Okay, I'm officially confused...
I understood, from several posts on these message boards and from Barry's book that it was possible to get variable frame rates using DV Rack or any firewire live capture device through the "over 50" (PAL) modes ("over 60" for NTSC). Correct?
So, I assume the way to get a 2:1 slowmotion look in a 25fps timeline would be to shoot in either 720/25p or 720/50p at 50fps (would these give identical results?), import into Premiere and timestretch it so it plays at half the speed, with the 50 distinct frames playing over 2 seconds. Correct?
Now, when I tried to record a clip using the DV Rack 2.0 HD trial in 720/25p at either the DEFAULT or 25fps setting, DV Rack reported that the clip in fact had a frame rate of 50fps... I assumed this was due to the fact that 25p is an "over 50" mode and DV Rack was reporting that there are indeed 50 frames per second, however every second frame is a duplicate of the previous one. I imported into Premiere to find that it played at 2x normal speed with 50 distinct frames per second... odd, but kinda makes sense: if I drop the clip into a 25fps timeline and play it at half the speed, I get normal-looking footage with 25 distinct fps... and odd way of having to work, but okay...
So, next I tried shooting 720/25p at 50fps... DV Rack reports 50fps footage has been captured. However in Premiere the footage plays at normal speed. On closer inspection, there are indeed 50 frames per second, but half of them are duplicate frames. This means that dropping the supposed 50fps clip directly into a 25fps timeline will result in normal-looking footage, and timestretching it to play at half the speed results in every frame being duplicated rather than having 50 distinct frames...
The same thing happens in 720/50p mode...
At 50fps, I get normal-looking footage with duplicated frames, and at 25fps I get the footage recorded at twice the speed.
Another thing that is peculiar is that if I capture in a different frame rate, 48fps for instance, DV Rack reports that the frame rate of the footage is 48 (48.17 to be precise), rather than 50 as it does when in 25fps mode. Importing this footage into a 25fps timeline I get footage that is 25fps normal speed. Importing it into a 50fps timeline I get footage that is 50fps but with some strange duplication pattern resulting in still only 25 distinct frames per second...
No matter how I try it, I only ever get 25 distinct frames per second... Am I doing something wrong? Or is this what is supposed to be happening and I'm just misunderstanding things?
I understood, from several posts on these message boards and from Barry's book that it was possible to get variable frame rates using DV Rack or any firewire live capture device through the "over 50" (PAL) modes ("over 60" for NTSC). Correct?
So, I assume the way to get a 2:1 slowmotion look in a 25fps timeline would be to shoot in either 720/25p or 720/50p at 50fps (would these give identical results?), import into Premiere and timestretch it so it plays at half the speed, with the 50 distinct frames playing over 2 seconds. Correct?
Now, when I tried to record a clip using the DV Rack 2.0 HD trial in 720/25p at either the DEFAULT or 25fps setting, DV Rack reported that the clip in fact had a frame rate of 50fps... I assumed this was due to the fact that 25p is an "over 50" mode and DV Rack was reporting that there are indeed 50 frames per second, however every second frame is a duplicate of the previous one. I imported into Premiere to find that it played at 2x normal speed with 50 distinct frames per second... odd, but kinda makes sense: if I drop the clip into a 25fps timeline and play it at half the speed, I get normal-looking footage with 25 distinct fps... and odd way of having to work, but okay...
So, next I tried shooting 720/25p at 50fps... DV Rack reports 50fps footage has been captured. However in Premiere the footage plays at normal speed. On closer inspection, there are indeed 50 frames per second, but half of them are duplicate frames. This means that dropping the supposed 50fps clip directly into a 25fps timeline will result in normal-looking footage, and timestretching it to play at half the speed results in every frame being duplicated rather than having 50 distinct frames...
The same thing happens in 720/50p mode...
At 50fps, I get normal-looking footage with duplicated frames, and at 25fps I get the footage recorded at twice the speed.
Another thing that is peculiar is that if I capture in a different frame rate, 48fps for instance, DV Rack reports that the frame rate of the footage is 48 (48.17 to be precise), rather than 50 as it does when in 25fps mode. Importing this footage into a 25fps timeline I get footage that is 25fps normal speed. Importing it into a 50fps timeline I get footage that is 50fps but with some strange duplication pattern resulting in still only 25 distinct frames per second...
No matter how I try it, I only ever get 25 distinct frames per second... Am I doing something wrong? Or is this what is supposed to be happening and I'm just misunderstanding things?
