The invention generally relates to multimedia data processing, and more particularly, to processing operations performed prior to or in conjunction with data compression processing. A method of processing multimedia data includes receiving interlaced video frames, obtaining metadata for the interlaced video frames, converting the interlaced video frames to progressive video using at least a portion of the metadata; and providing the progressive video and at least a portion of the metadata to an encoder for use in encoding the progressive video. The method can also include generating spatial information and bi-directional motion information, for the interlaced video frames, and generating progressive video based on the interlaced video frames using the spatial and bi-directional motion information.