How to make interlaced fields (upper/lower) visible separately in Premiere Pro and DaVinci Resolve

When working with interlaced video files (which is the standard for TV commercial) it may be necessary to separate the Upper and Lower fields — in order to visually identify an issue affecting only one field and not the whole image for example. 

Here is how you can make fields visible separately in Adobe Premiere Pro and DaVinci Resolve...

Adobe Premiere Pro:

1. Import Your Footage:

   • Import your interlaced footage into your project.

2. Field Options:

   • Click on the wrench in the record monitor panel (upper right quadrant of the interface in Edit mode)
   • Select Display First Field in order to view only the First Field (Upper field in Europe) or Display Second Field to view only the Second field (Lower field in Europe).

DaVinci Resolve:

1. Project Settings:

   • Open your Project Settings in the bottom right corner
   • Go to Master Settings
   • Select Enable interlace processing (tick-box)
   • Select 50 in the Timeline Frame rate dropdown (50 will work with PAL files only)
   • Save

2. Timeline Setup:

   • Select the File menu at the top 
   • Select New Timeline...
   • Select Use Project Settings (tick-box)

3. Import Media:

   • Select the File menu at the top 
   • Select Import 
   • Select Media...
   • Import relevant media in the timeline

You will now be able to view the fields separately in the Edit panel (third panel).

Please note: In DaVinci Resolve both fields will always be visible separately in the Edit panel. You can check which is the visible field like this: one dot means first field (upper field in Europe) and two dots mean second field (lower field in Europe).

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