Yes - you're right - you did post it yesterday... just not in this forum... it's at http://directorzone.cyberlink.com/posts/list/825.page

Fortunately, THIS forum is well endowed with technically minded people who'll be able to help.

Cheers - Tony
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I don't have an answer I just want to say thanks Gardner for bringing this up. Yesterday I dropped off 45 years of super 8mm film to be saved to DVD. I did ask them to convert to .AVI.

I have just sent them an email to make sure that the video is saved as progressive. Actually I don't even know if avi comes as interlaced or progressive.

EDIT=== I think my film will end up as progressive as the people converting my film say their machine scans each individual frame, so to my thinking the video should end up progressive. I am still waiting for their reply email.

They do not use a projector to show the film then video the projected image. My youtube channel====> http://www.youtube.com/user/relate2?feature=mhsn

Hi and thanks for your replies/responses.

I found my first post - it would help if I remembered where I have been surfing I guess!

Robert, the film transfer company did a great job "capturing" the film by scanning each frame as you said, and the results were very impressive for such an old film.

I think the interlace problem came about when they used "ordinary" DVD burning software to burn the final disk. I wish I had have asked for the original AVI file in addition to the DVD.

My semi-final result is here:

http://directorzone.cyberlink.com/video/3311

and although I am pleased with the result, I am really just curious if I could improve the final quality by eliminating the conversion to WMV.

I might add that I was pretty impressed with PD8's conversion to WMV as my previous experience using compressed WMV has always been disappointing, but PD8 didn't seem to lose any/much quality at all. The final result above was rendered about 4 times to get the various layered effects. (1. Convert to WMV, Edit video length, Stabilse picture, Slow video down from 3:15 to 4:11 2. Apply Wizard Wedding Template 3. Add Il Divo Sountrack 4. Speed up video to 4:00)

Good luck with your project. HARDWARE: ASUS i7 2.6 Ghz, 6GB DDR3, Nivada GeForce 9800GT 1GB, SATAII 1TB, WIN7 64bit

That's pretty good Gardner for very old film, it looks about the same vintage as some of my film. Filming inside a dark church in front of windows doesn't help either.

How does the quality of this finished video compare to the DVD in relation to sharpness and colour intensity?

Did you try the "Video Enhance" effect or play with any of the other enhancements in PD8?

Cheers

Robert My youtube channel====> http://www.youtube.com/user/relate2?feature=mhsn

Your right the original filming environment was far from ideal. The final result is very very close to the original transferred film despite all the processing.

I did muck around with various settings such as lighting, video denoise, colour balance etc but really the most natural results seem to be achieved by leaving it natural.

The Video Stabiliser was the most noteable improvement, as was slowing the short film down. The original film was the first attempt at using a new movie camera and filmed by a family friend - so I suppose it wasn't bad for his first attempt.

After writing my last post I realised I think I could now do the whole process again sequentially without having to re-render at each stage. I may attempt that tonight after the Black Eyed Peas Concert!!

I'll let you know if the quality improves.

EDIT: Forgot to mention that the actual final output quality from PD8 is noticeably higher quality than the posted You Tube upload. Colour and lighting is no different, just higher sharpness and definition at home as you would expect without the You Tube reprocessing.

Chow

HARDWARE: ASUS i7 2.6 Ghz, 6GB DDR3, Nivada GeForce 9800GT 1GB, SATAII 1TB, WIN7 64bit

Thanks for that. You mentioned slowing the film down, I was informed by the person I took my film to that Super 8 film is shot at 18fps, which may explain why it looked better when you slowed it down. I normally produce my videos to NTSC 30fps even though I am in Australia to get a smoother look to my hang gliding videos. I think I will have to produce to PAL 25fps and even slow that down if I need to keep it looking normal.

I tell you when producing videos there is so much stuff to learn. My youtube channel====> http://www.youtube.com/user/relate2?feature=mhsn

After much mucking around have found that PD8 does have a wider variety of profile options when producing a project than I first realised.

I have previously been limiting myself to the preset profile template values that appear when you move your project to the PRODUCE stage.

However by opening up the options you get access to a wider range of profile choices, including a 1280 x 720 (720p) profile that is just perfect for the task of de-interlacing I am seeking. From here you can even customise further the profiles including quality settings and bit-rates etc.

The other cool aspect of this option is that as I am upscaling from the original 720 x 576 VOB the Video Enhacement filter is able to kick in.

I believe that the WMV conversion does a better job of de-interlacing than the conversion process achieved using the 1280 x 720 (720p) resolution. With WMV there is no hint of jagged or the see-sawing interlace problem, however with the 1280 x 720 resolution there is a small jagged look at certain times, however this can be completely filtered out during playback using the media players de-interlace filter.

With the 1280 x 720 option, rendering times are more than half what they are with WMV. EDIT===: Using the DIVX Profiles good quality and de-interlacing is also possible with the appropriate changes to the ADVANCED settings. The profiles include Home Theatre, High Definition Profile and a 1080HD mode that I am unable to render to due to my systems low specs.

By the way, I have never been able to render the full HD resolution of WMV 1440 x 1080, and have always been limited to the next lower profile of 1280 x 720 as my DELL 3Ghz 4MB RAM system is not powerful enough. (I also think my older and slower hard disk may be causing some of the high end processing problems)

The 3 steps to get to the customisable options are:
HARDWARE: ASUS i7 2.6 Ghz, 6GB DDR3, Nivada GeForce 9800GT 1GB, SATAII 1TB, WIN7 64bit