How do I know if a dvd is film-source or video-source ?

T

Tonvanrijn

Guest
In the menu of my (Marantz) dvd player and when using progressive scan, I can choose for different Auto and different Video settings. The manual says to choose Video when you know the dvd is video-source.
But how do you know whether it is video-source or not ?
Could someone explain that to me ?
 
Tonvanrijn said:
In the menu of my (Marantz) dvd player and when using progressive scan, I can choose for different Auto and different Video settings. The manual says to choose Video when you know the dvd is video-source.
But how do you know whether it is video-source or not ?
Could someone explain that to me ?

Additional materials on a DVD (like Making ofs etc) are usually video source, most films are film source...some comedy and lower budget series are video source, most high end ones are film source...if you see that picture is very smooth in panning and motion overall than it's video source and you may want to switch to video source deinterlacing...if it's film then using film source mode can actually recreate original film frame from interlaced frames which is better than deinterlacing separate video fields...

OK I know you may be confused so ask further if you don't fully understand any of the above...
 
Thanks Kalos Geros. You made things clearer to me.
But what's the use then of the Video settings ? I mean the manual says that in Auto(1,2 or3) the player distinguishes between film-source and video-source material.
Is it still better to choose Video when I am sure that it IS video and if so, why ?
 
If you leave it in Auto the player will determine whether the DVD is film or video by the means of picking up flags encoded on the disc.
 
So then, in general, I could leave it in Auto and only experiment with the 1,2 or 3 options which are standard, moving images and still images ?
 
I would, those settings will manually deteremine what type of deinterlacing the player performs on the interlaced video signal.
 
you can spot differences when using video source processing instead of film source on film material...small patterns have trouble in being deinterlaced this way...also if manually switching to film processing om video source you could get combing since both fields which are normally separated in time are shown at the same moment on screen...
 
Kalos Geros said:
...if you see that picture is very smooth in panning and motion overall than it's video source .....


One more question, although it's maybe a dumb one, but I am trying to learn more about this subject:
Why is video source material smoother in panning and motion. I noticed already in film-source material that panning etc is a little jerky (maybe a little exagerated said), but why ?
If it's too complicated to explain in a few words, could you give me a link where I can find more about this ?
 
Tonvanrijn said:
One more question, although it's maybe a dumb one, but I am trying to learn more about this subject:
Why is video source material smoother in panning and motion. I noticed already in film-source material that panning etc is a little jerky (maybe a little exagerated said), but why ?
If it's too complicated to explain in a few words, could you give me a link where I can find more about this ?

It's because video runs at 50 or 60 half-frames per second while film runs at 24 full frames which is enough for small movements but not for full screen movement - our eyes are faster than that...thus, in video source objects are captured /or animated) and thusly move at 50 or 60 samples per second and it is basically irrelevant that these are only half frames since an interlaced CRT display never draws the whole screen simultaneously but in two passes separated in time so it is in a way true that PAL video runs at 50 and not at 25 frames per second like most people think...so in the current state of affairs interlaced means smoother motion and practically full resolution if scene is not moving, while in a moving scene, drop in resolutin due to half frames is lost in speed of movement since our eyes and brain when asked to choose will decide that smoothenss of motion will compensate (i.e. hide) any deficiany in resolution...take a low resoluton .avi and you will notice that its low resolution doesn't bother you that much when there is large movement in it
 
Thanks again Kalos Geros.
Excellent explanation, you made it completely clear to me.
 
Hello Tonvanrijin

You've picked a pretty tricky subject - though there are a fair few on-line resources with more info on Video and Film Detection and Deinterlacing.

DVD players can be Flag readers or Cadence readers - the best units tend to be Cadence readers as Flag readers rely on the DVD being mastered correctly - which lots aren't and if the 'Flags' are incorrect your player will be fooled into the wrong mode.

Some of the Set-up and Calibration DVD's you can purchase have test sequences to let you see how your player performs at Video and Film detection plus have sequences that alternate between Video and Film to test how well it can switch modes.

The 'DVD Benchmark' article over on the Secrets web site is well worth a read - see http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/volume_7_3/dvd-benchmark-part-1-video-9-2000.html

Best regards

Joe
 
if you really want to know technically if a specific dvd is video or film source encoded, you can get tools that will tell you. you might need to rip the dvd to your HD first, but various tools can analyze the VOB files

if you want to know if the movie was originally film source, www.imdb.com will tell you in the tech section. even if shot originally on digital, most movies are then converted to film prints and the dvd is mastered from those prints

but to keep it simple, i'd just try the different settings with a few discs and just watch the damn movie, otherwise it'll do your head in!
 

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