Re: De-interlacing

Currently I prefer to shoot with my DSLR, as this gives me the best quality.

But for multi-camera projects (f.i. covering concerts) I have to include my "good old" HDV cameras. This results of course in rather mixed formats in one timeline.

My question to you experts is:

what is the best way to de-interlace these 1920 x 1080i (1440 x 1080i) clips, as it is often extremely disturbing to see those unwanted interlace artefacts especially when there is movement in the frame - especially when the edit sources from such a mixed origin?

I still do my edits on an earlyer traditional FCP version (5.1.4.) due to my old MacBookPro, mainly using the "ancient" Apple Intermediate Codec -
and would be interested especially in an optimal work flow - which is the best time to de-interlace the HDV clips, before importing into the timeline, during or after editing, or whenever ...?

In addition there exist several plug-ins etc. to deinterlace - is among them a solution which can be highly recommended? (Freeware or "reasonable priced")?

Many thanks for any input.

(I had posted this problem some time before, but it was obviously embedded far to hidden into an other topic)

Haven't opened FCP since 3 years now, but I'm sure there is a de-interlace filter in FCP5. This will halve the resolution of your video (as most de-interlacing filters do).

You could use Compressor to do the de-interlacing prior to importing. This will result in a cleaner de-interlaced video, but you will have to use the "Best" setting to achieve this, and this will cost a lot of time.

Best wishes,

Ronny

Many thanks for your reply and sorry for burden you with something which must be more or less ancient nostalgia to you.

Obviously there exists no "miracle solution" - wonder, how this problem is solved in an upper end production; but at least I found 3 de-Interlacing filters in my FCP.

That one by stibs / fxscript.org has a field selection (lower / upper), but also the possibility to select between interpolation, duplication and "quick and dirty (vertical blur)".
Especially "interpolation" does not sound that bad (->"losing half of the resolution"), as I understand this is preserving all the lines and just interpolating the comb structures to a median value (?).

Joe's De-Interlacer shows the same choices, but in addition some faders concerning Motion Differening, Mask Check, and an opacity fader "Fade with Original".

The third one is by Eiperle CGM tv has a similar "Motion dedection" with four positions for "strength" and a "visibility" fader.

I tested all three with a short piece of a clip now - even on 100% I did not find a visible difference - and what's much more important: the resolution does not seem worse.
This an be observed by toggling "filter on / off", where the smooting of the interlace artefacts becomes very visible, - but the non moving parts of the frame do not show any difference for me (again at 100% size) compared to the source medium.