I’m working with some files given to me by a fairly inexperienced FCP editor (for a local PBS TV show no less) and I’m trying to steer him into a solution for this – and he’s long distance so I can’t sit with him.

The files I’m getting are 720 X 486 widescreen interlaced files. But played back on a broadcast monitor only the area near the center of the screen is interlaced properly. As you get toward the top and bottom of the screen the visible interlacing gets crazy. I keep asking if the source files were 480 and he stretched the output without deinterlacing. He says the source was 486.

The files given to me are QT h264 of the entire program and the file properties in Vegas and QT inspector both say 720 X 486 LFF. Does anyone here know enough about FCP to know what he might be doing wrong? Is it possible he put new 486 interlacing on top of previous 480 interlacing? That’s how bad it looks. I don’t think I could MAKE Vegas output files that look this bad. (He works solely from his FCP preview screen. He sees no interlacing)

Edit: Applying Yadif to his file makes it watchable, but the top and bottom of frame are visibly softer.