How does my Sony PC5 write video on its miniDV tape?

[bbiandov]

Hello,

Of course the manual does not answer the really important question if Sony DCR-PC5 is progressive or interleased device and if interleaeced then which field comes first. In other words how does it record the video on its miniDV tape and then transfer it out of the firewire interface? I need to know this since after the video is captured onto an avi file using Premiere, all encoders want to know if the source is progressive or interleaced? And if its NOT progressive I need to specify which field is first? I have done tests by specifying source as progressive or interleaced and the results are not conclusive.

Will appreciate any ideas about my Sony cam or if you have the same cam how do you answer the encoders questions about video source being progressive or interleaced?

Boyan

[Cart]

Unless you explicitly set an option for progressive video, the video is most likely interlaced. You can determine this directly by checking for horizontal lines during motion when viewing the video on a computer monitor.

I believe DV uses bottom field first.

-Cart
http://www.geocities.com/lukesvideo/index.html

[bb]

As far as I know there's no Sony camcorder supporting progressive scan.

:(

bb

[bbiandov]

Ok, Thanks everyone. I will then assume that the Sony camcorder stores interleaced video, bottom field (field B) first. Funny you can't get this answer from manual.

Also if anyone knows of any AVI identification tool let me know (tool that gives more than just the usual already well known info like resolution and frames per second). Specifically I am interested in interleaced vs. progressive, then which field is first, DAR?, then timecode cool stuff like that which is totally lost once the DV cam video has been captured into avi file?

Thanks again!

[Cart]

1) I'm pretty sure there are no AVI headers that specify interlaced or progressive video. However, it is extremely easy to see the difference with the quick visual test I described above.
2) I think there is a flag for the field order, but it usually isn't used and is often incorrect. You can use trial & error or an Avisynth script with ComplementParity() and SeparateFeidls() to determine the field order.
3) I could be wrong, but I don't think an AVI stores the aspect ratio. (All the software I've used assumes a 1:1 pixel aspect ratio.) However, with a knowledge of the video source and resolution, you can usually figure it out. For example, NTSC DV video has a pixel aspect ratio of 11/10 and PAL DV video has an aspect ratio of 54/59 (height/width).
4) Being DV deprived, I don't know about the timecode. I bet Mr. Google.com could help.

-Cart
http://www.geocities.com/lukesvideo/index.html

[bbiandov]

Thanks again, if I find I way to detect these things from the file arhter than visual inspecion I will post them here. Happy new year to all.

Boyan