Seeking opinions about my converted dv-avi file

[JohnnyMalaria]

Just to reiterate, if you are going to watch these on a regular (non-LCD etc) TV (which I think you want to do), do NOT deinterlace. If you are going to watch them on your PC etc, do NOT deinterlace unless you really have to. Let the player/graphics do it on-the-fly. That way, when deinterlacing algorithms improve, you'll get the benefit.

The quickest, easiest and highest quality option is to keep them as DV format after editing and watch them either via a DV device to a TV or an interlaced S-video output on a PC.

[jagabo]

If you are going to make these videos available to others (not as DVD) and you can't control what player they will be using and don't want do spend all your time explaining to them how they need to use particular players with deinterlacing options and how to enable the feature -- you have to deinterlace.

If you are going to upload video to video sharing sites that are going downsize and convert your video to hugely overcompressed FLV without paying any attention to interlacing -- you have to deinterlace.

If you are archiving precious family footage you save the original DV tapes, and save the DV AVI files on hard drives and/or data DVDs.

If you are making movie DVDs you leave the video interlaced and encode appropriately.

[hygieneboy]

After hearing all sides, I think Im going to go ahead and buy a new media center pc, plug my external hard drive with all my dv-avis on it, and connect it to my hdtv via hdmi.

Im still a little confused on if I will need to buy some extra equipment to play this footage though. wouldnt an hdmi cable give me the best connection?

[jagabo]

After hearing all sides, I think Im going to go ahead and buy a new media center pc, plug my external hard drive with all my dv-avis on it, and connect it to my hdtv via hdmi.

Im still a little confused on if I will need to buy some extra equipment to play this footage though. wouldnt an hdmi cable give me the best connection?

If your HDTV overscans the HDMI inputs and you need to see the edges of the Windows desktop (Start bar, close window button, etc) you want to use VGA instead. If your HDTV lets you disable overscan on the HDMI inputs (1080p sets usually allow this) that will give the best picture.

WMP automatically deinterlaces DV during playback. If I recall correctly, it performs a simple Bob. Not as good as TempGaussMC_beta1() but at least you don't have to spend hours and hours converting your video.

[edDV]

After hearing all sides, I think Im going to go ahead and buy a new media center pc, plug my external hard drive with all my dv-avis on it, and connect it to my hdtv via hdmi.

Im still a little confused on if I will need to buy some extra equipment to play this footage though. wouldnt an hdmi cable give me the best connection?

This will depend on the display card and the software player that you choose. In most cases, you will get the best picture quality if you let the HDTV do the deinterlace and upscale rather than player software or the display card. That means the display card needs to pass the 720x480i DV through HDMI to the TV without modification. The player software needs to play the file without deinterlace.

Next alternative is to use the chipset hardware in the display card to deinterlace and upscale 480i DV to 720p or 1080p. Some cards may do well at 480i to 1080i upscale but I haven't found a good one yet.

Worse case is to deinterlace and scale in player software.

In all cases, compare what you see at the HDTV to a direct camcorder playback of the same material. Idea is to match that quality.

[lordsmurf]

If you are going to make these videos available to others (not as DVD) and you can't control what player they will be using and don't want do spend all your time explaining to them how they need to use particular players with deinterlacing options and how to enable the feature -- you have to deinterlace..

I disagree. Most software is smart enough to deinterlace as needed -- even WMP.
Giving out a copy of VLC would be smart too.