Correct field order for Australian PAL B/G TV

[fab4272]

Hi All,

I currently record video using a Canon FS100 SD camera. The file properties report that it records upper field first at 25 fps. I am gathering it means 50 Hz interlaced.

I am in australia where our TV' std is PAL B/G lower field first.

In videstudio, my project settings are lower field first, which I guess is from when I choose australia during the setup.

If I use MPEG optimizer, it leaves the field order as upper field. when playing the file on my PC LCD it is fine, the video looks good, but on my HTPC TV the vid is a little washed out in terms of colour, plus during panning there is a little choppyness and some frames are dropped, but not much.

What should my encode settings by to properly show my homne video's on TV?

Thanks in advance.

[Ken Berry]

If originally filmed in Upper Field First, it should always remain in UFF throughout the editing and rendering processes. You only get those sorts of problems when you change the Field Order...

And by the way, when I capture from Australian TV in high definition, I usually get UFF video, not LFF...

[BrianCee]

Surely the field order from your TV system depends on how you are capturing it - if you are capturing analogue from a 'TV out' terminal (such as Phono [RCA] sockets) on your TV or Tuner into VS as mpeg you will get lower field first - but if capturing digital via an HDMI or similar socket you will get upper field first.

The important thing is though that you should not change the field order throughout the whole procedure, if you tick the 'display message when inserting video' box in your preferences you will be asked when inserting a video to the timeline if you want to change your project properties to those of the video, saying yes to that will ensure that your project properties are the same as the video properties and that is the best way to acheive good results.

[fab4272]

If originally filmed in Upper Field First, it should always remain in UFF throughout the editing and rendering processes. You only get those sorts of problems when you change the Field Order...

And by the way, when I capture from Australian TV in high definition, I usually get UFF video, not LFF...

Thanks for your help. And yes, it is UFF for HD. Analogue is LFF i think. So any PAL TV in australia can play any video, regardless of UFF or LFF. This I am starting to understand. But this whole UFF, LFF issue is a minefield that traps most new users to video encoding.

[Trevor Andrew]

Hi

The field order depends on the source video.
In the olden days an analogue source, VHS, analogue camera etc was generally Upper Field first.
Digital Video sources as in Dv-Avi or from Hi8 type cameras were Lower Field.
Easy to remember, digital was always Lower Field.

The introduction of High Definition (digital) changed all that using Upper Field or sometimes Frame Based. (I think they did it to confuse us)

Not to worry, the only rule to stick to is your original field order should be used throughout your editing.
Unfortunately the standard DVD templates used by Video Studio use Lower Field.
So you may need to take care when rendering your project.