Time Code Conundrum

[dmchord]

I shot some footage to tape, 24p on a Panasonic HVX205A. I shot it "Squeezed," which is the normal, 16:9 setting for this camera's CCD's.

I was able to capture the footage to FCP using a little Canon ZR60 for a deck. (I've been told it's not a good idea to use the Panny for capture, wears on the heads?)

These are my FCP capture settings:

Sequence Preset: DV NTSC 48kHz - 23.98
Capture Preset: DV NTSC 48 kHz Anamorphic

Anyway, while the footage was definitely shot 480i/24p, the vid rate in the Browser for all clips is 29.97, they play at 29.97 in the Viewer, and when I first inserted a clip into the sequence, I got the warning that the files don't match the sequence settings. I didn't change the sequence, and from what I can tell, the clips are playing OK in the sequence, but I do wonder if this is something I need to be concerned about?

I sort of expect the clips in the browser and viewer to be 24fps, not 30. Is it because I captured the footage from a camera that isn't capable of 24fps?

Now, I just put the tape back in the HVX and played it, and it's running 30 frames per second on the counter! I know that tape is going to run at a certain speed, but shouldn't the counter on the HVX represent the 24p setting?

Thanks in advance for any and all advice.

[Stuart Ferrier]

I have had a similar problem on occasion with footage shot on a DVX100b and capture into FCP. When I shoot in 24pa it sometimes for some reason it shows as 29.97 in the browser. The simple solution for me has been to open the clip in Cinema Tools and "Conform" it to 23.98. The conform clip window will state: "The current framerate is 23.98 Conform to 23.98". Just press the conform button and the process takes a second. Now the clip shows as 23.98 in FCP browser.

My capture "deck" is a canon elura100 camera, so maybe this has something to do with it.

[AdamT]

NTSC does not handle 24p. Panny 24p to minidv tape is actually running at 29.97 with some clever pulldown to achieve the 24p look. So when you bring those captured clips into a timeline, it should be a 29.97 timeline. There are ways to lose the pulldown for true 24p (Cinema Tools for example), which shouldn't really be necessary unless you were going to film or something like that.