DV & Progressive Scan

[harlequin0]

I discovered that my Canon MV30i (pal)can be used in progressive scan mode (the manual says it would then shoot full 25 pics a a second, I assume thats progressive mode). Since I capture the movie to DV onto my pc and then use tmpgenc to convert into mpeg1 or 2 for vcd or dvd I would like to know if tmpgenc will produce better results when the source has been recorded in progressive scan mode.

Please help I m new to this.

Greetings

[SLK001]

If you are going to convert, then ALWAYS choose a progressive scan over an interlaced. Always. Just as you should always de-interlace an interlaced video if you intend to convert.

[kabanero]

To enjoy progressive mode DVD video, you need to have DVD player with progressive scan and digital TV.

[jtor]

The best way to find out is to try...shooting at frame mode and at normal mode. Convert/encode both and compare. They both have their pros and cons.

[harlequin0]

Thanx for your postings, I think i ll use the progressive mode from now on

[Cooly-O]

To enjoy progressive mode DVD video, you need to have DVD player with progressive scan and digital TV.

If you were DVD ripping with a DVD player that wasn't progressive-capable, would it capture the "progressive" characterists in the video capture?

If you are going to convert, then ALWAYS choose a progressive scan over an interlaced. Always. Just as you should always de-interlace an interlaced video if you intend to convert.

If you downloaded a video (e.g. bin/cue or Divx) how could you tell if it's interlaced or not? What's the best way of finding out whether a bin/cue is VCD or SVCD while Burning with Nero? Do you just try both methods and wait for Nero to give error message on whether it's per the standard or not?

The best way to find out is to try...shooting at frame mode and at normal mode. Convert/encode both and compare. They both have their pros and cons.

What are the cons in using progressive? Even if we dont' have a progressive DVD player today, we may tomorrow and can take advantage of it.

[Xesdeeni]

harlequin0 wrote:
> I would like to know if tmpgenc will produce better results when the
> source has been recorded in progressive scan mode.

Yes, you can tell most MPEG encoders that the source is progressive and they will be able to combine two successive fields and encode them into a single frame. The result will be a higher quality image at the same bitrate.

However, if your subject matter has high motion (e.g. a sporting event, etc.), then the motion will appear "jerky" when played back, because there will only be 25 positions of the subjects per second. If you used the interlaced mode, there would be 50 positions, so the motion would be smoother.

SLK001 wrote:
> If you are going to convert, then ALWAYS choose a progressive scan
> over an interlaced. Always. Just as you should always de-interlace an
> interlaced video if you intend to convert.

I don't agree with this. As I mentioned above, there are cases where interlaced filming is preferred for smoother motion at the expense of a little image quality when encoding with your favorite MPEG encoder.

Worse still, trying to deinterlace an interlaced video with much motion (especially like a shaky handed camcorder video) will result in ghosting from two very different positions in one frame (for the dumb field averaging) or frames that are much more difficult for the MPEG encoder to encode than if you had left the fields separated (for the smart deinterlacer).

kabanero wrote:
> To enjoy progressive mode DVD video, you need to have DVD player
> with progressive scan and digital TV.

I think this statement might be a bit misleading. Almost all DVDs are progressive (they are almost all from film), and they play fine on interlaced television. The DVD player takes care of interlacing the video as necessary (3:2 pulldown for NTSC, a simple two fields per frame for PAL). Your home videos recorded in progressive mode will also be interlaced by your DVD player as necessary.

Cooly-O wrote:
> If you were DVD ripping with a DVD player that wasn't
> progressive-capable, would it capture the "progressive" characterists in
> the video capture?

When you "rip," you are not using a DVD player, you are using a DVD-ROM drive. You are taking the digital data directly from the DVD, so it is not processed by the playback mechanism (either a DVD player, or the software DVD player that came with the DVD-ROM).

Since most DVDs are from film, they are already encoded progressively. So the files on the DVD are progressive, and when you copy them to your harddrive, they are still progressive.

Cooly-O went on to say:
> If you downloaded a video (e.g. bin/cue or Divx) how could you tell if
> it's interlaced or not?

First, almost all DivX are from DVDs, which are almost all from film, so almost all DivX are progressive.

Finally, Cooly-O said:
> What are the cons in using progressive? Even if we dont' have a
> progressive DVD player today, we may tomorrow and can take
> advantage of it.

See above.

Xesdeeni
(Xesdeeni2001 at the Yahoo e-mail server)

[Anonymous65]

ALWAYS use interlaced video if the source is interlaced and the playback medium is a TV. When you deinterlace, you loose resolution and gain motion blurring, so keep it interlaced if you can. Only deinterlace IF you need to display the video on a PC monitor and not a TV set.

[harlequin0]

Thanx again for the detailed answers, I heard the output of a progressive scan dvd player would work well with ntsc equipment but on the other hand there would not be something like progressive scan pal. Does somebody know more about this?