VEGAS: Deinterlace VS "Progressive"

[Guy Bruner]

If you want to EDIT in interlaced, then leave your captured video alone. Unless you have done something abnormal, it will come into Vegas as lower field first. Just leave it like that and edit away.

If you want to DEINTERLACE your entire project on the timelime then edit, go to Properties and set field order to None (Progressive). Vegas will deinterlace THE ENTIRE PROJECT based on the deinterlace method (Blend fields is default).

If you want to edit in interlaced, then deinterlace as you render, set your output field order to None (Progressive).

[Hugh DiMauro]

Thanks Guy! You answered my question. By the way, in reference to your last sentence:

<If you want to edit in interlaced, then deinterlace as you render, set your output field order to None (Progressive).>>

does that mean when I am all finished and am ready to render, go to custom templates and select NONE - Progressive Scan?

[Guy Bruner]

Yes.

[Hugh DiMauro]

Over the weekend, I made some tests and here are my findings:

1) When I capture interlaced footage and want to deinterlace, I set the field order project properties to NONE - PROGRESSIVE SCAN and deinterlace method to BLEND FIELDS. When it comes time to render, I choose the custom template NONE - PROGRESSIVE SCAN and my finished product comes out beautifully rendered each and every time. Even footage captured with a 1 CCD prosumer cam looks great deinterlaced.

What I've found is that if you set up the properties any other way, the footage WILL NOT deinterlace. Period. Maybe there's something wrong with my program. All I know is that when I left the timeline project properties at interlace and set the render template to progressive, the final product still ended up as interlaced DESPITE THE FACT THAT I RENDERED IT PROGRESSIVE. I have to set the project properies to deinterlace in conjunction with the render custom template to progressive scan. Ya just can't do one without the other.

May I get some sleep now?

[Bill Ravens]

I've always been confused by the difference in Vegas, between project properties and render options. what you're saying is that they are inter-dependent, in some ways. This seems counter-indicated, and, if true, is probably a program bug.

[Guy Bruner]

Hugh,
After you get some rest, look on page 243 of the Vegas manual, second paragraph under Creating Custom Render Settings for AVI Files. Second sentence says "Final render settings override Project Properties settings." If this isn't working for you, something is screwy or like Bill says, there's a bug.

[Jim Lafferty]

I haven't had the time to go over this thread in its entirety, but I recently posted a brief "tutorial" on de-interlacing video in Vegas using DSE's composite upper/lower-fields-first method. As far as I know, it's the best method for preserving detail, and eliminating staircasing.

Here's the tutorial.

Once you've done these steps, you can mix it up with a very mild gaussian blur and convolution kernel set to 'sharpen' to get different looks. Play with convolution kernel matrix and you'll find some interesting effects.


- jim

[Hugh DiMauro]

I will attempt to render to progressive one more time and see what's what. Time to test that out that manual blurb. I will let you know.

[Jim Lafferty]

If you want to DEINTERLACE your entire project on the timelime then edit, go to Properties and set field order to None (Progressive). Vegas will deinterlace THE ENTIRE PROJECT based on the deinterlace method (Blend fields is default).

If you want to edit in interlaced, then deinterlace as you render, set your output field order to None (Progressive).

This isn't entirely true. Project Properties dictate what you see in your preview window -- they've got nothing to do with rendering and output. So, if you drop interlaced media onto the timeline, but have the project set to "Field order: none" the footage takes on the appearance of being de-interlaced.

When you're rendering out media, whatever you set in the render properties tabs and settings determine the final appearance of the footage.

- jim

[Hugh DiMauro]

I thought I was going crazy!

- So then, if I leave my timeline footage as interlaced but render to progressive, then my final project will be progressive?

project properties have nothing to do with final output?

[Guy Bruner]

Hugh,
Your final product is determined by what you do at render. If you leave the project as interlaced and select progressive from the render settings...you will get progressive in the output file. If you want to see how it looks on the timeline and to get a better idea of the effects/menus, set project properties to the desired output format. You can switch back and forth between interlaced and progressive on the timeline by changing project properties. Vegas is a nondestructive editor. What you do on the timeline does not affect the source file.

[Hugh DiMauro]

...because when I play my movie on the timeline but send out the image via fire wire to an NTSC monitor, it still looks interlaced even though I have the timeline settings at progressive through project properties. AND, again, when I set the project properties to interlace but rendered out progressive, it rendered interlaced. I'd HATE to think somethign is wrong with my software because in every other aspect it works great.

[Jim Lafferty]

Guy's correct.

If you set it to render progressive properly then there's no way it could be rendered out as intelaced media. No way. You probably selected the wrong template or changed a custom setting in the video tab (i.e. chose the progressive template and then manually changed the field-order to lower field first...which negates the template's settings.)

Progressive footage looks interlaced on an NTSC monitor because the monitor is incapable of displaying it otherwise -- it's an NTSC monitor, they're not switchable to progressive-scan. Check for inerlaced artifacts on your computer monitor (which is progressive) if you think the material's progressive.

- jim