Should I select Deinterlace?

[Norris Combs]

Footage is HDV 1080-60i (1440 x 1080, 29.970 fps)

Deinterlace method: None, Blend fields, Interpolate fields. Which should I choose?
Pixel format: 8-bit, 32 bit floating point. Which one is better?

Intended output is Blu ray, keeping the resolution as 1440 x 1080.

Thanks,

[Randall Leong]

Norris,

If you're going from 1440x1080/59.94i in one video format to 1440x1080/59.94i in another format, set the "Deinterlace" method to "None". This will prevent the video content from being deinterlaced needlessly (and thus reducing image quality). All interlaced (1080i) HD video is UFF (Upper Field First).

[Garrett Low]

Norris,

Blu-ray does not support 1080 30p so deinterlacing your 1080/60i would only result in later having to interlace it when rendering for BR. Overall this will result in a degradation of the picture.

As Randall recommended set the deinterlace method to "none" and your field order to UFF.

-Garrett

[Randall Leong]

I forgot to mention that "Deinterlace" is not entirely useless in the Vegas program. It should be used only on interlaced content that is to be re-rendered (transcoded) to another format of a vertical resolution different from the original (say, from 1080i to 720p or 480i) or in special cases which require a reversal of field dominance (say, from UFF to LFF). However, neither of the deinterlace methods in Vegas is ideal for every scene: One delivers better results in scenes with little to no motion while the other is better for high-motion scenes.

[Larry Reavis]

thanks to someone (I can't remember who), here's how I deinterlace (needed to put video on web):

A foolproof method follows:

1. Download Mike Crash's free Smart Deinterlace – works with Vegas 8x or 9x, 32-bit only.

2. Set Project Properties to 59... frames per second, best rendering quality, interlace set to None, 1920x1080 (presuming that you are starting with 1920x1080i).

3. Use Smart Deinterlace effects on media (go into the media window and right-click, or right-click on the FX button on any event and choose the source file for the Smart Deinterlace). In order to avoid artifacts, you should right-click on the clip, click Properties, then clear the checkmark for Smart Resample.

4. In the Smart Deinterlace FX window, choose “field” preset. In clip properties, set resampling to “none.” Motion Threshold: 5. Choose cubic, and motion denoiser.

5. Or, if you have an entire track on the timeline that has many interlaced clips, you can do them all at once by clicking on the track FX button; but there is a trick: You must go down to the bottom of the Smart Deinterlace FX window where it says "Smart Deinterlace" and make sure that the little triangle at the far left points to the left; if pointing to the right, click it once to make it point left. (You won't need to worry about this if you apply Smart Deinterlace to individual clips in the Project Media Window instead of to the track.)

Then render out with Cineform using Progressive setting. Result: No judder, no comb, no loss of resolution.

Please note that Smart Deinterlace works only in 32-bit versions of Vegas. That being the case, I always deinterlace each individual clip and render it using Cineform in 9c-32 before putting it on the TL of my project. That way, I can edit the TL with its Cineform clips with Vegas 8c, the most stable version of Vegas that I've found for editing, but then render in 9e-64, the most foolproof rendering version.

Recently someone on this forum posted a 64-bit version for the Mike Crash script, which I haven't yet tried.

[Jay Hancock]

I downloaded the source code for Mike Crash's Smart Deinterlacer and compiled it as a 64-bit dll. I put it on my Windows 7 x64 machine and ran it using Vegas 9.0e 64-bit. As far as I can tell (only ran a quick test) it runs fine.

I put it on Dropbox so anyone who wants it can get it.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/10235929/Veg...t_with_x64.zip

The zip file has both the original 32-bit plugin (with installer) and the raw dll for the 64-bit version. Instructions for installing the dll are in a readme file.

I'm not actually sure what version of the plugin this source code was for. Mike's web page says it's version 1.0.3 but when I actually run in in Vegas it says 1.0.1. I'm going to try to email him and see if I can get an answer.

I tried to recompile the dynamic noise reduction plugin but the code isn't compatible with 64-bit. It uses inline assembler code which isn't supported in 64-bit. Luckily the deinterlacer doesn't have this issue.

[Craig Longman]

I recompiled the plugin for 64bit some time ago. I attempted 3 times to contact MIke, but received no answer back at all.
It would appear that the only two bugs fixed since 1.0.1 were related to (probably) putting it in and out of an event, and perhaps having it in multiple events. I feel that the current version is OK for simply putting on an event and deinterlacing.

His filter is buggy though, the interpolating won't work, so you should only set the two adjustable parameters once and leave them. Also, his interpretation of field "zero" is flawed, so the first two frames might be done awkwardly.

He appeared to have used 2.7 for his plugin, I've converted the 2.8 to be used as a vegas plugin and am going to be able to repackage it soon.

Funny you mention about the denoiser, that's one I've wanted also. The __m64 ops aren't supported on x64 though, as you found. So I've been converting it to SSE2 and __m128, but had other things get in the way. I've not had any luck finding his source for it to see if they've updated, but I also must admit I didn't look all that hard.

[Jay Hancock]

Didn't know you had already done this, guess I should have searched the forum first (duh). You're clearly way ahead of anyone else on this. Great work Craig! Looking forward to your update (whenever you actually can find the time to do all that :-) ).