Interlacing lines: am I going insane?
 

Oh look who is back. Yeah, I am back.

First of all, the two previous threads in this saga:
t2: https://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/vid...processes.html
t1: https://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/vid...ng-24-bit.html

Second, as a refresher, the workflow is in the attached text file to this post to not bloat this post.

This thread will definitely not be as long as t2; not even t1. I'll make sure of it.

I think I'm going insane here. Like... almost literally.
We've sent a sample to them and they were fine with the MP4 and even complimented on it.
However, they said "We noticed that there are visible horizontal lines in the preservation video." (direct quote)

They asked for interlaced video. I don't think my workflow destroyed it and make sure to stick with interlaced and SD video dedicated workflows.

Is it just what they are asking for? They asked for interlaced video. The lines are just that, right? Am I not going insane here? If you view that on progressive monitors or device (which are most of them today), you will most likely see them. Right?

Someone. Please tell me that they just don't know what they're talking about and those lines are 100% normal.

Before I sign off on this post, yes, I do see those lines when playing back the recording as well.

I really hope that's the last time I post about this client...

Yes, you would see lines in a deinterlaced file during times of motion unless the player itself does live deinterlacing which is usually a setting and not done by default. I would probably just advise them to play it with something like VLC with deinterlacing enabled in the method that they prefer. Could be that they used to use a player that did this automatically and now they are using a different application to open it perhaps.

Yep, seeing lines on an interlaced video being played back on a computer monitor is normal. Case in point using Media Player Classic - Home Cinema to play back an interlaced avi file.

We don't know what they use for playback software but... (see below)

I knew I wasn't crazy! I knew this was normal!

...but they seem to be using a software that does not do deinterlacing by default. Maybe it's because they are extremely evident that they think there might be something wrong. Example below.

Regardless, we'll craft an answer for them to say it is normal.

Cheers.

MPC-HC does automatically de-interlace the video as long as it is properly flagged as interlaced in the file's metadata. Some video codecs (especially lossless ones) do not support this metadata, but at least with industry-standard codecs like DV and MPEG2, MPC-HC will automatically de-interlace them. If in doubt, check the video file with MediaInfo in "Tree" view and see if it identifies the file as interlaced, progressive, or doesn't say anything about the scan type.

Good to know.
I'm usually using Pot Player as video playback. It uses MediaInfo as its info fetching method (in tree mode as well). That's what I've always been doing.

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Last update: finally, they went "well, after all, we'd like the lossless to be deinterlaced as well."

I can't facepalm harder rn. FINE. I'll throw a de-interlaced filter on your AVI.