"Heroes" and DGDecode

[CubDukat]

I was running tonight's episode of "Heroes" through DGDecode to get it ready for conversion to DVD, but I noticed that it showed the episode was 100% video. Needless to say, this didn't sound right, so I decided to take it into VDub-MPEG2 to see if I could find a pulldown. Sure enough, I did, so I just plugged it into my AVISynth script just like I normally would.

What I'm wondering is how DGDecode could still be fooled after all these years. I have it set up currently to honor pulldown flags. Should I have set it to "Force Film" instead, since I did find a pulldown?

One other thing I've noticed is that I never get over 56-60% Film with "Heroes," even though the show is clearly shot on film. Is this the "hybrid" that TIVTC refers to, and if so, how do I configure for that? I'm still in pursuit of the perfect script that's both high quality and very fast. I've more or less achieved it in 720p, but I'm still working on it for 1080i.

[manono]

What I'm wondering is how DGDecode could still be fooled after all these years.

The only one being fooled is you. If it was shot on film but hard telecined (the telecine encoded into the video for transmission), it'll show in DGDecode as Interlaced NTSC because that's what it is and that's how it was encoded. You can't Force Film that kind. You save the D2V using Honor Pulldown Flags and apply an IVTC (Decomb, TIVTC, etc.) in the script.

Should I have set it to "Force Film" instead, since I did find a pulldown?

No, no Force Film. And there is no pulldown. What you found is 3 progressive frames and 2 interlaced frames in every 5 frame sequence. That's Hard Telecine. Soft Telecine is pulldown, where the conversion from progressive 23.976fps to interlaced 29.97fps is done in the flagging. Have a look at your D2V. It's all full of 2 2 2 2 (or 0 0 0 0), indications of no pulldown. If it had 3:2 pulldown applied you could use Force Film and the D2V would go 0 1 2 3 0 1 2 3). For an understanding of what those numbers mean see Q31:

http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=87809

Is this the "hybrid" that TIVTC refers to

Maybe, maybe not. It depends on whether or not the video parts are hard telecine or true 29.97fps, either progressive or interlaced. It's possible that some computer generated effects are 29.97fps of one sort or another. The only way to know is by examining the video. It's also possible, I guess, that some of it was shot on video and not on film. I wouldn't know as I don't cap anything and have never seen that show. Maybe others are better informed as to what Heroes contains.

if so, how do I configure for that?

Since the vast majority (and probably all of it) was shot on film, then you'll probably (if it's necessary to make the whole thing progressive for some reason) want to make the end result 23.976fps. This will make any true 29.97fps parts play slightly jerky and blurry. If that's what you want, use Decimate(Hybrid=1). But again, make darned sure it's a hybrid before using a hybrid mode.

but I'm still working on it for 1080i.

You haven't said what the output format is to be. You could always leave it as 1080i, depending on a number of things.