How to fix old footage that shows comb lines whenever anything moves
Ask Vizard Agent to check the footage in motion rather than on frames, because interlacing is invisible on a still and obvious the moment anything moves. Where it finds combing, the fix is to deinterlace the source and rebuild the cut from that. Deinterlacing a finished render repairs the stripes and softens everything else along with them.
What do you type into Vizard Agent?
Describe the symptom to Vizard Agent in plain words. You do not need to know the word "interlaced". Horizontal stripes across anything that moves is already a precise enough description, and "looks fine when I pause it" rules out softness and compression. Send the source files rather than an export of them.
Prompt
What does Vizard Agent actually do?
Old tape, broadcast archive and some camera presets record two half-frames a fraction of a second apart and weave them together. Nothing is wrong with either half, so a still looks fine and a walking figure comes out striped. Only a check in motion catches it, and the fix belongs at the source. In the session behind this article it:
- Inspected the source files and their formats, built contact sheets, reviewed the material and assembled an archive-based cut.
- Ran a motion and sync analysis on the rendered cut and found the combing that the frame reviews could not show.
- Deinterlaced the source footage rather than the render, so titles, graphics and any progressive footage were not softened, and rebuilt the cut from the corrected material.
- Checked a corrected frame from a moving moment, and checked sharpness alongside the deinterlace on the same shots, since deinterlacing costs a little detail.
- Confirmed the rest of the picture was not softened by the fix.
When does this not work well?
Some of the damage is baked in before Vizard Agent ever sees the file. If the only copy is an export made from woven frames, the two half-images are already merged, and in heavily compressed copies the stripes have become blocks. Very fast motion is where deinterlacing costs the most detail, and progressive footage should not be deinterlaced at all.
Common questions
Why does it look fine when I pause? Because a still shows one moment. The stripes are two moments woven together.
Can it fix a finished export? Partly, and it softens everything. Vizard Agent prefers the source.
Will it soften my footage? A little, on the shots it treats. Vizard Agent reports the cost.