Humanoid Typhoon
Well-known member
I'm going to be shooting a dvd project that may see worldwide distribution. What would be the best frame rate/resolution to shoot it as? I'll be editing with FCP.
Shooting for worldwide distribution, frame rate?
- Thread starter Humanoid Typhoon
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Humanoid Typhoon
Well-known member
davidpula
Well-known member
First of all, your DVDs need to be Region-free.
There may be a noticeable visual difference in the feel of the video of a disc whose images are edited in a 60i or 30p timeline being played on a PAL DVD player, depending on what frame rate you actually shoot in. NTSC televisions therefore work best for NTSC material. I watched a TV series on DVD here in the US and it looked normal. I went to visit my parents in Europe and brought them this DVD Player (which is Region-Free and 120-220V), and the same DVD looked different on the European TV even though it was the same DVD player. The reason is that American TVs run at 60Hz while European or PAL TVs are 50Hz. The TV show was shot on video and clearly interlaced here on my American TV. The resultant video on their TV looked almost.... progressive. I can't quite describe it. There is a sort of flicker, or slow shutter effect (It's not unlike how sometimes you'll notice the stutter of video appears different on a computer monitor from that on a TV.) Movies shot on film (or progressive digital) display a much more subtle difference between PAL and NTSC.
Very similar effects are seen when viewing a PAL DVD on an American TV: I buy many PAL DVDs from BBC and watch them on my DVD Player here in America and the video looks different than when I watch it on BBC America (probably because what is aired on BBC America has been optimized for 60Hz ((NTSC)) televisions.)
I'm not sure but maybe the problem can be solved by outputting with a 25 timeline as opposed to our typical 29.98, regardless of what frame rate the video is shot on. This of course is for your European viewers. For the US DVDs, use 29.98.
And don't forget, always Region-free!
I'm not any sort of expert on this but I'm fairly sure most of my rambling here is accurate. If you can, seek out help from a professional who is proficient in PAL workflow.
Hope this helped though!
There may be a noticeable visual difference in the feel of the video of a disc whose images are edited in a 60i or 30p timeline being played on a PAL DVD player, depending on what frame rate you actually shoot in. NTSC televisions therefore work best for NTSC material. I watched a TV series on DVD here in the US and it looked normal. I went to visit my parents in Europe and brought them this DVD Player (which is Region-Free and 120-220V), and the same DVD looked different on the European TV even though it was the same DVD player. The reason is that American TVs run at 60Hz while European or PAL TVs are 50Hz. The TV show was shot on video and clearly interlaced here on my American TV. The resultant video on their TV looked almost.... progressive. I can't quite describe it. There is a sort of flicker, or slow shutter effect (It's not unlike how sometimes you'll notice the stutter of video appears different on a computer monitor from that on a TV.) Movies shot on film (or progressive digital) display a much more subtle difference between PAL and NTSC.
Very similar effects are seen when viewing a PAL DVD on an American TV: I buy many PAL DVDs from BBC and watch them on my DVD Player here in America and the video looks different than when I watch it on BBC America (probably because what is aired on BBC America has been optimized for 60Hz ((NTSC)) televisions.)
I'm not sure but maybe the problem can be solved by outputting with a 25 timeline as opposed to our typical 29.98, regardless of what frame rate the video is shot on. This of course is for your European viewers. For the US DVDs, use 29.98.
And don't forget, always Region-free!
I'm not any sort of expert on this but I'm fairly sure most of my rambling here is accurate. If you can, seek out help from a professional who is proficient in PAL workflow.
Hope this helped though!
Humanoid Typhoon
Well-known member
Thanks for the replies!
To clarify, I have an HMC150 NTSC USA camcorder.
I understand that there is an issue with Pal and NTSC.
I would be authoring a Region-Free DVD also, but thanks for the reminder
.
Now, back to the frame rate, if I shot in 720 60P, would that be okay? I'm just trying to find what would "work". I need to bring this up with the guy financing and planning this whole thing out. It's a good thing I asked before we started production!
If I'm exporting with compressor, I can adjust to either 29.98 or whatever the 25 is. Would outputting to each solve this issue?
Thanks for the replies again, looking forward to more insight on this.
To clarify, I have an HMC150 NTSC USA camcorder.
I understand that there is an issue with Pal and NTSC.
I would be authoring a Region-Free DVD also, but thanks for the reminder
.Now, back to the frame rate, if I shot in 720 60P, would that be okay? I'm just trying to find what would "work". I need to bring this up with the guy financing and planning this whole thing out. It's a good thing I asked before we started production!
If I'm exporting with compressor, I can adjust to either 29.98 or whatever the 25 is. Would outputting to each solve this issue?
Thanks for the replies again, looking forward to more insight on this.
Last edited:
BobDiaz
The Professor
In Europe there's 50p, 50i, and 25p.
In the USA there's 60p, 60i, 30p, and 24p.
None of these frame rates match, so some conversion is required.
I would think that if one is going to go through some sort of motion compensation conversion, the higher the frame rate, the more information to work with. This would take some real processing power to convert 60p to 50p or 25p and would have a higher cost.
Assuming you could play a 24p video at 25p, this would increase the speed by about 4% and shorten the video running time by 4%. The change in playing speed would not be noticed, but the running time difference may cause a problem. If the audio is played at a 4% faster speed, the slight increase in speed may or may not be noticed.
I've never done such a conversion, so my advice is to try to convert some short clips to see which way (60p --> 50p or 25P and 24P --> 25P) looks/sounds the best to you.
Bob Diaz
In the USA there's 60p, 60i, 30p, and 24p.
None of these frame rates match, so some conversion is required.
I would think that if one is going to go through some sort of motion compensation conversion, the higher the frame rate, the more information to work with. This would take some real processing power to convert 60p to 50p or 25p and would have a higher cost.
Assuming you could play a 24p video at 25p, this would increase the speed by about 4% and shorten the video running time by 4%. The change in playing speed would not be noticed, but the running time difference may cause a problem. If the audio is played at a 4% faster speed, the slight increase in speed may or may not be noticed.
I've never done such a conversion, so my advice is to try to convert some short clips to see which way (60p --> 50p or 25P and 24P --> 25P) looks/sounds the best to you.
Bob Diaz
Ed Kishel
Veteran
http://dvfilm.com/atlantis/index.htm
NTSC to PAL and vice versa. It does all the speed conversions ancluding picture and sound...
NTSC to PAL and vice versa. It does all the speed conversions ancluding picture and sound...
Humanoid Typhoon
Well-known member
Thanks for the replies again guys.
I'll be bringing this up as an issue next time around.
So final consensus would be to shoot in 720 60p, 1080 60i, or 1080 24p?
I'll be bringing this up as an issue next time around.
So final consensus would be to shoot in 720 60p, 1080 60i, or 1080 24p?