HD 24 fps to PAL HDCam

[SomeonemanR]

Hey everyone, I'm not sure if this has been posted already, I've been having trouble finding concrete information.

I've got a project that was shot in HD 960x720 at 24 fps using the Panasonic HVX.

I need to convert to PAL and print to HDCam tapes (this is the format that was asked for, but I've been told it isn't a 960 format and that there might be a better tape format?).

I've been told you can convert to PAL using Compressor (apparently if you just try to place an exported full rez quicktime into a new sequence set at 25 fps, it'll turn out looking awful because of frame interpolation, is that right?)

I'd imagine that using Compressor, you could convert to PAL, then from there place into FCP and print to tape using a proper deck.

My main question is, is this feasible and cheaper then just going to a company that already has the equipment and paying them to convert?

I have a little under 600 minutes worth of content, so uh, it's a bit of a big project ;0).

Thanks for your help, sorry for the long post.

-Dashiell

 

[JeganRX]

Hey everyone, I'm not sure if this has been posted already, I've been having trouble finding concrete information.

I've got a project that was shot in HD 960x720 at 24 fps using the Panasonic HVX.

I need to convert to PAL and print to HDCam tapes (this is the format that was asked for, but I've been told it isn't a 960 format and that there might be a better tape format?).

I've been told you can convert to PAL using Compressor (apparently if you just try to place an exported full rez quicktime into a new sequence set at 25 fps, it'll turn out looking awful because of frame interpolation, is that right?)

I'd imagine that using Compressor, you could convert to PAL, then from there place into FCP and print to tape using a proper deck.

My main question is, is this feasible and cheaper then just going to a company that already has the equipment and paying them to convert?

I have a little under 600 minutes worth of content, so uh, it's a bit of a big project ;0).

Thanks for your help, sorry for the long post.

-Dashiell

You can probably get away with the typical PAL speedup (the most "lossless" procedure for PAL conversion from a 24fps source). I haven't tried this in FCP or Compressor, but I'm assuming you can simply conform your footage to 25fps, and it should speed up appropriately.

The tricky part is audio pitch: There's a 4% speed increase from 24 to 25 (I want to say 24.01% to be exact, since you're accounting for 23.976fps in all technicality), so your pitch goes up. Unfortunately a number of commercial DVDs *don't* correct this, but it should be correctable in Soundtrack I imagine. I know in Audacity, you can change tempo without affecting pitch.

You have another option if PAL isn't required (though it sounds like it for tape playback): You can do a soft pulldown on the final DVD output (DVD Studio Pro isn't capable of this I believe), in a 2:2 fashion.... Of course, this assumes you'll even be going to DVD, so you may just want to disregard what I just said!