Transcoding interlaced video

[JoeBarnett]

I am trying to transcode interlaced 720x576 50i Matrox MJPEG video into 720x576 50i H264. This video is mute, no audio. I can not see how to disable the deinterlacing filter.
I have tried via the graphical interface but the output file is always progressive. As I wish to produce a script to automate the task I would prefer the command line.

I wish to retain the interlacing and field order. I have tried vlc -I dummy source.avi --sout='#transcode{vcodec=h264, vb=4096, nodeinterlace}:standard{access=file, mux=ts, dst=destination.mp4}' vlc://quit and vlc -I dummy source.avi --sout='#transcode{vcodec=h264, vb=4096, -deinterlace}:standard{access=file, mux=ps, dst=destination.mp4}' vlc://quit both of which produce a progressive output. I have checked the deinterlace setting in preferences but I understand this setting is only for playback.

Is there a way to turn off deinterlacing on the command line?

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

--sout-deinterlace-mode discard

[JoeBarnett]

According to the documentation, Discard means "Only display one of the half-pictures, discard the other. Other name: "single field". Both temporal and vertical spatial resolutions are halved."
I need to process the video as interlaced source file to interlaced destination file.

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

Ah right, sorry. What if you disable auto-deinterlacing ?