nola.com paradecam - horizontal lines - can anyone diagnose (Mardi Gras!)

[lipwak]

Hi,

The nola.com paradecam (http://www.nola.com/paradecam/) has been webcasting Mardi Gras parades. I have noticed that there are horizontal lines often, when panning or there is horizontal movement, which is often. I have tried to get the cam operators to fix it but they say others aren't seeing it. Others are. I think it is a matter of having the cam set to progressive scan but I am not enough of an expert to be sure. I think it is set to interlaced now, at least that is what my research on the net makes me think.

Can someone diagnose what is going on? They are only webcasting for one more day, tomorrow, 2/21. You can tweet your suggestion to fix this problem to #paradecam and I also recommend @jamesobyrne I think he is one of the guys who deals with the camera. Tweet only when the cam is live.

I have attached a pic of a screen grab I took yesterday. You can see the horizontal lines quite clearly.

I would appreciate any help on this.

Thanks.

John L

[jagabo]

That is incorrectly resized interlaced video. If you are going to resize an interlaced frame you need to use an interlace aware resizing algorithm or deinterlace before resizing. And to display it properly on a computer it needs to be deinterlaced. Better yet, use a progressive camera as your source and you won't have to worry about interlacing.

[lipwak]

Are they resizing it or was I? I did this screen cap at the resolution they offered it at. And will switching to progessive fix it?

Many thanks.

[jagabo]

You're looking at the web streams? If so, they are the ones resizing interlaced video and streaming it as progressive without properly deinterlacing.

[lipwak]

Yes, this is a screen cap of their stream. Thanks very much. I will forward this on to them although if you or someone else who has more credibilty can tweet them, that would be great. #paradecam (as far as I know, no one has that handle but they read tweets with that hastag) and one guy who seems to be in charge, @jamesobyrne

They only read tweets when they are live so it will have to wait until tomorrow. They will be webcasting from 10 am CST until the parades pass them by. Many thanks!

[jagabo]

No twitter account here. The video at the site now has the problem:


The trucks weren't moving but the guy in white at the bottom was.

[lipwak]

That's a shot from the cam on the roof. Tonight's parade is over. When they have parades, they will have a cam set up right by the street, pretty much in the spot you are looking at in this pic. From what I have seen of it, it looks to be a professional camera. The operators are probably amateurs. The hosts certainly are. The site is run by a newspaper. They set up these hosted cams for Mardi Gras. I have no idea if someone who knows about video has anything to do with it. I would not be surprised if there isn't anyone knowledgeable in charge. nola.com is the site. It's part of the Times-Picayune newspaper in New Orleans. I think Jon Donley may be the guy in charge of these cams but he is very laid back (and hilarious to listen to when he's on cam... Haven't seen him yet this year.)