size setting filter mode to “Nearest Neighbor” (this is much better for GUI elements and screen text).
3.) Save as a Lagarith .AVI
4.) Import the Lagarith file into After Effects, create a comp that matches you Premiere project settings (such as 720×480 0.9 PAR) and apply zooming and panning. This will which look much better than what Premiere can do if you add motion blur.

[Dan Isaacs]

Probably because there is a bug in Premiere that causes incorrect conversion between the Rec.601 <-> Rec.709 colorspaces. There is also a problem in how RGB graphics are handled in an HD project.

Basically, Premiere seems to be blissfully unaware that there are 2 different color matrix specs for HD and SD material and so treats everything (color-wise) as if it were SD. This causes color mismatches in the following situations:

1.) HD footage used in an SD timeline
2.) SD footage used in an HD timeline
3.) HD timeline exported as SD
4.) SD timeline exported as HD
5.) RGB graphics used in HD projects for HD export

Do any of these apply to what you’re doing?

[Dan Isaacs]

What exactly do you mean by “interlaced look”?

[Dan Isaacs]

Is this aliasing visible as soon as you place your 30p clip on timeline, or rather when you apply certain effects? I have come to learn that many of Premiere’s built-in effects will cause automatic deinterlacing — even in a 30p timeline.

This is because Premiere is assuming the progressive DV clips to be interlaced — and because these filters are built on the After Effects model which separates the fields before applying the filter.

Here is a list of effects that cause this problem:
https://invertedhorn.axspace.com/premiere_cs3_filter_problems.html

[Dan Isaacs]

Hey Ann… Nice to see you here 🙂 I saw this post so I just had to join the cow.

Yes, my method of converting 1080i -> SD is far better than what you’re liekly to get with anything else. I’m not saying it’s “the best” (there’s always room for improvement) but it provides very nice quality at reasonable rendering times — and it is done entirely with free software!

The link Ann posted is correct:
https://invertedhorn.axspace.com/hdv2dvd_basic.html

Don’t be scared of the process. It’s a lot simpler than you may think at first. Go through the basic workflow I outline on the page, and when you “graduate” from that, download the “advanced” workflow .zip file at the bottom of the page. It will make your HD->SD fantasies a reality 🙂

What do y’all mean “convoluted workflow”… IMO, it’s no worse than other suggestions I’ve read, such as rendering as MPEG2, exporting to tape on your HDV camcorder and recapturing as DV using the camera’s built in conversion??? For long and complex projects that would take FOREVER and give you the “worst of both worlds” by subjecting your video to both DV and MPEG2 recompression. Worse yet, the results are never very good, due to the rather unsophisticated HW processing on most cameras.

Seriously, try it out. I don’t vistit Creative Cow that often, so drop a post on Adobe’s PPro forum if you’ve got any questions:

https://www.adobeforums.com/webx/.59b5b2fb/134

Good luck and enjoy!
— Dan