NTSC Motion Menus always have interlaced lines

[MarkJean]

Hello!

Encore is driving me nuts at the moment... I'm trying to create a NTSC DVD and I can't manage to create motion menus without interlaced lines in the movements.

I first created a NTSC project and imported my assets as 23,976 progressive. The timeline played perfectly like that, but the motion menus are always having those interlaced lines when i playback the ISO or DVD in my computer.

I then created a PAL project and imported the assets as 25i. This worked fine, my motion menus play fine as ISO or DVD. Just the NTWSC project is making trouble, even after converting all my assets in Premiere to 29,976 lower field first. Even now the background video has interlaced lines... And I'm going crazy why the PAL version is fine but not the NTSC version even though I'm creating 25i and 29,976i footage respectively ...

Anyone has an idea? I would really appreciate the help.

Cheers!

[SAFEHARBOR11]

Computer displays are not interlaced, so interlaced video playback may not look right. Depending on the DVD player software you are using, it should have menu options for different ways to handle the interlacing to improve the results you are seeing. I would recommend testing the DVD on a set-top player and TV. You never get a true result on a computer because each software player is different.

Thanks

Jeff

[MarkJean]

I thought so too. Strangely the interlaced PAL DVD with 25i material plays find on computer players (built in DVD player app and VLC). Since most people will probably put the DVD into a computer drive, I wish the menus will look fine too.

So for PAL that's possible for the, the player plays them fine. But the NTSC disc.. strangely always has the lines. I will test it on a hardware player connected to a television, I have the feeling it will play fine there.

Edit: But Any idea why the progressive motion background also has those interlaced lines? If NTSC is able to play back 23,976 progressive, why do my motion menus still have the interlaced lines on my computer screens?

Thanks

Marc

[neil wilkes]

Encore is driving me nuts at the moment... I'm trying to create a NTSC DVD and I can't manage to create motion menus without interlaced lines in the movements.

I first created a NTSC project and imported my assets as 23,976 progressive. The timeline played perfectly like that, but the motion menus are always having those interlaced lines when i playback the ISO or DVD in my computer.

I then created a PAL project and imported the assets as 25i. This worked fine, my motion menus play fine as ISO or DVD. Just the NTWSC project is making trouble, even after converting all my assets in Premiere to 29,976 lower field first. Even now the background video has interlaced lines... And I'm going crazy why the PAL version is fine but not the NTSC version even though I'm creating 25i and 29,976i footage respectively ...

Okay, there are a couple of things here that are wrong.

1 - Why are you interlacing 23.976 footage? If you intend to use 23.976 (aka 24 drop frame) then this should be progressive scan, not interlaced.

2 - When making 29.97fps NTSC footage, why is this BFF please? That should really only apply to analogue footage from older cameras or tape based captures (from things like VHS or Umatic, for example). Digital footage is usually TFF.

Some suggestions:

1 - Check the source footage field order (MediaInfo is very good for this, it is free and best of all can be used in the right-click context menu) and make sure any converted footage is done the same way.

2 - What are you using to convert the footage? If using Premiere there are 3 different ways to do this so it would possibly help to try all of them and see what looks the best

3 - there is a right-click option in the timeline/sequence of PPro for field tools - try the options here & see what helps.

Info required to help further:

1 - What is the source material resolution, frame rate & field order please?

The good news is that field order problems can usually be solved. The only time this is a struggle is when the main file we are trying to work with has been comped from files using different field orders (sadly our BBC seem to be very good at doing this on their news shows these days) and if that is the case then you will need to re-comp the offending file(s)

[MarkJean]

I realise I didn't explain thoroughly enough.

My project is 23,976, my videos are 23,976, my files are m2v, nothing is interlaced in my workflow and my projects. Still, encore did chop my menus into interlaced looking lines.

I per chance found the solution:

I created my menus in a way, that I added text over the motion menu in photoshop. The text would permanently stay and another button layer would highlight it. When i removed the button layers all was well. No interlaced lines.

So I created the permanent text in Premiere and burned it into my videos. Exported them for Encore and then only added a highlight button in Encore. Now the videos are progressive and stay this way from the look of it ..

Very strange but that was my workaround now ...

[Stan Jones]

Encore transcodes the background UNLESS you have only highlights in the menu - the workaround you discovered that left your asset as you imported it.

Encore uses the "default transcide" you set for the project. Not at my computer, and can't check to see if Encore allows setting progressive for the default.

Sorry I didn't see this thread earlier.