Interlaced Video Capture ???

[vettesea]

A friend of mine is capturing DV footage from a Sony Digital8 camera over firewire using IUVCR software. During capture the image appears fine, however when watching back in media play he notices lines throughout the picture at regular intervals.

He is not sure if this is an interlaced problem or not. In the past when he has captured analog footage using a similar process he has not had the problem. I do not know much about interlaced / de-interlaced and wondered if any of you chaps could shed some light on this for us.

Thanks

[lordsmurf]

http://www.digitalfaq.com/capture/interlace.htm

[vettesea]

Lordsmurf

Once again you are spot on with the info. I will pass this on, many thanks.

[FOO]

Hey Smurf
You should proof read your stuff. This is your explanation for interlaced
display:

"Two images are simultaneous shown per frame"

[lordsmurf]

Hmm ... that does sound silly. Interlace is hard to explain in normal words for the newbies, so I'll leave it that way until I can think of a better way to say it.

[BSR]

Just remove simultaneous.

[lordsmurf]

Just remove simultaneous.

Duh
I totally missed that.

Yeah, I've been more worried about content, less worried about typos in the past.

[karhooi]

I have this issue as well, but when view in TV screen you will not notice the interlacing problem.
If you still have problem in TV screen, you can use TMPgenc to twist the interlacing problem but beware it will blur out like explained in lordsmurf website.

[lordsmurf]

Interlacing isn't a "problem". It's a spec of the video file.
It's like saying MPEG-2 is a "problem" or NTSC is a "problem".

[FOO]

I definitely consider interlacing a problem.

[johns0]

Just abolish interlacing altogether and only use progressive.

[takeshi]

Just abolish interlacing altogether and only use progressive.

This sort of advice is like advising all people to use premium fuel only. Cars designed for 87 octane fuel won't benefit at all. Similarly, converting from interlaced to progressive only benefits those that will view the video on a progressive display.

If your video is intended for viewing on a computer only or on a progressive-capable TV, great. If not, leave it interlaced. Read the faqs. As Smurf said, it's not a matter of something being a "problem" or one being "better" than the other.

[johns0]

It wasnt advice,just to get rid of old technology and replace it with something better.

[mpack]

It wasnt advice,just to get rid of old technology and replace it with something better.

Well, if the replacement technology is 60 full frames/s progressive then that would certainly be better. But, if you are talking about replacing 60 (or 50) fields per second with 30 (or 25) frames per second then I would hardly call that better... I'll stick with the clunky old smoother motion thanks.

[tWoSour]

Interlacing isn't a "problem". It's a spec of the video file.
It's like saying MPEG-2 is a "problem" or NTSC is a "problem".

Well, NTSC is a problem...I mean Never The Same Color gets very annoying.

Why can't we just be Perfect At Last?

(note, only true video/film geeks will get that, everyone else, just ignore)