PAL-DV field order is LFF. Or is it?

[Pandora]

I have a Sony DCR-TRV30E MiniDV camcorder (SD). I can capture the PAL video stored on the tapes to either Premiere Pro 1.5.1 or Windows Movie Maker using a Firewire link (i.e. not a capture card).

Having spent a few days reading forum threads on sites such as this, I understand that the field order for PAL-DV is always lower field first. Period. A good summary for this and other video standards can be found here:
http://www.vfxtalk.com/vfxwiki/index...eo_Field_Order

When I use MeGUI to analyse my captured AVI files, it reports that the field order is upper field first. To check this, I imported a selection of the AVIs into Adobe After Effects and used the "Interpret Footage" function to select either LFF or UFF. Stepping through the AVI frame by frame, I find that only the UFF option gives the correct temporal output. LFF gives a jerky forward-back-forward-back output.

I conclude that my captured AVI files are, indeed, upper field first. Can I clarify that these are the captured files, not files exported from the software timeline.

My main question:
Does anyone else with a SD MiniDV camcorder have their PAL footage captured as upper field first when using a Firewire link?

A second, more general question:
The raw footage on the DV tape - does it have a defined field order before transfer to a p.c.?

[redsox_mark]

1. For PAL DV, all camcorders I have used have been LFF, as expected.

2. The raw footage on the DV tape - does it have a defined field order before transfer to a p.c.? Well, yes.. the field order on the tape is same as transferred to the PC. What is on the tape are pairs of images, 2 fields for every frame. A normal DV camcorder will write the lower field first, and the editing software will assume that.