I've demuxed a 16:9 PAL movie onto my hard drive, and currently I've got an m2v and a wav file. After doing some searches for guides that explain how to turn PAL into NTSC format, all of them seem to describe converting to AVI as an intermediate step, changing the frame rate while in AVI format, and then turning it back into MPG2 format prior to burning onto a DVD. But won't this process create a de-interlaced avi?

I'm not going to ask for specific "how to" instructions, because that's why those guides are out there; it's just frustrating that on the pages where they come up they each seem to be followed by comments about synch problems or using the wrong versions of different software. And no one discusses the interlacing issue much... I get the impression most people are happy to de-interlace into an avi and go no further.

Am I wrong to assume that converting to AVI will de-interlace the original picture? I'd like to keep the interlacing if at all possible, because I'd prefer to watch the final product on my tv and not my computer screen. I figure, the less transformations I run the movie through, the better the final picture quality will be.

I'm a newbie and this is my first forum post. But so far with the help of this great site I've managed to convert a PAL progressive avi to an interlaced MPG2 (using virtualdub and tmpgenc), and I've ripped a DVD movie, replaced part of the soundtrack and re-burned it. I'm simply horribly confused at this point and am looking for the right online guides that I can follow and learn from.

Thanks, and if I can provide any more information or clarify my intentions, please let me know!