Can't deinterlace h264 footage

Hi there first post here; thanks for making this available —

I've got h264 footage, appearing as interlaced. I exported in Prores 422 to edit in FCP, but I can't seem to be able to deinterlace it whatever I tried. I tried deinterlacing after an FCP export, or from the h264 file using MPEG Streamclip; no luck. Any idea? I thought I could try to export as 720i somehow, so I could deinterlace from there?

Thanks a lot in advance.

Update: I tried encoding to 1080i in Compressor, then tried deinterlacing using MPEG Steamclip o Handbrake, that didn't work.
I also tried creating a 1080i project in FCP, then export in h.264, still no luck.

Any other idea? Many TIA's.

Welcome, Adrien, to fcp.co

Ignatius wrote: … I've got h264 footage, appearing as interlaced.… …

A) 'appearing' like interlaced doesn't mean necessarily, it IS interlaced. Select a clip, and have a look in the Inspector - what does it tell about the format?

If is 'manually' transcoded, with some 3rd party software, it could be, the interlacing is baked in - 'lines' in a progressive frame = no chance to get rid of that.

if it is Interlaced (25i/30i) then, same Inspector, switch it to Settings:



… then check the Deinterlace box

Thanks a lot for your reply. Yes, it appears that they encoded an interlaced signal into progressive without deinterlacing. So it's h264, progressive, with interlacing lines... I tried enconding in to 1080i with Compressor, then deinterlacing in Handbrake or MPEG SC, no luck... Same with dropping a clip to an FCP 1080i timeline.

So there's no way to work around interlacing lines within progressive material?...

… What comes to mind is to halve the resolution, … so, use Compressor to export to 720p, and drag that in your 1080 Project … in hope it 'catches' every second line = h.264 does NOT handle a 'frame' pixel-per-pixel, line-per-line, but in 'blocks' of 8x8, AND the colour-resolution is different to 1920x1080 and and and …

Give it a try. All you can do.

best practice, I don't have to tell you: try to get the Original material… smart, ey? LOL :S

Yes, I wish they knew better, just spent hours trying to work around this..

Thanks a lot for your input anyway.

… have you tried the 'shrink' option I suggested, reducing its res to 720p?
Share some feedback…
Just for future reference, if that could be a working de-tour ..............

Initial footage are 720p. I tried reducing to 640x360, then adding it to a 1080i timeline, besides the fact that I'm losing resolution, that didn't seem to fix the issue. I was on a tight deadline, so I had to deliver as is, and I explained what went wrong. I can't really do other tests right now, but I'm wiling to try other things, in case that happens again (and if that can help here). Thanks again.

Ignatius wrote: Initial footage are 720p. ….

… and some 'smart' one converted that into 1080i?? omg
don't hurry, … just to feed my curiosity…

good luck with your project!

No, I think they recorded out of 3 cams + a PowerPoint output within a mixer, they would switch signals live, then the output got recorded through a mixer. I think the cam signals where interlaced, and everything got captured in 720p (without deinterlacing). I wasn't there, just guessing (and was unable to talk to the guys who taped this...). But that's just one thing, another one is that the sound is muted during the initial 1h15mn (out of 4hrs)... I guess they were monitoring the master output, not what was being taped... then realized after one hour +...

Well...