| Combing/ Ghosting | |
| Display Text | Combing/Ghosting |
| Description | "Combing/Ghosting" is an artifact that is often induced by converting video from one standard/frame rate to another. If not managed properly, the conversion will not fully address interlaced frames. |
| Impact | Combing/Ghosting negatively impacts the member experience when visual artifacts that obscure or distract from the creatively intended image are introduced. It will be visible in normal playback as well as in pause/frame-by-frame and is enhanced by motion on screen. Combing/ghosting may be worsened as sources are encoded and further compressed. |
| Severity Assessment Guidance | |
| FYI | Combing/ghosting occurs during what may or may not be stock/archive footage but cannot be definitively confirmed as intentional or inherent to the source material. |
| Issue | Visible interlacing across the image causes a noticeable stutter during normal playback. A “doubling of the image” occurs, visible in pause/frame-by-frame (also sometimes referred to as frame blending or motion lag). Images overlap across cuts (also sometimes referred to as image lag). |
| Blocker | N/A |
| Solutions | |
| How to Prevent | Avoid using a non-native frame rate source clip in a sequence of a different frame rate. If a standards/frame rate conversion is required, as in the case of documentary archival or mixed-camera footage, always use professional quality standards conversion hardware/software to minimize combing/ghosting artifacts. |
| How to Fix | For licensed content using video materials originally delivered for broadcast, ensure that the native frame rate of the source material is being applied. Review the field order flagged in the file's header information. If there is a discrepancy, you may need to re-transcode or perform a high-quality deinterlace. Avoid unsophisticated deinterlace techniques such as “merge fields”/”blend frames”. |