[FFmpeg-user] What is 'yuv420p(tv, smpte170m, progressive)'?

[Mark Filipak]

On 05/18/2020 07:04 PM, Carl Eugen Hoyos wrote:
> Am Di., 19. Mai 2020 um 00:29 Uhr schrieb Mark Filipak
> <markfilipak.windows+ffmpeg at gmail.com>:
>>
>> ... yuv420p(tv, progressive) ... 29.97 fps ...
>> ... yuv420p(tv, smpte170m, top first) ... 29.97 fps ...
>> ... yuv420p(tv, smpte170m, progressive) ... 29.97 fps ...
> 
> https://www.google.com/search?q=SMPTE+170M
> You did a lot to make me believe that you know much
> better what this is than anybody else on this mailing list...
> 
>> The top one appears to be soft telecined.
>> The middle on appears to be hard telecined.
>> What's the bottom one?
> 
> Why your question is - as usually - far from understandable
> I'd say it is safe to assume the third one is not hard telecined.
> 
> Carl Eugen

Perhaps if I show some metadata, my question/confusion will become clear. Below are actual samples 
of 'progressive', 'smpte170m', and 'smpte170m'+'progressive'. The metadata names are compatible with 
the MPEG2 specification; the metadata was obtained via VOBEdit; the field metadata for 4 successive 
frames is via ffprobe.

Stream ... mpeg2video, yuv420p(tv, progressive) ... 29.97 fps ...
   progressive_sequence:  0
   picture_structure:     3
   top_field_first:       1 > 1 > 0 > 0
   repeat_first_field:    0 > 1 > 0 > 1
   progressive_frame:     1
   MPV says "FPS: 29.970 (specified) 23.976 (estimated)".
Stream ... mpeg2video, yuv420p(tv, smpte170m, top first) ... 29.97 fps ...
   progressive_sequence:  0
   picture_structure:     3
   top_field_first:       1 > 1 > 1 > 1
   repeat_first_field:    0 > 0 > 0 > 0
   progressive_frame:     0
   MPV says "FPS: 29.970 (specified) 29.970 (estimated)".
Stream ... mpeg2video, yuv420p(tv, smpte170m, progressive) ... 29.97 fps ...
   progressive_sequence:  0
   picture_structure:     3
   top_field_first:       1 > 1 > 1 > 1
   repeat_first_field:    0 > 0 > 0 > 0
   progressive_frame:     1
   MPV says "FPS: 29.970 (specified) 29.970 (estimated)".

Top video: Obviously soft telecined; in fact, 23 pull-down.
Middle video: I would say this is interlace camera output.
   But how can it be interlace with 'picture_structure'==3 (i.e. Frame)?
Bottom video: Contrary to what I originally wrote, this one now looks like hard telecine to me.

Am I right? You are the video guru, Carl Eugen, so I ask for confirmation.

If I am right, then my quest is over and I now have a way to automate the best transcode for each 
particular type of source video (i.e., relying on 'progressive' versus 'smpte170m' versus 
'smpte170m'+'progressive').

Regards,
Mark.