Program for determining interlaced or progressive

[danielmak]

I found a thread about this topic in another section of the forum but the software that was discussed was for windows machines. I use Mediainfo to obtain data about MKV, TS, AVI, and MP4 HD files but the program does not list if a file is progressive or interlaced. Is there a software program (ideally freeware) for a Mac that can tell me the scan type for each of the previously listed file types?

[Bernix]

Hi,
set Mediainfo to text instead of default and there is if it has flag progressive or interlaced, even field order is here.
It also works under Macs
Bernix

[danielmak]

Thank you, Bernix. I appreciate the quick reply.

[Bernix]

Hi,
let us know if it works for you. You can check it in VLC player too. When you disabled deinterlacing and pause video where is some motion. But there can be video that looks interlaced, but is encoded as progressive. So Mediainfo seems best for quick judge.
Bernix

[jagabo]

Beware that MediaInfo only tells you if the video is encoded interlaced or progressive . It does not tell you if the frames themselves contain interlaced video. It's very common for progressive video to be encoded interlaced for PAL TV/DVD, for example. MediaInfo will tell you that video is interlaced but the frames themselves are progressive (a single picture taken at one point in time, not two half-pictures taken at two different points in time). And people sometimes mistakenly encode interlaced video as if it's progressive. That can be partially fixed by treating the video as interlaced in your editor (the chroma channels of the two fields will still be messed up).

[Bernix]

Hi,
there is also method, I am using sometimes. In Avidemux cross platform. Open video. In filters choose yadif in top bob temporary spatial.. and click on preview. Then click on icon for next frame. If each frame is unique, the video is interlaced. At least it works for me. Don't know if is it universal solution but for me is it enough.
Bernix

[jagabo]

Yes, the only way to determine of the frames are interlaced is to examine them in an editor with known behavior.