Why old footage has combing

Many tape and camcorder formats store motion as alternating fields rather than full progressive frames. On modern screens, this can look like horizontal comb lines around moving hands, faces, cars, or camera pans.

Why deinterlace comes first

Denoise and upscale tools behave better after the motion structure is corrected. If interlaced footage is upscaled without proper field handling, the result may look sharper but more broken.

What we check

We inspect field order, cadence, dropped frames, duplicate frames, and motion consistency. The goal is a progressive master that feels natural, not a file that simply hides combing by blurring the image.