pal + ntsc mixing ?

G

glenurse

Active member
hi all

newbie here with a couple of questions

first up, i am soon to go to europe to shoot some concert footage with my new dvx (after i get it next week, need to see Rush :cheesy: first)
i have searched high and low for concert filming tips etc and most here say use another camera set up near a drummer as a tool to do cutaaways.
As i am from England, now living in the US the only other camera i have is my old PAL Sony Handycam.
So my question is, is it possible to mix ntsc and pal footage together ?
my next query is i am unable to get my pal camera to play through my powerbook (purchased here in US) using imovie, i get an error message saying something like imovie cannot parse it, is there anything i can do,i ask because i have some nice footage from my pal camera that i would like to get onto dvd.
my last question for now is has anyone shot a band over a series of shows (i should be at about 6/8) from different angles and put that footage together, is this a good way of getting by with one camera ?
any guidance , most welcome
 
Hello, mixing PAL and NTSC is possible, but you'll need to convert one of the two. I'm sure if you shoot one part with the NTSC DVX and the other with PAL one-chipper (I assume) and convert that to NTSC it'll stick out and generally make everything look shitty. I think in your situation I'd try to get by with just the DVX. Just sit next to the drummer for one song and use that for cutaways.
But it shouldn't be a problem to capture PAL with iMovie. I've never used it, but there must be a setting for the capture format somewhere in the preferences. Computers don't care about TV formats and I'm sure iMovie supports PAL. But in order to put it onto a DVD with your other stuff you again would have to convert it (Compressor 2 does a good job at it, as does ProCoder on Windows, and you can also do it in After Effects if all other options fail) ... Hope this helps ...
 
thanks for your reply, i kinda think i may just use one camera as it will be less for me to worry about.
first i ll see if i can fix the weird parse ? problem to see if i can actually use pal footage.
i agree its weird that mac is being odd because it can certainly play any region dvds
i ll fiddle with it when i get home and try to fix it.
thanks for your suggestions for software
 
I agree with moebius.
the pal->ntsc converted footage will obviously look different from the regular ntsc footage (it's different original format and also taken by another cam, which is probably also not as good in low light condition..). But if you use it in a 'different' way, let's say with an extreme wide angle (sort of 'voyeur' look kind of cam), and/or rigged in a very unusual way, you might be able to use that footage (shortly) to intercut and still get an interesting plus in your editing range of choices. Also you can apply some effect in post to the drum cam clips.

The "style" difference in the dvx and sony cam clips will make the quality difference acceptable to the audience. Also, having a backup cam around (whatever it is, pal or ntsc) is always good :)

Andrea
 
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