[HELP] Progressive to Interlaced - HOW?!

[erickhc]

Hi, new guy here!

Fantastic software, but I can't get it to interlace video.I'm trying to put my 1080p60 videos on blu-rays for my family.

When I tell it to interlace, it seems to do it, but it won't change the frame count, so I end up with a slow motion video.

What am I doing wrong?

[humanoid86]

  https://www.selur.de/ - 1st page < Home

[Selur]

I'm trying to put my 1080p60 videos on blu-rays for my family.

What resolution and frame rate are you aiming for?
Personally, I would either go for 720p60 to keep the fluidity of the source or enable "x264->Frame->Advanced Frame Settings->Fake interlaced encoding flag" to encode 1080p60 content interlaced (x264 uses MBAFF='Macroblock-Adaptive Frame/Field Coding' and thus allows 60p content to be 'masked' as '60i' content.)

If you are aiming for 'real' 1080i60 which I assume, you would use one of the methods under Frame->Reduction to go for 30fps and then configure the encoder to produce interlaced output. If you are aiming for SD resolutions, you would also need to adjust the resolution&co.

I would recommend enabling 'x264->Base->Restriction Settings->Hardware' and set it to 'Blu-ray/AVCHD'.

Cu Selur

[erickhc]

  https://www.selur.de/ - 1st page < Home

I don't get it. Is that supposed to be funny?

I'm trying to put my 1080p60 videos on blu-rays for my family.

What resolution and frame rate are you aiming for?
Personally, I would either go for 720p60 to keep the fluidity of the source or enable "x264->Frame->Advanced Frame Settings->Fake interlaced encoding flag" to encode 1080p60 content interlaced (x264 uses MBAFF='Macroblock-Adaptive Frame/Field Coding' and thus allows 60p content to be 'masked' as '60i' content.)

If you are aiming for 'real' 1080i60 which I assume, you would use one of the methods under Frame->Reduction to go for 30fps and then configure the encoder to produce interlaced output. If you are aiming for SD resolutions, you would also need to adjust the resolution&co.

I would recommend enabling 'x264->Base->Restriction Settings->Hardware' and set it to 'Blu-ray/AVCHD'.

Cu Selur

I'm aiming for 1080i30.

I kept trying various combinations of options, including what you suggested, except for the Frame-> Reduction thing, which I didn't really understand what I'm supposed to do there.

That said, none of them actually work. Most of them give me a slow motion video, or interlaced  repeated frames. Like, instead of interlacing frames 1-2, 3-4, 5-6, it seems to interlace frames 1-1, 3-3-, 5-5, if that makes sense.

I tried to use ffmpeg, nothing changed. Tried to use Avisynth instead of Vapour, nothing changed. What am I missing here?

Script seems fine, the same line I use for MeGUI, but I noticed it adds an extra line to the end of the script, Assume (30000,1001), which I don't think would be necessary. Is that to reinforce BD compat?

One more thing: Hybrid is programmed to add AssumeTFF().SeparateFields().SelectEvery(4, 0, 3).Weave() , which is for NTSC TFF video. Settings are different for other formats, and I assume you know, but here it goes, anyway...

NTSC BFF - AssumeBFF().SeparateFields().SelectEvery(4, 0, 3).Weave()
PAL BFF - AssumeTFF().SeparateFields().SelectEvery(4, 1, 2).Weave()
PAL TFF - AssumeBFF().SeparateFields().SelectEvery(4, 1, 2).Weave()

[Selur]

Regarding humanoid86: he's banned for a month.
..........

I looked at the 'AssumeTFF().SeparateFields().SelectEvery' part and you are right.
Hybrid atm. only uses "AssumeTFF().SeparateFields().SelectEvery".
I usually do not have to create interlaced content, or I use the 'fake interlaced method' when using x264.
I'm really busy the last few days so I don't really have much time on my hand to care about Hybrid.

Assume(...) changes the way how Avisynth interprets the frame rate.

=> I'll look at it when I find some time.

Cu Selur

[erickhc]

  https://www.selur.de/ - 1st page < Home

Regarding humanoid86: he's banned for a month.
..........

I looked at the 'AssumeTFF().SeparateFields().SelectEvery' part and you are right.
Hybrid atm. only uses "AssumeTFF().SeparateFields().SelectEvery".
I usually do not have to create interlaced content, or I use the 'fake interlaced method' when using x264.
I'm really busy the last few days so I don't really have much time on my hand to care about Hybrid.

Assume(...) changes the way how Avisynth interprets the frame rate.

=> I'll look at it when I find some time.

Cu Selur

Thanks in advance, man. Hybrid is really, really a great tool. Saves a lot of time.

[Selur]

Hopefully I will find some time later today.

[Selur]

Send you a link to a dev version for testing.

Cu Selur

[erickhc]

Sorry it took me so long to reply. Busy, busy weeks in real life.

This is what I tried:

01. Frames > Interlaced encoding + Filtering > (De)Interlace/Telecine > Interlace
FAIL, slow motion video, double duration.

02. Frames > Interlaced encoding + Filtering > (De)Interlace/Telecine > Interlace + Filtering > (De)Interlace/Telecine > Overwrite input scan type to: progressive
FAIL, slow motion video, double duration. Out of my crazy logic, I thought maybe telling the program to overwrite the input scan type, would correct the frame count.  It didn't.

