Edit, render and resize interlaced video - how to?

[strelamcqueen]

Hi, this is my first post here.

I've done a lot of research and tests but have not find the final solution for my video editing. My history in brief: bought Sony HDR 115E (1080i50, so the videos are interlaced). Wanted to use iMovie but found out it can not work with interlaced videos... Used Kdenlive under Linux and MacOS, results were satisfactory. I use Vegas 8.0 now in Parallels for MacOS.

What I want to do:
- Copy videos to my pc, edit and make a family video. So far so good as Vegas works with MTS files very well.
- Which format should I render to? For my archive, I export to 1080i50, mpeg2.
- I don't have a blueray (or other media) player. So I have to render to such format that my dvd player recognizes. I ended up with resized 1080i50 down to 720x576i and produce mpeg2 file. As soon as I want to make .vob for the DVD, it becomes de-interlaced. But the problem is that this deinterlacing is just dropping one of the fields so I loose the smoothness of the video. So I play .mpg file but that's just a workaround.
- I can say that resized video is not crispy clear. One would expect to get even crispier picture (SD) as it is resized from HD source, right? As I said, I use 720x576i, 6 or 8 MBps. My source is 1080i50 24MBps.

Questions:
- Do I do something wrong (mpeg version, picture size, anything?)
- Is there a good video editor for Mac, that edits the native MTS files (interlaced!) and exports exactly the same format?
- Is my assumption about picture quality of resized video right? How should I resize the video to (at least) keep the clearness of the source (taking into account smaller size, of course) ?
- Is there a good way to deinterlace the interlaced video and keep the smoothness? My VLC does the job pretty well when watching the files (deinterlace, linear mode).

Thank you all for help!

Cheers, P

[Midnight Blue]

Answers:
Not sure
Final Cut Pro or cheaper but not as good Final Cut Express.
No it's not right. When you go from HD to SD you are reducing the resolution ie the number of pixels the image is made up from. You are also reducing the bit rate from 24MBps in HD to 6 or 8 MBps, this will also lower the image quality. Your stting of 720 x 567i mpeg2 is correct to make a DVD.
I don't see why Sony Vegas would have a problem deinterlacing. Have you selected the correct project properties for the footage you are using ie the correct field order. Upperfield first for
HD.

What are you using to make a .vob file and what makes you think it has deinterlaced the video ?

[strelamcqueen]

I don't see why Sony Vegas would have a problem deinterlacing. Have you selected the correct project properties for the footage you are using ie the correct field order. Upperfield first for
HD.

What are you using to make a .vob file and what makes you think it has deinterlaced the video ?

At first, thanks for your answers. I will definitely take a look at Final Cut (both).

I've read the procedure how to use a Yadif deinterlacer for Sony Vegas but results were not ok. Yes, I always use (HD & SD) upper field first. I also tried to set "progressive" output but results were as I said - progressive and without smoothness. This is in fact the biggest problem for me.

Mmmm, I lied a bit with .vob... I have converted and saved the video to .vob from Kdenlive once but later I always used iDVD, Roxio Toast or Burn (all Mac SW) to create a DVD from mpeg files. So I did not really manually save the file to .vob. Sorry for this lie. However, even if I set my format to PAL DVD or its versions (widescreen), the output was definitely progressive. I can tell this by comparing the video as played from my camcorder (or VLC) or from the edited video file. As far as I know, PAL standard is interlaced, right?

About the quality -- I see your point. However, if I compare the TV quality (SD) and my video's quality, I can tell the difference (the bitrate of the TV signal is between 4 and 8 MBps I think) One can see that small objects are not crispy but quite distorted. It's not a big deal, I was just wondering.

[Midnight Blue]

I always use (HD & SD) upper field first

Do you really mean that ? SD should be rendered out with the lower field first setting.

I'm not a Mac user so can't really help with those points.

As for the TV been better than your footage I'm not a broadcast expert so don't know how they convert their HD footage to SD but I'm sure they don't just use a Sony Vegas and a PC. Also think how good there original footage will be if they are using a £50,000 camera and other excellent costly equipment and "experts" right along the process of delivering a picture to our screens.

[strelamcqueen]

Do you really mean that ? SD should be rendered out with the lower field first setting.

As for the TV been better than your footage I'm not a broadcast expert so don't know how they convert their HD footage to SD but I'm sure they don't just use a Sony Vegas and a PC. Also think how good there original footage will be if they are using a £50,000 camera and other excellent costly equipment and "experts" right along the process of delivering a picture to our screens.

Ooops, my mistake. Anyway, I rendered two files, one with lower the other with upper field first and at first sight I cannot tell the difference. But according to standard you're right. I forgot that...
Tried Final Cut yesterday. It's OK but... not possible to render to .mpg and to define custom resolution. If I want to export to 1920x1080i50, I have to use 50 MBps which is way too much. My camera outputs 24 MBps. The workaround is 1080i50, which is 1440x1080 but I don't like that. I'll stay with Sony.

Thanks for all the tips