[SOLVED] Horizontal scan lines & jagged edges - FCPX

[crjackson]

I recently decided to move some home video from tape to a file. I've tried exporting with several different formats but I always get unsatisfactory playback. Original video filmed on Sony Handycam D8. Playback from camera is fine, playback from DVD conversion is not as good, but doesn't present the problem in the subject line. I'm new to FCPX and Mac in general. I'm guessing it something to do with interlacing and a player setting or something, but I need advice on this.

[sanlyn]

Perhaps you left out some information? The sample isn't DVD, it's H264. It was interlaced video encoded as progressive. "DVD" is MPEG2, usually interlaced. Verdict: improper, uncontrolled deinterlacing. NTW, The bitrate is too low, even for H264, especially with a long zoom lens hopping around. IMHO.

[crjackson]

Perhaps you left out some information? The sample isn't DVD, it's H264. It was interlaced video encoded as progressive. "DVD" is MPEG2, usually interlaced. Verdict: improper, uncontrolled deinterlacing. BTW, The bitrate is too low, even for H264, especially with a long zoom lens hopping around. IMHO.

Okay, I know that DVD is MPEG2 and it plays fine everywhere. I want a single file on my Hard Drive that will playback without the lines. How do I deal with the improper, uncontrolled deinterlacing? I realize this was H264, it was another attempt to find a way to deal with the problem.

Using FCPX, what are the steps it save/export this video without having the aforementioned problem?

[crjackson]

The bitrate is too low, even for H264, especially with a long zoom lens hopping around. IMHO.

Okay, I get it... The video wasn't very steady, we weren't allowed to use tripod stands, and I'm not that steady anymore. How do I fix the other problems?

[sanlyn]

Yeah, I understand about those silly rules. Don't people know that indoor graduation lighting is too low for use without a tripod? I tried bringing a shoulder brace once, but they wouldn't even let me in with that. The things are only 7" long, I guess they thought it was a Weapon Of Mass Destruction or something.

Don't deinterlace. Not necessary or desirable. Encode as interlaced, whether MPEG2 or h264. Then play on the computer with a decent deinterlacing media player. VLC Player works with Mac (its deinterlace is off by default. Just turn it on in the options menu).

Haven't used FCP in quite a while, last time I saw it all the menus had changed. Stopped using it because its deinterlace/de-telcine, encoder, and other features were inferior to other free and paid software, and home movies needed better denoising anyway. Almost any encoder can encode interlaced video.

[crjackson]

Don't deinterlace. Not necessary or desirable. Encode as interlaced, whether MPEG2 or h264. Then play on the computer with a decent deinterlacing media player. VLC Player works with Mac (its deinterlace is off by default. Just turn it on in the options menu).

Haven't used FCP in quite a while, last time I saw it all the menus had changed. Stopped using it because its deinterlace/de-telcine, encoder, and other features were inferior to other free and paid software, and home movies needed better denoising anyway. Almost any encoder can encode interlaced video.

It was as simple as turning on the deinterlace option in VLC. Playback looks good now. Now I just have to learn how to save the file as interlaced to begin with.