BATS - Deinterlace

Also available in:

Deutsch

Clean interlace artifacts – from 50i to smooth progressive, with a right-click

Old interlaced material (DV tapes, DVD, TV recordings) shows annoying comb artifacts in a progressive workflow whenever objects move. The Deinterlace extension converts such a clip to clean progressive video with a right-click, using the FFmpeg engine: when you create the menu entry, the assistant simply asks for your deinterlace method and target format – BAT Server takes care of the rest. The result is filed in the BIN automatically; the original file stays untouched.

Adding the menu entry

“Deinterlace” is added through the “Add function...” assistant (right-click a clip in the BIN → Add function... → pick Deinterlace - Clean interlace artifacts). The assistant asks a couple of short questions, and the answers are baked into the .bat0 template:

  1. Deinterlace method (“Please select the deinterlace method to be used.”):
    Normal (bwdif) – the good all-rounder: fast and clean. All methods except the last one convert field-to-frame (e.g. 50i → 50p).
    Fine (nnedi) – slower, better quality (NNEDI3 motion estimation).
    Superfine (yadif+MoComp) – the most thorough method (YADIF plus motion compensation), and the slowest accordingly.
    High-Speed (yadif+halfframe) – the fastest method; it discards every second field (50i becomes 25p instead of 50p).
  2. Target format (“Please select the format for the deinterlaced file”): MP4 (H.264, small and web-friendly), MPG2 (MPEG-2) or ProRes (high-quality master for further editing).
  3. Scope: the entire video or only the IN/OUT-marked part of the clip.
  4. Placement: context menu of the BIN or of the timeline.
  5. Name of the menu entry (suggestion: “Normal (bwdif) to MP4”), then [Preview '.bat0' file] / [Add menu entry].

How to use it

  1. Right-click an interlaced video clip (in the BIN or on the timeline) → Deinterlace submenu → your entry (e.g. “Normal (bwdif) to MP4”).
  2. BAT Server runs the FFmpeg job (progress in the usual job display).
  3. The deinterlaced result is registered in the BIN under __BAT Server\Deinterlace as a new file – ready for your progressive sequence.

Good to know

  • New file, original kept: a separate file is created and registered in the BIN; the source file is never modified.
  • Method = quality/time trade-off: bwdif is the fast all-rounder, nnedi is slower but finer, yadif+MoComp is the most thorough and slowest, yadif+halfframe is the fastest – at the cost of half the frame rate (50i → 25p).
  • Answers are baked in: method, format and scope are part of the .bat0 and therefore fixed per menu entry. For a different combination, simply create a second entry with a different name.
  • Only for interlaced material: progressive sources have nothing to deinterlace – the QTGMC-based variants even actively refuse progressive sources. To upscale progressive sources (no field problem), the AI-based upscaling is the right tool – see the UpscalePro article.

Managing the preset

Entries created via the assistant are user presets: the .bat0 file lives under C:\ProgramData\EdiusPowerTools\BAT-server\bat_files\BIN\ or …\bat_files\timeline\ depending on your choice, and can be freely edited, renamed or deleted (deleting removes the context-menu entry). As with all BATS presets, the .bat0 is a template from which BAT Server generates the concrete job file on every run – changes take effect from the next run.