DVD Player Interlacing

[daint]

Hello,

I have just been reading about interlacing and the effects and such, due to editing a video from MiniDV to DVD. This has bought a question to light,

I understand the most DVD's to be interlaced, therefore seperated into two fields, if this is the case, why is it, when the DVD Player is paused, the lines can't be seen?

Thanks

Rob

[Cornucopia]

DVD's can be interlaced or non-interlaced.

Since most DVD's that people have are from Hollywood films (which are progressive), the ones that are encoded well (the majority of them) should be progressive also.
Remember that just because it is stored as progressive on the disc doesn't mean it will be displayed progressive. It will only be displayed as progressive with a progressive-capable player and a progressive TV/monitor.
What most DVD players do is read the progressive flags and generate their own new pull-down/interlace on the fly. This is why you can still frame a film and have it look so good. One would expect to have roughly every 3 out of 5 frames be completely smooth.

HTH,
Scott