Field Order? Cleared up a few things . . .

Grazie wrote on 1/20/2008, 1:04 AM
Just got to this and thought of some of my friends here . . Anybody like to add any comments about the content?

http://www.dvmp.co.uk/digital-video.htmDigital Video and Field Order[/link]

Grazie


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farss wrote on 1/20/2008, 2:15 AM
Excellent stuff, thanks.

Nothing in there struck a bum note with me. It's a very good explaination of a topic that's tripped up many people.

And I finally learned why we have the 704/720 option in PAL. I've never found any 704 material and so I was left wondering how such a things could exist. Now I know.

Bob.
Grazie wrote on 1/20/2008, 3:17 AM
WOW! Recommendation indeed. Prof Bob!

Yes, I read this and thought "I'm understanding this! EXCELLENT" - and it had pretty diagrams I could understand.

farss wrote on 1/20/2008, 4:20 AM
About the only thing I could add to that excellent article is this.
<rant>
If you're dealing with interlaced footage and you didn't shoot it or you have the slightest doubts about it you MUST check it on an interlaced monitor. For the purpose anything, even a clapped out old B&W TV will do. I've helped out a fellow Vegemite who got stuck with 500 DVDs with mixed up field order.
I've had to fix a video one of my clients edited in FCP before authoring the DVD. FCP in the usual preview monitor only displays one field it seems. He'd done a freeze frame and added an animated super over that. Problem was the guy he thought had run out of frame was still in one field of the freeze frame. So played back on a TV the frame had this blinking apparition in the edge of the shot behind the animation. I managed to fix it thanks to Vegas but it sure took a lot of work rebuilding that one frame.
You can also get caught out in Vegas. Check the bottom of the preview pane, it'll tell you if you're seeing both fields or not. But that preview will not show you if the field order is wrong, only a CRT will do that.

</rant>

Bob.
4eyes wrote on 1/20/2008, 8:39 AM
My Panasonic dvd recorders use 704 framesize. I'm pretty sure the pana cams that record to harddisk or mini-dvd's also use 704 frame size.
It's also something I always forget when setting project properties & rendering to a new file if working with the panasonic mpeg2 files from these units.