PAL to 23.96 NTSC DVD problems

[Andreaz]

In PAL country and doing lots of movies in PAL edit. I have seen that there are many NTSC movies available in PAL coutry's that work on our television/DVD systems. I shoot in HDV 25 progressive.

My question is:
How is this done in premiere and encore. Must I export from premiere a 25fps project to 23.96 fps mpeg2 and create a NTSC project? Please help as Im sure this would be usefull to many film creaters in PAL country that need to create one product that works in PAL & NTSC land!:dankk2:

[Andy Olson]

Supposedly, a lot of PAL dvd players and televisions can do PAL and NTSC which maybe true in certain parts but not in others.

The correct way for going from 25fps to NTSC is to interpret the 25p to 24p and then add in a pulldown to get 29.97. You also have to slow down audio 4% and there will be a pitch change. The televisions/dvd players should remove the pulldown to give you 24p in the final viewing. Programs like After Effects and some NLE's can do this. In the NLE like Vegas, you can create a 24p project and import the 25p into the timeline. Though this isn't the best method and may yield some motion problems, it should work.

A program like DVFilm Atlantis (http://dvfilm.com/atlantis/index.htm) will help in converting 50i Pal to NTSC and vice versa in one process, but it can't start with a 25p source.

Hope this helps,
Andy

[Andreaz]

Thanks for the info Andy! Great help. If I was able to achieve a good quailty NTSC 24P mpeg2 export from your suggestions would I then proceed to create a NTSC DVD project with a program such as encore?

[Andy Olson]

Yes, but you would need to add a pulldown to the 24p to make it NTSC at 29.97. You will still get a progressive image because the dvd players should remove the pulldown to playback at 24p. Most NLE's should be able to do it. If not then After Effects or DVFilm (http://dvfilm.com/maker/index.htm) Maker can.

Also, the correct 24p framerate for video is 23.976 or 23.98 (when abbreviated).

Best,
Andy

[David Jimerson]

You don't need to put it into a 29.97 stream. DVDs can carry a 23.976 file with no pulldown. Premiere is capable of exporting it that way, and Encore is capable of making such a DVD.

This will work in any DVD player.