PAL 50i vs 25p transfer to DVD

[unknownperson]

Hi,

Can someone explain the difference between 50i and 25p. I have a fairly good idea, but would like to hear from you anway.

I have just got a DVD burner and I burned a 25p clip and a 50i clip to a DVD using ordinary cheap ass software. When I play it back on my tv the 25p looks wrong.

Using my XL2, I have steered clear of 4:3 mode and 25p mode. Afterall does anybody use 4:3 anymore??

Please give me your thoughts ::)

[Barry_Green]

It depends on what you mean by "looks wrong" -- you may have had the fields reversed or something...

50i is fifty images per second, interlaced together. Half of them are the "even" lines of the picture, and the other half are the "odd" lines, so you'll get the image updated 50 times per second, but only half of it each time.

With 25p, you get 25 full-screen images captured each second. Each 1/25 of a second, the entire screen is updated.

When 25p gets played on an interlaced television set, it gets sliced into fields and displayed 50 fields at a time. However, because the motion was captured all at once, 25 times per second, it retains its "film look" when played back on an interlaced television.

25p mode is one of the main reasons to get an XL2, and you may want to experiment more with it. I don't know what you mean by "it looks wrong", but it should look like telecine'd film. If not, there may be something wrong with how you made the DVD. Try playing 25p footage straight from the camera into the television and see how it looks.