Outputting 24p content to 60p?

M

MikeKozlenko

Member
So I work at a university and am creating promotional content for the big screen at football games. The machine that plays video files that go on the large stadium video board only accepts files in 59.94fps. Some weird broadcast or engineering thing. At least thats what I've been told.

So I'm trying to create cinematic content, and 60fps obviously won't give me the look I'm going for. I already have stuff shot in 24fps. Have you guys ever had to deal with a frame rate conversion like that for broadcast or other display? Whats the best way to go? Edit everything in a 24p timeline and do final output in 59.94? OR edit everything in a 59.94 timeline and just place the 24p clips in that 59.94p sequence?

Going forward, whats the best way to go? I would hate to shoot stuff for real time playback at 60fps, since the motion is just too smooth, so i'm thinking shoot and edit everything in 24fps and do a conversion later. I'm not sure. We are frequently mixing cinematic footage with 60fps live-sports footage. Some guidance would be very much appreciated.
 
Finish the material in 24p, then bump to the higher rate, and it'll come out looking something like 3:2 pulldown on NTSC television.

Possibly ffmpeg can do this for you if your NLE can't, though it may involve some fiddling around with a command line.

Is the output format interlaced or progressive?
 
Hey David. Thanks for your input. Why should I do a 24p master and THEN convert to 60p? And just for my knowledge, why do you suggest to edit everything in a 24p timeline versus the 60p timeline when mixing those two frame rates?
 
Because rendering to 24p first means all of your transitions, text, fades, etc., will be rendered at 24p -- and thus locked in -- instead of being rendered at 60p. There can be a visual mismatch if all your footage is 24p but the transitions, etc., are rendered at 60p.

When mixing frame rates, some of your decisions rest on what you want your finished project to be. Do you want to retain the difference in look between 24p and 60p? Do you want it all to look like 24p? There are a lot of variables. If you want to retain the difference, edit the 24p stuff first, render it as 24p, and then bring it into a 60p timeline with the 60p stuff, then render out as 60p. If you want it all to look like 24p, then edit it all on a 24p timeline and render out as 24p. Of course, small details may alter those approaches somewhat.

All of these questions are why I created the 24p & Frame Rates tutorial in my sig below. It deals with all of these questions in detail.
 
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