Advice on editing PAL footage

Phil Brown

Phil Brown

Active member
Have just relocated from Australia to New York and now dealing with PAL/NTSC issues and would appreciate some advce.

If I shoot tape on my PAL DVX100AE in 25P can my client download the tape using his NTSC camera or deck or do I need to convert to NTSC. He will be editing in FCP.

My understanding is the tape is digital so camera format should not matter (other than having a higher original resolution) - but he should be able to download from his NTSC camera into an NTSC 24P timeline for editing (with a slight but acceptable timing difference).

Or am I completely wrong and need to convert to NTSC for him to be able to download???

Appreciate your help

Phil
 
Not only does the resolution of NTSC and PAL differ, the frame rate does too. PAL runs at 25 frames per second whereas NTSC runs at 30 frames per second. Now if you've shot 25p and your client is working on a 24p project, then you may be able to slow down the PAL footage and place it into his 24p timeline so that it may be exported in a 60i stream. But I wouldn't know how to go about that very easily. And you would also need to time expand the audio by 4%. Then there is the problem of pulldowns etc. - its complicated and I don't have any experience with these conversions. I know its not what you want to hear, but these problems are generally avoided by shooting on one format. But it can be done. Someone with more technical knowledge with regards to this problem just needs to pipe up.
 
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Thanks -D-

This tape will be the entire project, so there is no mixed footage to worry about. And agree, the frame rate is different - 24P vs 25P - the slight timing difference I mentioned, which I believe is a common practice.

Just want to make sure the tape shot on a PAL camera will play and be downloadable to FCP from an NTSC camera.
 
Okay, well if you are only using 25p, then why edit on a 24p timeline?

From what I can infer, you have PAL footage that you would like to eventually be in the NTSC format. Correct me if I'm wrong.

I have no idea as to whether a NTSC cam can capture PAL footage. But my suggestion is to edit the whole project on a PAL timeline and once everything is complete, do the NTSC conversion.
 
Unfortunately, Phil, regular NTSC MiniDV cameras WON'T play PAL footage, with the exception of some Sony's, even small chintzy ones like the DCR-PC100/120, etc. were able to do both PAL and NTSC in playback (at least the PAL version was).
However, a lot of decks are able to do this, for instance the DSR-11 can do both PAL and NTSC.

Your problem won't be whether the client CAN download the footage though; it will have more to do with what he/she does once he/she has downloaded that PAL footage; i.e. apart from the computer, they won't be able to watch it on a telly for instance. Some broadcast monitors do both PAL and NTSC but certainly not all.

Your best bet is to CONVERT the footage yourself, and deliver NTSC to the client. It will be the least amount of headaches for the client, and you will know EXACTLY what the client is getting: it otherwise might reflect poorly on your work, if the client converts it to NTSC using some crappy system. "Hey, look, Phil's footage is all pixelated, and stuttery. We won't use him anymore..." (Dramatisation, but you get the point I hope.)
Check to see if FCP can do the conversion, otherwise look at DVFILM for instance.

Cheers.
 
Thanks for the quick responses - not the answer I was looking for, but the quality answers I was hoping for.

My client uses FCP but I use Premiere and he won't be able to download the tape so as you suggest, I'll do it for him. Will try DVFILM or take it to a transfer house to have it done.

Appreciate the help guys.

- has anyone used DVFILM - and if so, what are your thoughts - is there anything better?

I do have a copy of Avid Xpress I have never used - understand it's great with format conversions compared to Premiere?




Phil
 
Thing is, are you going to persist with this workflow for all of your work or buy into the NTSC standards?
 
Hello, a straight conversion at a transfer house or with DV film will keep the speed and interpolate frames, which is even worth when you shot 25p, because there's less motion info in the clip. I recommend you capture it, conform it to 24p (using AFX or maybe even Premiere can do it), place it in a 24p timeline with NTSC resolution and resize. That way your footage will be 4% slower, but if that doesn't matter, the picture quality will be lots (and I mean LOTS) better than a conversion that trys to keep the speed. In FCP (Cinema Tools) a conform will also do the audio, not sure if that's the case in AFX or Premiere. If not, use an audio editor to slow it down by 4%.
 
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