seeking advice on encoding standard 60fps interlaced NTSC video

[chrispitude]

Hi everyone,

We have a 10" Android tablet (Toshiba Thrive) to play educational videos for our son. I bought a set of DVDs that I would like to transcode to H.264. They are recorded as standard 60fps interlaced NTSC video.

Can anyone offer any advice on the best way to transcode this source material? Should I apply a deinterlacing filter, and if so, which one? If I do not specify a deinterlacing filter, will Avidemux properly preserve the interlacing during the transcoding? (H.264 itself supports interlacing.)

I'm figuring on 1500kbps for video (MPEG-4 AVC) and 128kbps for audio (AAC-Faac).

Any specific advice on specific audio/video settings is also appreciated.

Thanks!

- Chris