De-interlacing & Encoding problems.

rossfcp · Member Joined: 26 Aug 2009 Location: United States

My Problem is Interlacing is horrible on Reds in the footage, after i encode in 2 different programs, Apples Final Cut Pro, and Cinema Craft Encoder on a PC. Trying everything short of capturing uncompressed. Then using those options my Job is to do the DVD authoring for the movie. We have done Hundreds and hundreds of movies with no problems when it comes to progressive video, this is interlaced footage.

I have a DV Cam here. The video on the tape is in NTSC 720x480 Anamorphic 29.97 frames.

DV Cam Tape Info:
The tape was made from a Quicktime from FCP at 23.98 printed to a Beta SP that was 23.98 fps. Then taking that Beta SP and converted up to 29.97 on to a DV Cam, I'm only assuming for TV reasons.

The client is only giving me the DV Cam tape and will not give up the original Quicktime file that is 23.98 HD footage. I am to use this DV Cam tape, capture it assuming at NTSC 720x480 Anamorphic 29.97 fps with Final Cut Pro, i dont know if i need to use the "Remove Advanced Pulldown and / or Duplicate Frames from FireWire sources" option. I have captured with both.

So doing so i still get massive amounts of interlacing in which i can de-interlace it with a FCP plug in or 3rd party plugin that i have, i have also used Compressor to de-interlace it with a Blur option, Odd, Even, Sharp. Everything i do i get these horrible interlacing lines in areas where there is a Dark room and red light in the footage. Every other part of the movie the interlacing is perfect, no issue. Just on the Reds and Pinks.

Now the major problem is i had to give up the project to another company to compress it and the were able to get the interlacing problem fix on the reds but other parts were a little less quality than my compression. the Client does not see or care about that. they only care about the Red they happen to see and will always check that. I need to see what i can do to compress right and what options i might have to fix this issue.

Any Advice would be greatly appreciated.

Am i capturing it wrong?
Am i encoding it wrong?
Am i De-interlacing it wrong?

Should i try and see if someone can capture the footage for me uncompressed then encode it and see if thats the only solution?
Know of any good tricks with Compressor or even Cinema Craft Encoder for the options to set?
Thank you guys ahead of time for any information you might have.

dizzie · Member Joined: 28 Nov 2006 Location: United States

What a stupid client. They're giving you what is essentially a 680x240 print since it went through Betacam. They should make you a 720x480 4:3 file from the original QT file. Or, at least go straight from QT to DV without BETACAM in the way - how absurd!

Since the DV is at 29.97, I wouldn't even think you would have to bother with Deinterlacing at all - Interlaced TV sources are usually at 59.94. Perhaps skip the deinterlacing and try one of the pulldown plugins. Actually, it may very well need both - deinterlacing and the "Remove Advanced Pulldown". They probably screwed up the pulldown when they transferred from BETACAM (still can;t get over that) to DV.

Good luck! Level with the client and let them know how they can help you deliver a better quality product!