Progressive Mode

[State of Mind]

My Panasonic PV-DV953 camcorder has the ability to shoot in Progressive Mode. I tried this once and shot a lighted area near a closet with two sliding doors and opened the DV file in VirtualDub and was irritated are sketchy lines that appeared on the edges of things. I also viewed the clip in Media Player Classic and saw the same thing. I have more confidence in the numerous abilities of AviSynth, however. I am wondering, is it overall better to record in Progressive Mode because people have told me Deinterlacing costs a bit of quality/detail. I want it straight from you pros at AviSynth. What do you guys think?

Cheers,
Jeremy

[ObiKenobi]

It all depends. If you are going to be putting this DV footage onto a DVD it's always best to leave it interlaced when burning to DVD. If you are going to be encoding this for playback on computer then it's really up to you whether you want to deinterlacie before encoding or whether you want to use a deinterlacer during playback using FFDshow, etc. And yes, all deinterlacing will have a cost on the detail of the video, but depending on the quality of the deinterlacer (such as whether it uses motion-adaptive deinterlacing or not) can determined the amount of detail/quality loss.

[scharfis_brain]

this 'progressive' mode may be just a fake mode.

it could be achieved in avisynth easily using this:

avisource("file.avi")
bob().selecteven()

using interlaced video.

[State of Mind]

Fake Mode?
Oh, and I usually deinterlace it even when putting on DVD. But I do like to keep a copy of the video on the harddrive sometimes. So for DVD, I should absolutely leave it interlaced? I am wondering if you could tell me the best deinterlacer to use in regards to retain as much quality as possible? Despite my request, I realize that I have to be an extremely picky person to ask that because the amount of quality degradation is likely visually indistinguisable, eh?

[ObiKenobi]

Originally posted by State of Mind
Oh, and I usually deinterlace it even when putting on DVD. But I do like to keep a copy of the video on the harddrive sometimes. So for DVD, I should absolutely leave it interlaced?

Yes, it is better to leave it interlaced and let the DVD player do the deinterlacing for you, assuming you are watching this on a progressive setup.

Originally posted by State of Mind
I am wondering if you could tell me the best deinterlacer to use in regards to retain as much quality as possible?

Well this is a bit tougher to answer, but I would recommend you trying out a number of them and see what you like best. TDeint, BlendBob, TomsMoComp are all worth trying out.

[State of Mind]

Originally posted by ObiKenobi
assuming you are watching this on a progressive setup.

I don't have one of those new Progressive supported DVD Players, just normal ones. Does your advise alter because of me stating otherwise than your assumption?

[ObiKenobi]

Originally posted by State of Mind
I don't have one of those new Progressive supported DVD Players, just normal ones. Does your advise alter because of me stating otherwise than your assumption?

No, that was just worded weird. I was trying to saying that even if you had a progressive setup that it would be better that your player did deinterlacing during playback then deinterlacing beforehand. And its especially a waste of time if you are deinterlacing video you are going to watch on an interlaced TV.

[State of Mind]

Originally posted by ObiKenobi
And its especially a waste of time if you are deinterlacing video you are going to watch on an interlaced TV.

Well, that makes perfect sense. I did it under the assumption that it decreased filesize by doing so, rather than keeping it interlaced. I won't de-interlace it anymore and that will save me some effort as well...at least for the videos I intend for DVD viewing. The XviD copies I'll be making will be deinterlaced, of course. I will keep in mind the three you suggested to me. Thanks for your advise. :)

Cheers,
Jeremy

[ObiKenobi]

Originally posted by State of Mind
The XviD copies I'll be making will be deinterlaced, of course. I will keep in mind the three you suggested to me. Thanks for your advise. :)

Well even if you are encoding it to XviD you can either deinterlace before encoding or during playback. XviD has it's own deinterlacing option or you can use FFDshow's deinterlacers, but that is just a personal choice.

[State of Mind]

Ohh, right! I keep forgetting about the "post-process" (is this the right term?) filters that FFDShow can do. Right on.
Hey, is it possible to use AviSynth filters through FFDShow? Like, if I wanted to de-interlace during playback with, for example, TDeint?

[ObiKenobi]

Originally posted by State of Mind
I keep forgetting about the "post-process" (is this the right term?) filters that FFDShow can do

Yes, it has quite a nice assortment of post-processing options.

Originally posted by State of Mind
Hey, is it possible to use AviSynth filters through FFDShow? Like, if I wanted to de-interlace during playback with, for example, TDeint?

Yes, you can import an Avisynth script into ffdshow.

[State of Mind]

And how do I do that? :D

[ObiKenobi]

Open up the ffdshow configuration. Go down to the avisynth option, check the box and load your script.

[State of Mind]

Ah, thank you for your frequent responses. I would have thought the mighty Obi Wan Kenobi would be busier. :D
I'll remember these instructions for when I get things in Hardware Land back to normal (New Mobo).

Cheers,
Jeremy

[ObiKenobi]

Originally posted by State of Mind
Ah, thank you for your frequent responses. I would have thought the mighty Obi Wan Kenobi would be busier. :D

No problem. Well I would be in bed by now, but I can't seem to fall asleep, so I'm just browsing the board while watching Monk and waiting for my Seinfeld encodes to finish.

[State of Mind]

Originally posted by ObiKenobi
and waiting for my Seinfeld encodes to finish.

I bet they are superb quality. I like Seinfeld. :)