Jagged Edge Capture Problem (Interlace Issue?)

[bobn4burton]

Hi, I'm a noobie here...so I'm apologizing up front. Ok, I finally got my Prolink PlayTV PVR to work decently. I'm using iuVCR to capture video from my camcorder with s-video. The video quality looks pretty good except for one issue. Most of the lines have a jagged edge. It almost looks like a comb on the edges. (BTW, all the little jagged lines are horizontal which made me think it was a possible interlacing/de-interlacing issue) I have a small bit of video that shows this perfectly, but I couldn't figure out how to take a snapshot when playing the .avi file.

1. If anyone could tell me a good way to take a screenshot of an .avi file
then I'll post a screen showing what my problem is.
2. Or if there is any knowledge about how to fix this problem, that would be appreciated too.

Thanks in advance...

[Craig Tucker]

What is your final format for the footage going to be. For example if you are going to VCD or divx, then it will be deinterlaced when you encode it. If you are going to DVD or SVCD and are planning to play it on your DVD player/TV then you can leave it interlaced.

[bobn4burton]

Craig, Thanks for the reply. So if I understand you correctly....the jagged edges are due to the video being interlaced coming from my camcorder? This is what I suspected but I wasn't sure.

As far as final format...
I think that I want two things from this. I want to keep a copy on my computer and also make a copy that can be played on my dvd player. So possibly keep a Divx for my computer and then make one copy go to DVD.

So when I encode to Divx, you're saying they will automatically be deinterlaced?
What happens if I encode to M-PEG2 (with CCE or TMPGEnc) ? Does it automatically deinterlace?

Also before I convert to the final format, I want to edit the video and put special effects and stuff in (adobe Premiere). What is the best format to have the video in to do this type of editing?

Thanks so much for the help. Sorry for all the questions. I know computer stuff pretty well, but I'm just learning how to do all this video stuff

[xxiangg]

I do not know if you used virtualdup. You may try "field swap" filter in
virtualdup while frame serving your encoder. It once worked for me.

[bobn4burton]

I wish that I could use virtualdub....(I haven't actually tried it) but I've read that virtual dub doesn't let you capture any higher resolution than 320x240...with the newer conexant 2388x chipsets.

[Craig Tucker]

Craig, Thanks for the reply. So if I understand you correctly....the jagged edges are due to the video being interlaced coming from my camcorder? This is what I suspected but I wasn't sure.

Sounds like it

So when I encode to Divx, you're saying they will automatically be deinterlaced?

As far as I know divx does not support interlacing so yes it should be deinterlaced when encoded to divx

What happens if I encode to M-PEG2 (with CCE or TMPGEnc) ? Does it automatically deinterlace?

No as mpeg2 can support interlaced video, it is the main difference between mpeg1 and mpeg2. You can keep it interlaced, when you play it on your DVD/TV you will not notice the interlacing artefacts as your TV can handle an interlaced video. Or you can deinterlace it if you wish. There is a check box in TMPGEnc under setting for deinterlacing video.

Also before I convert to the final format, I want to edit the video and put special effects and stuff in (adobe Premiere). What is the best format to have the video in to do this type of editing?

AVI is much easier to edit than mpeg, so do all your editing before you encode.

[bobn4burton]

Thanks for the help...I'm gonna give some of this stuff a try and see if I can get some good results.

[bobn4burton]

Oh...one more question...I've just been researching the interlacing/progressive topics. At what framerate does a camcorder record footage? I was capturing at 29.97 fps. Should I have captured at 24 fps?

Thanks

[Craig Tucker]

If you have an NTSC camcorder I believe it will be 29.97, but I am in PAL land so cannot be certain.

[bpjenn]

Even playback DVD/MPEG2 on a computer only, you probably don't need to encode deinterlaced since most, if not all now, software players (ex: Cyberlink PowerDVD) will deinterlace the video upon playback. The playback will be much better quality than if you had deinterlaced upon encoding. I've tested this thoroughly. I used to deinterlace and then discovered that it was not needed since the player did it anyways. Of course, with other file formats (avi, mpeg1) you will need to deinterlace or capture/encode at lower resolution (320/352x240).

[bobn4burton]

bpjenn...

So if my final copy is done in MPEG2, then I can just leave the interlace in and as long as I play the file with a capable software player (powerdvd), then the picture will look fine...?

One followup question...Suppose I want to edit the video in adobe premiere. Possibly put some transitions, still shots, etc. Then encode to MPEG2. Will this still work to have some of the video clips interlaced while putting transitions/stillshots in there? Or possibly overlaying text over the interlaced video? Or will this mess it up?

You guys have been a lot of help so far...Thanks for the replies.

[bpjenn]

When you encode to mpeg2 interlaced everything is interlaced-transitions, still shots, overlayed text, etc.

[bobn4burton]

When you encode to mpeg2 interlaced everything is interlaced-transitions, still shots, overlayed text, etc.

Hmm...ok... However, when you encode...at least with TMPEnc, you have an option whether the source is interlaced or not. So do you still just say you have an interlaced source even though the still shot parts are not interlaced? As I think about this a little more, I think it will probably work.

[ktjensen]

I think I also have an interlacing issue. I am encoding to DIVX (or at least tried to using Viritualdub capture) and I get really blurry results when doing that from TV. Even when I use the HUFFY codec I get the blurry stuff (suppose HUFFY does not encode interlace well either).

When I capture using ATI TV (aka MMC) and an MPEG2 codec it works great.

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Tonight I will try the interlace filter option that someone else mentioned in this thread to see if that fixes the issue.