Ladder or stepping artifacts in download from mini DV

[jdatec]

Hi - I enjoy editing home and travel videos and making DVD copies for others in the movie. But when I download from my Sony DCR-TRV22 to my hard drive using Pinnacle v 7.15 I get terrible laddering (guess that's what it's called) whenever I pan the camera. And movement in the video also suffers the same effect when I am holding the camcorder still. Is this a SONY deffect, DVDeffect, Pinnacle software defect? Here is the tinyurl to my webpage with pics demonstrating the problem. Would really like some feedback on this... Thanks! Jim.

http://tinyurl.com/db54f

[dipstick]

It looks like your basic interlaced artifacts created when panning. This should only be detected when viewed on PC and not on a TV.

If you are experiencing problems when viewed on a TV, make sure you're using the correct Field Order. For a Mini-DV, that means Lower Field First.

[bugster]

I agree with dipstick. To reduce these effects when viewing on a PC, use a DVD player software such as PowerDvd or WinDVD. These de-interlace on the fly and reduce these artefacts considerably.

[jdatec]

Thanks for the suggestions. I wil burn a vcd to see if the artifacts appear on TV. The raw avi file shows the same artifacts in WinDVD, but after making a SVCD mpeg they are reduced about %90. I;ll test the mpeg on a TV.

Thing is, I also use the raw avi files to do imaging work related to astronomy. This involves capturing individual frames and adding them to improve signal-to-noise ratio. The frames that have these artifacts have to be discarded one-by-one. So any suggestions reducing these artifacts - better software, hardware for laptops, is appreciated.

My Pinnacle software doesn't give me an option regarding which field to decode first. Can I do this when creating the Mpeg with another software - MyDVD, DVDit?

Thanks!

[junkmalle]

Interlace:

http://www.mir.com/DMG/interl.html
http://www.hthoma.de/video/interlace/
http://www.lurkertech.com/lg/fields/fields.html
http://www.100fps.com/

For astronomy you should switch to a progressive scan camera.

[bugster]

Thanks for the suggestions. I wil burn a vcd to see if the artifacts appear on TV.

A VCD will be de-inetrlaced. The resolution is too low to support interlacing and mpeg-1 does not support interlacing, so you will not be viewing an interlaced picture with VCD no matter what device you view it on.

SVCD is mpeg-2 and supports interlacing, but be careful when you encode to select the correct field order and do not select any de-interlacing option. Same for DVD.

[jtoolman2000]

Capture the frames and load then into Photoshop if you happen to have it. In FILTERS there is a filter tab called VIDEO within that there is a filter called DE-INTERLACE - Apply that filter and same the file. It will remove almost 100% of the scan lines you see.

I do it in my video business to capture actual images for the video covers. If I captrure DIGITAL tape from Power DVD player, I get hardly any artifacts and for the most part don't even have to use that filter. Analogue captures seem to be the worse.

[dipstick]

This is what you can typically expect by de-interlacing your stills in Photoshop. You can also do it with Elements and numerus other image editors:



As junkmalle pointed out, you'd be better off with a Progressive Scan Camera for what you want. For a low budget, you can use a camera that shoots in FRAME MODE like my Panasonic PV DV-953. It's not quite as great as a full res Progressive scan camera, but the images are interlace-free in FRAME MODE.