03. Frames > Interlaced encoding, Filtering > Avisynth > Progressive to interlace
SUCCESS, Interlaced video, BUT field order is messed up - VERY slow encode, compared to the first two

Regarding the last tryout, I noticed a change in the command line, and I think the problem is there. When I select Frames > Interlace encoding, it adds -tff to the command line, but as soon as I check Filtering > (De)Interlace/Telecine > Interlace or Avisynth > Misc > Progressive to Interlaced, it changes -bff in the command line.

I guess it's because of the interlacing line, AssumeTFF().SeparateFields().SelectEvery(4, 0, 3).Weave(), which outputs TFF video, while the command line sets the encode to -bff.

I tried to attach the debug files here, but one of them exceeds the 200kb limit, so I uploaded the videos and the debug files to my Google Drive.
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1...sp=sharing

[Selur]

Will look at it the week after next, if I don't forget about it.

tryout1 used:

"C:\Program Files\Hybrid\64bit\ffmpeg.exe" -y -loglevel fatal -noautorotate -nostdin -threads 8 -i "D:\Desktop\Working\source.mkv" -map 0:0 -an -sn -vf zscale=rangein=tv:range=tv -pix_fmt yuv420p -vsync 0 -f rawvideo - | "C:\Program Files\Hybrid\64bit\x264.exe" --preset slow --crf 16.00 --profile high --level 4.1 --ref 3 --keyint 25 --direct spatial --sync-lookahead 18 --rc-lookahead 12 --slices 4 --bff --weightp 0 --vbv-maxrate 62500 --vbv-bufsize 78125 --sar 8:9 --non-deterministic --range tv --colormatrix bt709 --demuxer raw --input-res 1920x1080 --input-csp i420 --input-range tv --input-depth 8 --fps 30000/1001 --bluray-compat --output-depth 8 --output "D:\Desktop\Working\2023-07-02@12_26_14_7810_01.264" -

Problem is the decoding call, it requires something liek
For TFF

-vf interlace=lowpass=2:scan=tff -top 1 -flags:v +ilme+ildct

For BFF

-vf interlace=lowpass=2:scan=bff -top 0 -flags:v +ilme+ildct

tryout2 used:

"C:\Program Files\Hybrid\64bit\ffmpeg.exe" -y -loglevel fatal -noautorotate -nostdin -threads 8 -i "D:\Desktop\Working\source.mkv" -map 0:0 -an -sn -vf zscale=rangein=tv:range=tv -pix_fmt yuv420p -vsync 0 -f rawvideo - | "C:\Program Files\Hybrid\64bit\x264.exe" --preset slow --crf 16.00 --profile high --level 4.1 --ref 3 --keyint 25 --direct spatial --sync-lookahead 18 --rc-lookahead 12 --slices 4 --bff --weightp 0 --vbv-maxrate 62500 --vbv-bufsize 78125 --sar 8:9 --non-deterministic --range tv --colormatrix bt709 --demuxer raw --input-res 1920x1080 --input-csp i420 --input-range tv --input-depth 8 --fps 30000/1001 --bluray-compat --output-depth 8 --output "D:\Desktop\Working\2023-07-02@12_27_39_9910_01.264" -

same issue as with tryout1.

tryout3 used:

ClearAutoloadDirs()
SetFilterMTMode("DEFAULT_MT_MODE", MT_MULTI_INSTANCE)
LoadPlugin("C:\Program Files\Hybrid\32bit\avisynthPlugins\LSMASHSource.dll")
Import("C:\Program Files\Hybrid\32bit\avisynthPlugins\mtmodes.avsi")
# loading source: D:\Desktop\Working\source.mkv
# color sampling YV12@8, matrix: bt470, scantyp: progressive, luminance scale: limited
LWLibavVideoSource("D:\Desktop\Working\source.mkv",cache=false,format="YUV420P8", prefer_hw=0,repeat=true)
# current resolution: 1920x1080
# interlace
AssumeTFF().SeparateFields().SelectEvery(4, 0, 3).Weave()
# setting output fps to 29.970fps
AssumeFPS(30000,1001)
PreFetch(8)
#  output: color sampling YV12@8, matrix: bt470, scantyp: top field first, luminance scale: limited
return last

"C:\Program Files\Hybrid\32bit\ffmpeg.exe" -y -loglevel fatal -noautorotate -nostdin -threads 8 -i "D:\Desktop\Working\encodingTempSynthSkript_2023-07-02@12_28_50_9110_0.avs" -an -sn -vf zscale=rangein=tv:range=tv -pix_fmt yuv420p -vsync 0 -f rawvideo - | "C:\Program Files\Hybrid\64bit\x264.exe" --preset slow --crf 16.00 --profile high --level 4.1 --ref 3 --keyint 25 --direct spatial --sync-lookahead 18 --rc-lookahead 12 --slices 4 --bff --weightp 0 --vbv-maxrate 62500 --vbv-bufsize 78125 --sar 8:9 --non-deterministic --range tv --colormatrix bt709 --demuxer raw --input-res 1920x1080 --input-csp i420 --input-range tv --input-depth 8 --fps 30000/1001 --bluray-compat --output-depth 8 --output "D:\Desktop\Working\2023-07-02@12_28_50_9110_02.264" -

Aside from the bff in the x264 call it looks fine.

=> seems like:
a. Hybrid doesn't properly create the ffmpeg decoding call when not using Avisynth or Vapoursynth for progressive to interlaced output.
b. Hybrid Avisynth/Vapoursynth scripting doesn't care whether you set your configure x264 to output bff or tff.

"Avisynth > Misc > Progressive to Interlace" <- I'll probably remove that there and move it to "(De)Interlace/Telecine".