To 24p or not to 24p? That is the question

[djkoz]

OK, my ignorance is going to show here.

I recently purchased Sony Vegas 6 and have been reading books and viewing tutorials. I have a basic understanding of how the program works. However, I am confused in one area (well, actually several but for now, just one.)

The Panasonic DVX100A can shoot in 60i, 24p, 24pA and others . New projects in Vegas can be set up using a template for 60i or 24p. So, it appears that whether I shoot in 60i or 24p Vegas will be able to convert from one to the other.

Hence if I shoot in 60i with the DVX100A Vegas will still be able to give me the film look if I set up my project to use a 24p template and render in that format.

Since 60i captures 60 fields a second versus 24p’s 24 frames a second, wouldn’t I get sharper results by always shooting in 60i and then converting to 24p in Vegas.

Does this question make any sense? or am I totally missing the picture here? (so to speak)

Thank you in advance for any clarification you can provide as to when I really would want or need to shoot the DVX100A in 24p(A) mode vs 60i. and visa-versa.

Dan K

 

[Scottdvx100]

You're missing the boat. You can't cleanly and easily get true 24fps footage by doign a conversion. If hat were the case the DVX and these new cameras wouldn't need to offer 24fps modes.

60i = stanard ntsc video motion
24p (and 24pa) = 24 fps to provide true 'film' motion.

Decide which one you want depending on the look you're after.
24p can still be edited in 60i (29.97) timeline and still have the 24fps look

 

[CineAlta]

No, there are a lot of other factors. The quality of a "progressive" frame (eg 24p) is much better than an interlaced frame (eg 60i). The pull-down algorithm software uses to convert 24p to 60i, is not perfect, so you may see some artifacts. It's best to shoot in 24p in your camera. You will be able to edit this on a 60i timeline in your software though.