Best frame-type analyzer

[TheHaunted]

maybe it's a request posted about one million times, but can anyone tell me what is (maybe not only one...)the best software that can say surely if a .VOB is interlaced or progressive?
or link me to a thread discussing it...
thanks so much

(i had problem with TROY PAL: BW said it was progressive, BATCHCCEWS said "Interlaced-BFF" :confused: )

[manono]

Hi, and welcome to the forum-

Your eyes are the only way. It could be progressive, but only encoded as interlaced. It could have the field shifting common to PAL DVDs, and a simple filter can put it right again. But not having seen the PAL version of Troy, my guess is that it's Progressive and only encoded as Interlaced, which is a very common screwup for PAL DVDs. Run the vobs through DGIndex (DVD2AVI) and have a look. Or open a vob in VDubMod and have a look. I very highly doubt that a major Hollywood production such as Troy is pure interlace.

[jggimi]

Hakko504 wrote some valuable guidelines for interpreting PAL DVD video in DVD2AVI or DGIndex. It's buried in an Inverse Telecine tutorial, but should be helpful: www.doom9.org/ivtc-tut.htm

[manono]

I thought about linking to the Tutorial, but after looking it over, decided there wasn't much in the PAL section that he could use. There's nothing there about PAL progressive DVDs encoded as Interlaced, which might show up as Interlaced in some software, even if they're not. But here's a direct link to the PAL parts, and other parts might prove useful as well:

http://www.doom9.org/ivtc-tut.htm#PALTheGoodTheBadAndTheUgly

[TheHaunted]

thanks so much manono and jggimi

so with virtualdubmod if in one frame i see the horizontal lines like in the left Picard picture (referring to the giude linked) its interlaced, if no (picture on the right) its progressive (although encoded as interlaced)?

[jggimi]

Yes. Well, the picture on the right has been deinterlaced, so it's not as clear and sharp as a progressive frame will be, as fields are blended.

In addition, with PAL, you might have a reversed field order, which can look interlaced, yet still be progressive if the fields are swapped. If things look interlaced, and you reverse the field order and things look good, then no deinterlacing will be needed.

Swapping the field order can be done in DVD2AVI with the "swap field order" field operation. I just looked through, DGIndex 1.0.12, which is what I have installed, and I don't see the option available. I suppose you can use DGIndex in concert with AviSynth's AssumeBFF()/AssumeTFF() filters, though, since I'm not in a PAL country, I've never needed to try it.