Shooting with DVX Pal and DVX NTSC.

A

Andrew_Mclean

Member
Hi
We are about to shoot a movie in Thailand. We have one DVX Pal version and will have one DVX new NTSC version. Can we use both cameras. The movie will be put to VHS tape for the American market.
Please advise as soon as possible.
 
Re: Shooting with DVX Pal and DVX NTSC.

Probably, but you'll have a lot of post work to do. You're shooting 25P on one and 24P on another, so you'll have to find a method to do the conversion. I'd say the easiest way is to shoot 50i on the PAL DVX and 60i on the NTSC. I know conversion between interlaced NTSC and PAL are not that difficult, but I'm really not sure about progressive.

Until you've found someone who is 100% sure they can do the conversion, I wouldn't consider shooting with both cameras.
 
Re: Shooting with DVX Pal and DVX NTSC.

you can use dvfilms "atlantis" to do the conversion from pal to ntsc but i would probably look for another matching cam around.
 
Re: Shooting with DVX Pal and DVX NTSC.

I'd recommend against trying it. Use two matching cameras.

24P can be converted to 25P (and the other way around) but if you're trying to do it in the same scene, getting two cameras for coverage, I don't think it's going to intercut well at all. (This is speculation, I haven't tried it of course).

Your life would be infinitely simpler if you were able to use two identical cameras.
 
Re: Shooting with DVX Pal and DVX NTSC.

Any NLE based conversion system will not give you a great match because you lose so much quality. I'd convert through a professional transfer/conversion house before capturing, and even then not without doing a test first, esp if your footage has to match. At that point you might as well rent a 2nd matching camera. If you must use NTSC & PAL, shoot one as main unit and one as second unit.
 
Re: Shooting with DVX Pal and DVX NTSC.

Hi again,
Since the final movie for the American market should I not shoot at 30 FPS progressive on the NTSC camera and 25 progressive on the Pal camera then convert the Pal footage to NTSC using procoder on my computer. Then edit the movie.
Any suggestions.
Or should I buy another PAL version DVX100A then after editing the movie convert to NTSC using Procoder.
 
Re: Shooting with DVX Pal and DVX NTSC.

All of the footage from one of the cameras would have to be resized, conformed to the new timebase and the audio shifted. A pain, but possible with very little loss of quality. Make sure to shoot in the advanced mode. Don't shoot interlaced.

Final Cut Pro's Cinema tools conform command WILL allow you to convert 24p to 25p and vice-versa. There is a change in speed that means that audio will have to be pitch shifted 4% to make them match.

For instance... I recently shot a commercial in 24p NTSC for a final PAL output.

After the post (in 24p) I opened the outputted movie in Cinema Tools. I used the conform tool to change the time base to 25p.

I opened the file in a PAL timeline in FCP, scaled it to the new size and rendered and exported the PAL format movie. AND an AIFF file of the audio. I then used deck to pitch shift the audio to match the original. It looks great.

I strongly agree that you're better off shooting with the same 2 cameras, but if you have to use these 2, it is possible.

erik bryan slavin
 
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