Combining interlaced and progressive

[louis shula]

Please can anyone help me with this?


I want to combine 25p and 50i avchd footage in premiere cs5 using a macbook pro, and then export and burn to dvd to play on this: toshiba 19dv 500b 19 inch wide screen hd ready lcd tv and dvd player


i need advice on how best to combine interlaced and progressive footage and correct export settings to use to play on that machine.

So grateful if anyone can give me any tips!

[jman98]

This is a Mac specific question. You may not realize it, but it is. Anytime you are using a Mac, your question needs to go in our Mac forum. I will ask a moderator to move this for you. Mac forum posts have a special character that you can see on the main webpage that lets people know it's a post in the Mac forum and while we do not have a lot of Mac users, the ones we do have look for that character so they can specifically reply to Mac forum posts.

[poisondeathray]

You use 50i avchd sequence settings matching your footage (e.g. if it's 1920x1080i50 , then use 1920x1080i50; if it's 1440x1080i50 then use that, etc..) . 25p on a 50i sequence works fine, and you can intermix mix both on that same sequence (2 fields = 1 progressive frame).

Export settings would be for DVD PAL 720x576i50 (and I hope realize DVD is standard definition, so your HD footage will be significantly downgraded and look softer on DVD)

[louis shula]

Hi, thanks so much for replying to my question!

Wouldn't it be a problem to use interlaced footage for the toshiba LCD screen?

The files come out of the camera as .mts files. To use in Premiere I need to convert them first.
Should I convert them using Adobe Media Encoder, to mov or mp4 files?

Also the files are MASSIVE - will the file size reduce significantly when I export as DVD PAL 720x576i50

[poisondeathray]

Hi, thanks so much for replying to my question!

Wouldn't it be a problem to use interlaced footage for the toshiba LCD screen?

The files come out of the camera as .mts files. To use in Premiere I need to convert them first.
Should I convert them using Adobe Media Encoder, to mov or mp4 files?

Also the files are MASSIVE - will the file size reduce significantly when I export as DVD PAL 720x576i50

The sequence and project settings should match the HD .mts 50i clip properties. The export settings in AME should be set to PAL DVD. The export will reduce the filesize (filesize = bitrate x running time) . If everything else is the same, the higher the bitrate, the higher the quality

Legal DVD-video has bitrate and filesize limitations (fixed capacity 4.37GB, and video bitrate of about 9.5Mb/s) .
https://www.videohelp.com/dvd

When you use a DVD preset in Adobe Media Encoder, it will only allow "legal" DVD settings . It will downsample and produce the DVD accordingly . If you have dynamic link (one of the suites), then you use that.

It's slower but the resizing is better quality - make sure you have "MRQ" or maximum render quality enabled. Look at the help pdf (you can download it from the Adobe site)

You don't convert to mov or mp4, you convert directly to DVD-video (use the preset) for authoring in Encore to make your DVD (e.g. add menus, chapters, etc...) . You can make it as simple or as fancy as you want.

50i DVD outputs a interlaced signal. The HDTV will "see" the 50i signal and deinterlace it so it will look like 50p on the flat panel. This is normal and how things should work. The 25p sections will have frame repeats (so it will still look like 25p)

[louis shula]

Ok thanks, so i have sequence settings at 1920x1080i50 and then export to PAL DVD. great

Is it ok though to convert the .mts files to pal dvd files in AME before importing them into premiere for editing?

When I put the .mts files directly into premiere and try to edit them it is really slow because of the large file size.

is it also ok to have an interlaced file play on an LCD screen?

Thanks so much again for your help!

[johns0]

Thread moved to the mac forum where you can get more help.

[poisondeathray]

Ok thanks, so i have sequence settings at 1920x1080i50 and then export to PAL DVD. great

Is it ok though to convert the .mts files to pal dvd files in AME before importing them into premiere for editing?

It's not ideal, because you will incur 2x generation loss - once converting to SD PAL DVD, and it will re-encode again after you export . Each time you re-encode, you lose some quality

Also if you want to make a HD blu-ray in the future you can export that as well from the same project instead of having to redo everything . Or if you want to upload and share to youtube or vimeo, if you have SD project/sequence settings, the HD is lost.

When I put the .mts files directly into premiere and try to edit them it is really slow because of the large file size.

You need a faster computer and setup. Ideally you should have minimum quad core, with multiple drives (put the assets on a separate drive). Or you can either use proxy workflow, or if you really have to, then downscale to SD and edit in SD (it sort of defeats the purpose of shooting HD or HDTV's) . Prores works pretty smoothly on Mac but it's smoother in FCP than Premiere

is it also ok to have an interlaced file play on an LCD screen?

Yes, it will be bob deinterlaced by the display on a normal DVD/ HDTV setup. (or if you're watching on a computer, set the software to bob deinterlace => this will look like 50p )

[louis shula]

Ok, thanks. I'm definitely going to look into upgrading my system then!

Last question: - If I did convert to SD before editing - would that mean converting in AME to quicktime using prores codec? what resolution settings?

I don't currently have that option of the Prores codec in AME cs5 and can't seem to download it because I don't have FCP installed. Is there a way round that?
Or would you recommend another way of converting to SD?

Thanks a lot!

[louis shula]

Just done a test of exporting one of the .mts files from Premiere timeline to AME. Choosing the settings to export I picked Quicktime Format and PAL DVD preset.

This gives a codec of DV25 Pal and 720x576 and frame rate stuck on 25.

If I choose different codec - DV50 PAl it is still not possible to change frame rate. Exporting on either of these settings the quality looks bad. Can you advise?

[poisondeathray]

DVD is standard definition (about 4x fewer pixels) so it's going to look bad either way compared to the original . It will even look worse when you encode to mpeg2 for DVD. Consider doing a blu-ray project instread.

The frame rate is 25 fps (frames per second ) or 50i (fields per second) - they mean the same thing . Some programs call it 25i, some call it 50i (they mean the same thing, just different nomenclature)

DV50 PAL as an intermediate should be easy to edit (intraframe codec), and standard definition, with decent quality for SD.

[_Al_]

That 25 is interlaced? Check that video with mediainfo program. You need interlace 25fps to choose for output, 25i, mostly presented as 50i.

I'll tell you this, it will always look bad, meaning SD conversion from HD ,even if you do everything right within Premiere, or possibly in that Adobe Media encoder, you do it nowadays only as a last resort to watch it, if you or others do not have HD TV. You will not get even close to quality of commercial DVD releases.