Interlacing confusion

[bode]

Most of the information I've read on this subject refers to divx viewing on computer monitors.

If I'm recording from a PAL Digital TV Broadcast using the Canopus ADVC 100 (DV AVI), will I have problems with interlacing if my intention is to record to DVDR and view on a standard television?

I'm also confused about whether I should be rendering fields in Vegas 4.0.

[erratic]

PAL DV is always lower field first so keep it that way. Vegas automatically chooses lower field first for PAL DV so you don't have to change a thing.

Is your PAL Digital Broadcast 4:3 or anamorphic 16:9? If it's 16:9 use the PAL DV Widescreen template in Vegas. In your MPEG-2 encoder you then have to set the (source and destination) aspect ratio to 16:9 also.

[bode]

In Vegas 4.0:
Render as: Video-Windows AVI
Template: PAL DV
Frame Size: PAL DV
Field Order: Lower
Video Format: (not sure)???

In Canopus Procoder AVI to MPEG2:
Video + Wave File
Lower Field
Master Quality
CBR 6000

1. Which would be the better in Vegas' Video format? PAL DV, Panasonic DV, canopus DV for booster pack?

2. I can't use 2 pass VBR, what do I do to get this?

4. Am I loosing quality any where?

Thanks

[erratic]

1. I assume PAL DV uses the Vegas DV codec. I don't have the other DV codecs you mention, so I don't know if they are better or worse.

2. Do you mean you can't use 2 pass VBR in Vegas or in ProCoder? In ProCoder you should be able to select 2 pass VBR. In Vegas (rendering as DV) there's no point because DV is always CBR. But you could try frameserving directly from the Vegas timeline to ProCoder with the PluginPac frameserver. That way you don't have to create a new big AVI file.

In Vegas you can convert the audio to AC3. After some experimenting I find the following AC3 settings are necessary to avoid audio volume loss:

Dialog normalization: -31 dB
Dynamic range compression: None

Of course, in that case you need DVD authoring software with AC3 support.

[bode]

2. Do you mean you can't use 2 pass VBR in Vegas or in ProCoder? In ProCoder you should be able to select 2 pass VBR. .

I can't use it in Procoder. It states a warning about you cannot use file splitting in 2 pass mode. I usually keep the audio as PCM wav and use Vegas to change the gain to 0db. I may try AC3 if I find my video is poor quality.

Re: Vegas rendering:
Keep it uncompressed or choose a codec if I want to use Procoder later on? The Canopus codec seems to have the smoothest results.

[erratic]

If you click OK when ProCoder warns about file splitting you can still use 2 pass VBR, I think.

If you render your video uncompressed the AVI file will be huge, so use a DV codec or frameserve. Frameserving = uncompressed (but without creating a big AVI file).

[bode]

Thanks for your help.

So always Lower field instead of progressive scan with DV AVI broadcasts to be viewed on a TV.

Is interlaced the same as progressive scan?

[erratic]

Progressive scan = non-interlaced.

[bode]

Sorted.