Combing Artifacts - Slide Shows

randy-stewart wrote on 9/18/2003, 6:55 PM

Just finished rendering a 27 minute slide show using the default DV NTSC template. The show is 252 still pictures with pan/crop, transitions, some titles, and music. I noticed combing artifacts showing up at the edges of the people or items in the pictures during transitions or when there is significant movement (quick pans). I've encountered this before. The fix I've used in the past is to render using a custom template which is the DV NTSC template with the field order changed to none (vice lower or upper) progressive scan.

My question is does this reduce the visual quality of the show in some way that makes a significant difference? I can't see any but I'm quite low tech with cheap equipment. It looks fine (no visual artifacts) on my big screen TV and computer screen.

Thanks in advance for your inputs.

Randy

Comments

Chienworks wrote on 9/18/2003, 7:05 PM

I'd say go for it since it looks ok. Your source pictures don't have a field order, so rendering without one makes sense. What ends up happening is that you're moving the job of interlacing out a step towards the hardware rather than having Vegas do it while rendering. It's still interlaced by the time it gets to the TV screen, but if it looks better now then stick with it.

Paul_Holmes wrote on 9/18/2003, 7:14 PM

Also, try rendering (under Custom) to Best quality. I've had the combing effect when I compile a photo-movie, then reduce it's size (like when I want some kind of frame around the movie). Rendering to Best always gets rid of the combing effect in my case and I still use lower-field first.

randy-stewart wrote on 9/18/2003, 7:48 PM

Thanks Kelly and Paul. I feel better now. By the way, forgot to mention that I am rendering to Best. Also, I've noticed a big difference in render times between the two field order options...6 hours for progressive scan and over 8 hours for lower field order. No matter. I'll use progressive scan and take advantage of no artifacts and lower render time.
Thanks again.
Randy