Confused about how to encode telecined material

[Michelle]

After reading about how to do inverse telecine and the complications that can arise I've decided to leave my material telecined. I figure if the movie studios can encode telecined material then it should work fine for me.

The MainConcept encoder for Vegas gives three choices for Field Order:
Interlaced, bottom field first
Interlaced, top field first
Progessive only

I know the clip is bottom field first (DV capture). But what confuses me is that it's not really interlaced and it's not progressive.

I realize this is something that I should test. But I'd like to get a better understanding of this first.

[SLK001]

But what confuses me is that it's not really interlaced and it's not progressive.

The answer to the "non-question" above depends on how the camera captures the scene.
If it captures an entire frame, then sends it to be recorded one field at a time, then it really is progressive (regardless of framerate).
If it captures only one field at a time and sends these to be recorded, then it really is interlaced.

Anyway, a DV camera capture is not Telecined in any way, so trying to IVTC the thing is a complete waste of time.

You are confusing INTERLACED MATERIAL with TELECINED MATERIAL. Two completely different animals.

But depending on your capture framerate, you may have to apply the 3:2 pulldown (or, TELECINE it yourself).

[Michelle]

The material was captured with a DataVideo DAC-100 and it is definitely telecined. And the question is, should I treat it a interlaced or progressive when encoding?

[SLK001]

The material was captured with a DataVideo DAC-100 and it is definitely telecined. And the question is, should I treat it a interlaced or progressive when encoding?

Okay, just where along the line was it ever telecined? Probably what you meant to say, was that it is definitely interlaced.

Treat the video as INTERLACED material, use ALTERNATE SCAN (instead of ZIGZAG), and set the proper field order (test your selection on a short, high-action clip).

What was your original capture framerate?

[Michelle]

There are 2 interlaced fields alternating with 3 non-interlaced fields. Isn't that telecine? The framerate 29.97. It's a capture of a tv show. I assume it was shot on film and then telecined for broadcast.

[SLK001]

Oh, I connected DV with a digital camera (home movies). You are correct, it IS telecined material. Just encode it as I suggested above.

The reason to IVTC, is to be able to increase your average bitrate by about 25% without any space penalty. Or, you can get about 20% more video on the DVD given a constant bitrate. These are both good reasons to do a IVTC.

However, if the video is not very long (~100 minutes), there is no reason to bother with IVTC'ing.