Lines on DVD playback - Interlacing problem? Please help.

[ShinyCDMan]

I've recently been trying to capture a VHS PAL video and convert to DVD. I have done this in the past with no trouble, but now I seem to be having problems, and I think this may be something to do with interlacing.

When I capture the source AVI (using VirtualVCR) it plays back fine on my PC and TV out. However, when I convert it to MPEG, then to DVD using DVDMaestro, when I play it back there are large noticeable lines across the screen when there's a lot of movement. Although these lines look like interlacing lines they are a lot bigger, so I'm not sure what they are. I'm assuming the source video is interlaced, as I can see some lines when I play back the source AVI.

I assumed the problem was in the AVI -> MPEG conversion process and not in the DVD compilation. I've tried 2 methods: converting to MPEG using TMPGEnc (I specified that the source was deinterlaced and the target should be deinterlaced - could this have caused the problem?). But I also tried using AVISynth (I did not specify anything re: interlacing) and the same problem occurred.

Please can anyone give me any advice!

Thanks,
Shiny

[ShinyCDMan]

Please can anyone suggest anything?

[2ZOD.COM]

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[ShinyCDMan]

Yeah, I thought the fact that I changed the source settings in TMPGEnc might mess it up, but I also tried converting the file in CCE using an Avisynth script with no reference to de-interlacing or interlacing, and I still got the same problem.

I know the problem is to do with interlacing now, because it plays back fine on my PC, just not on my DVD player.

Thanks,
Shiny

[2ZOD.COM]

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[ronnylov]

Set source and destination as interlaced in TMPGEnc. Let TMPGEnc wizard set the correct field order.

[ShinyCDMan]

Thanks for the help guys.

I have tried it on different DVD players and still have the same problem.

Ronnylov, thanks for the advice, will try this. The only problem is the file is so big (46 gig), that TMPGEnc just stops at 9% when trying to judge field order, so I don't used the wizard. I did record a small clip in VirtualVCR and use the wizard on that and it came back as top-first. So I'm assuming this will be the same for all VirtualVCR captures?

Also, I'm having lots of problems with TMPGEnc taking minutes to respond when I double-click on the 'Source Range' and 'Clip Frame' boxes under settings. Anyone else have this problem and know a fix? This happens on both PC's I've tried, with the latest version of TMPGEnc :-S

Thanks for all the help,
Steve

[ronnylov]

Once you have detected the field order on your capture device it stays the same on all captures so you can set it to top field first directly if you want.

[2ZOD.COM]

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[jggimi]

That's not necessarily the case. I've captured plenty of Telecined content here in NTSC-land. It's similar to interlaced, but there are a few progressive frames in the mix.

[ronnylov]

And here in PAL land there is a lot of video with progressive frames. All film sources that are speed up to 25 fps can be restored to perfect progressive frames (sometimes a field shift is needed) if not progressive already. But home video, direct broadcasts, news and similar are often truly interlaced.

[krbo]

ShinyCDMan,

go to Avisynth home page->filters download and grab decomb510
deinterlacer filter.

Inside archive you will have nice and fast procedure how to
determine field order (using Avisynth & VDub) and, of course,
how to deinterlace it using decomb filter.

But first part - field order - might be enough for you to
properly set up TMPGEnc's field order