Please help me deinterlace my 1080i video!

[Casey Danielson]

Gear rundown:
- Canon XHA1 (DIGIC DV II HD image processor, three 1/3-inch 16:9 CCDs with 1.67 megapixels (1440 x 1080)

Please help me with deinterlacing my video! When I shoot nature vids as experiments, I get the twigs with those crap-looking jagged edges, not to mention shooting quick motion. My Canon 7D doesn't even get this, but of course it's 1080p and not 1080i. I was told these nasty artifacts could be fixed, but how?

I've watched some tutorials on Vimeo and YouTube and tried fixing it in FCP X settings, After Effects, and MPEG Streamclip. Obviously I don't know what I'm doing with deinterlacing.

THANK YOU for your assistance, y'all, and keep making good art!

[Kevin Lewis]

I also have the xha1 and have not experienced this. What NLE are you using? When you export your video use the progressive setting. Did you shoot in 60I, 24p or 30Pp

[Casey Danielson]

I shot it at 24fps at 1080i. When I import into Final Cut Pro X I just do Import, set camera to VCR playback mode, wait till the footage is rolling on my monitors through FCP X and then hit Import. It imports as the tape plays, creating video files within that project.

This was helpful

Free Final Cut Pro X Video Effects - Deinterlace and Inset Tools - YouTube

but, even though I set the info deinterlace to use Upper Field first, that box automatically unchecks each time I try to play it.

What video file format do you render your final sequence to?

[Jody Arnott]

Personally, I export 1080i from my NLE, then use Handbrake to "decomb" the file.

What this does, instead of deinterlacing every line, it only deinterlaces portions where the interlacing is actually visible. This saves from losing lots of vertical resolution, and saves on encoding time.

[Ervin Farkas]

Originally Posted by Casey Danielson

I shot it at 24fps at 1080i.

Something doesn't add up here... 24fps is always frames, not fields (never interlaced) - so are you sure you are seeing interlacing artifacts or something else?

[Kevin Lewis]

Make sure that your project settings match your source footage. Also, when you export, make sure your using a progressive mode and not an interlace mode.

[Casey Danielson]

I'd like to show you what I mean. Here is a photo of the issue, way enlarged and accentuated. It is subtle when viewed on laptop, but still visible. On my 52" monitor it is obvious, but probably won't scrap everything from that shoot. Am I missing something? I just played the tapes in VCR mode through the FireWire 400 (same as exporting?) and hit import in FCP X. Here's the photo: http://i1055.photobucket.com/albums/...ps0a9ef2bb.jpg

THANKS FOR THE HELP, FOLKS!

[Ervin Farkas]

Those are not deinterlacing artifacts.

[Seth Bloombaum]

I agree with Ervin, these are not deinterlacing artifacts.

On the right, there is a dark outline around a diagonal white line, the outline shows jaggies.

This is characteristic of in-camera detailing or sharpening, or post sharpening. Dial down your in-camera Detail or Sharpness controls, or turn off post Sharpen/Detail filters. That there is so much jagginess would, I think, be an artifact of scaling down the image. If you have a 1-pixel line around an object and you scale down it's usually going to get blobby.

The leaf on the left shows this too, and also some mosquito noise (looks like a cloud of mosquitoes around the leaf). This noise is a compression artifact, couldn't say at what stage in your workflow it's occurring, but the solution is to increase the bitrate. If it's happening in-camera this might not be possible.

In-camera detailing was created in the bad old analog days to increase the perception of sharpness, and specifically to help tv viewers follow the action in sports. A golf ball with a dark outline is much easier to visually track, a hockey puck with a white outline, etc. It is a very TV sort of look, and those concerned with a more Filmic look will dial it way down.

[Casey Danielson]

Awesome, thanks guys. I got this XHA1 for a good deal, and I've seen some good work done on these cameras. I've even considered getting one of the Letus Extreme EF adapters so I can use my photo lenses, but not if these artifacts are going to show up often.

I'll check out the detail settings and give it a look tonight. Thanks again for helping a newb.

[Casey Danielson]

Originally Posted by Seth Bloombaum

...these are not deinterlacing artifacts.

...This is characteristic of in-camera detailing or sharpening, or post sharpening. Dial down your in-camera Detail or Sharpness controls.

I blew up this frame and gave it the old unsharp mask to exaggerate the artifacts, so the problem is nowhere near this bad. But I can still see it on any size screen. Are these jaggies just something I have to deal with due to optical limitations of the XHA1? It's happening as part of the digitization process, so that's not encouraging? What say ye, experts?