Any way to repair badly de-interlaced footage

[billr55829350]

I've been provided source footage that I believe started out as PAL, but was given to me in HD resolution (1920x1080).  It looks like it was incorrectly de-interlaced, as it has blocky horizontal lines throughout, making it unusable in its current form.
Is there a way to correct this issue?  I'm attaching a sample of one frame.
Things I've tried:
- Interpret footage as interlaced, either upper or lower field first (I know this is a silly thing to do, as it's not interlaced, but it did help marginally)
- Apply the [obsolete] Antialias effect.  This removes much of the issue, but I lose a lot of detail.

I would appreciate any advice, thanks.

[Kevin-Monahan]

Hi Bill,

Thanks for the message. I read about your problem. It seems a bit strange because PAL is progressive whether it is in SD or HD, not interlaced. It is usually 25fps. What are the specs on this current file? Can you check out the footage properties? Is the footage SD and was up-scaled to HD? If so, you may want to try to import the footage into After Effects and use the "Detail-preserving Upscale effect" function there and check out the results. https://helpx.adobe.com/after-effects/using/detail-preserving-upscale-effect.html I hope the advice helps. Let us know!

Thanks,
Kevin

[Averdahl]

It seems a bit strange because PAL is progressive whether it is in SD or HD, not interlaced. It is usually 25fps.

By @Kevin-Monahan

PAL is not progressive-only and has never been, we have both 576i @ 25 fps and 1080i  @ 25 fps. 🙂

[billr55829350]

Thank you for your responses.
My understanding is, this footage was for broadcast TV in Europe, hence my assumption that it was originally PAL.  Of course, I have not idea what it was originally; all I know now is that it was upscaled to HD, using a flawed process of some type.  Thanks again!

[Richard M Knight]

As I understand it , certainly in the UK, Pal is always interlaced either in SD or HD. 25fps 50 fields.

[Kevin-Monahan]

Forgive my misunderstanding. I was under the wrong impression. I thought it was always progressive. I guess not!

Thanks,
Kevin

[Ann Bens]

So was I, the file has already been de-interlaced.

[Rag and Bone]

You could also try Neat Video.

Or Topaz Video AI

They both offer demos. My experience with Topaz is that produces good results on some, but not all, files. But, it's expensive and very slow, at least on my 2020 iMac (3.6 GHz 10-Core Intel Core i9,  Radeon Pro 5700 XT 16 GB)

[Ann Bens]

Not much you can do as It's backed in.

As suggested, neat video or topaz.