The different PAL Property Settings?

organism_seven wrote on 4/7/2004, 4:09 PM
Hi,

Can anyone explain the exact difference between the PAL property settings in Vegas?

The first one is: PAL DV (720x576, 25.000 fps) Lower Field First.
The second one is: PAL Standard (720x576, 25.000 fps) Upper Field first.

Is the only difference between the two the field order?
If so, what would the PAL Standard setting be used for?
Is VHS footage Upper Field?
I thought any analog footage such as VHS captured on to a computer becomes DV footage.

Can someone enlighten please?
Thanks

Organism Seven

Comments

jaegersing wrote on 4/7/2004, 5:38 PM
I can tell you what I know, but can't promise that it will be any clearer afterwards!

OK, let's start with DV. PAL is usually Upper field first, but DV is always Lower field first, so PAL DV projects are set to Lower. (Unless you have a Matrox RT2000 system in which PAL DV is set to Upper for some reason).

But not all video is DV. If you digitise PAL (analogue) video using a capture card, you are not necessarily restricted to DV codecs. Traditionally, MJPEG codecs were used (and still are) to capture video at various quality (compression) levels. Nowadays, you can also capture uncompressed video. In both of these cases, PAL projects should be set to Upper field first. By the way, 704x576 and 768x576 are also common resolutions for PAL video captured as MJPEG.

Are there any other differences between the Vegas project settings apart from field order? Sorry, I have no idea. Maybe someone else can help on this one?

Richard Hunter

organism_seven wrote on 4/8/2004, 10:04 AM
Hi,

Well thanks for trying to explain, but I'm still a little confused.

You say that "PAL is usually Upper field first".

Are you referring to:

PAL VHS Video Cameras?
PAL VHS Video Cassette Recorders?
PAL VHS Video footage captured on to a computer?
PAL DVD discs?

Even If your not referring to these I would still like to know what field order these default to.

And does anyybody know if the two Vegas project settings (PAL DV and PAL Standard) differ in any way, other than field order?

If so, how?

Regards
Organism Seven

erratic wrote on 4/8/2004, 10:39 AM
The field order depends on the capture hardware, not the source you're capturing from. Analog capture cards are usually upper field first. DV is supposed to be lower field first.

If you open an interlaced avi file with TMPGEnc's Project Wizard, it will automatically scan the avi file to determine the field order. However, the Wizard will automatically assume that a DV avi is lower field first.