.PAL technical help

P

Placeman

Member
I'm sorry if this information is available onsite -- I may have missed it -- but I wondered if you might be able to help someone who is not particularly technically minded...

I'll be getting my DVX100AE next week -- can't wait -- and in preparation have been trying to get my head around the whole issue of progressive scan, how it works, and the various issues of fields etc. However, most of the explanations I have read are for NTSC, and so the settings are 24P -- I just wondered if there was a nice simple explanation out there for the PAL system that someone might be able to point me too.

Also, the films I'll be shooting are for show in a gallery context, and will play from home-produced DVDs and shown either through a video projector or on a plasma screen. I understand that there are now progressive scan DVD players, and just wondered whether I would have to use these in order to take advantage of the progressive imagery I shoot, or will it make little difference? And what about my home cinema set-up at home for TV viewing?

Thanks for all your help -- despite appearances, I've learnt a lot following this forum and hope that at some stage I might be in a position to offer some assistance of my own!
 
Re: .PAL technical help

Hey Placeman!
I got my DVX100AE earlier this week and have been fliddling about with it, it's a great piece of kit, you'll love it. Where are you buying from?

Anyhoo, I don't pretend to be technical minded but this is what I know about 25p. It's actually much more simple than NTSC 24p and works more like their 30p setting. Basically, the camera progressively scans every 25th of a second and then splits the image into two. These images are recorded as two fields to the tape, so... in other words it gets recorded to tape the same way as if you were shooting in 50i. However, because both fields were captured at the same time, rather then independantly, they can be seemlessly "blended" back together again in post-production. This makes them 25 whole, progressively scanned frames a second, just like when they were captured.

Obviously this is going to look awsome on a display that can progressively scan, like a computer monitor or a progressive television (plasma for instance). However, in the short time I've been using it, it's my personal opinion that 25p looks MUCH better than normal 50i video anyway!! Even on on a normal interlaced television it looks more organic and moves completely differently. I've not noticed any of the "judder" that some people have mentioned, but then I've been keeping my camera moves to a minimum.

I hope that helps. I'm not very concise. :-[
 
Re: .PAL technical help

Thanks n0signal -- it certainly is helpful and I'll add it to my pile of notes to read through before the kit arrives this Thursday (very excited ;D ).

I'm actuallly buying from the same place I think you got yours -- Creative Video -- and they seem very helpful (I dealt with Chris). I'm fairly new to this side of video and he was very helpful in pointing me in the right direction on a number of things I was unsure about. A shame I won't have it for long before going away on my first shoot on Saturday, so I think I'm going to have to copy some of the settings posted on the site before I have a chance to play around with my own preferences... Wish me luck...

And thanks again.
 
Re: .PAL technical help

No problem! ;D

The Creative Video guys are a really helpful and cheerful bunch, if you've not already then you should pop down to their demo room. They've got some awsome stuff there that you can have a fiddle with, and without anyone looking over your shoulder waiting for you to buy it. Which is always a good thing, I don't like feeling like "just another customer".

Good luck with the shoot!! What is it you're filming? Just remember that out of the box the camera over-saturates reds, A LOT! So do some colour correction and save it in the scene files. I'm pleased with the PAL model though, well made, fine piece of kit.
 
Re: .PAL technical help

Thanks for the tip with regards the oversaturated reds -- that said, I'm going to shoot landscape on the west coast of Ireland so I don't think there'll be a whole lot of red there! I guess it'll dampen the greens though -- which will be damp enough already -- so I will have a thorough look at the settings, or at least as much as time allows...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top