.TRANSFER FROM PAL TO NTSC with ATLANTIS

[Guest]

I live in USA. I want to get DVX PAL because of the better vertical resolution. If I shoot in PAL and next corp from 4:3 to 16:9 in post I will get full NTSC resolution in my final film. Otherwise If I shoot in NTSC and next crop to 16:9 in post I have poor NTSC copy (less resolution).

At least that's what I was told.

I will edit on Vegas 4.0 (which works both in PAL and NTSC) editing my PAL footage and next I plan to use DV ATLANTIS (WWW.DVFILM.COM) software on my laptop to make a NTSC copy for american market.

So,I still do not know if ATLANTIS makes good quality NTSC copy from PAL footage.

Anyone knows ?

Voytek

 

[Sol M.]

Re: .TRANSFER FROM PAL TO NTSC with ATLANTIS

If you're living in the USA, and even a small majority of your work is going to be shown firstly/primarily in the US, then shooting in PAL is going to be way more of a hassle than it's worth. Sure, PAL has a higher resolution, but there are other issues to consider when you're going to need to convert your footage everytime just for you to be able to view it on a broadcast monitor. In fact, unless you also get a PAL monitor, you won't be able to view your footage on a broadcast monitor until you go through the whole editing process and convert your footage to NTSC.

 

[Voytek_Stitko]

Re: .TRANSFER FROM PAL TO NTSC with ATLANTIS

But I will be able to view PAL footage on my laptop I hope. I will use VEGAS software to edit my raw footage. When I got my master in PAL I will transfer it to NTSC using ATLANTIS softafre so hopefully I will end up with both PAL and full NTSC version of my movie.

Am I wrong?
Jesus I hope I am not. I just purchased PAL DVX from b&H.

Voytek

 

[Barry_Green]

Re: .TRANSFER FROM PAL TO NTSC with ATLANTIS

What types of projects are you making?

If your destination is a PAL market, and you just happen to live in the US, well, then shooting PAL's okay.  If you think you're somehow going to end up with a better NTSC product because you shot on PAL, well, there you'd be mistaken.

If you're trying to make a product that will sell in both NTSC and PAL markets, then obviously you have to choose which camera to originate on.  Atlantis can convert PAL to NTSC, but it expects to receive interlaced material, so if you shoot 25P I suspect you won't be able to use Atlantis to convert it.  However, you could probably convert 25P to 24P in Vegas, and use Vegas' audio tools to stretch your audio 4% longer and end up with a 24P NTSC master.

 

[Sol M.]

Re: .TRANSFER FROM PAL TO NTSC with ATLANTIS

Viewing your footage on your laptop screen compared to viewing it on a broadcast monitor is very different. If you're making something that others will be viewing on televisions (as opposed to laptop screens), then you'll want to be sure of what your image will look like on their TV from the get-go.

Currently, I would have to say that native acquisition in the intended format is the best way to go. I may be wrong, but tho PAL may have a higher resolution to begin with, don't you lose that extra resolution when you downconvert PAL to NTSC? Depending on how Atlantis does this downconversion, you could end up with an image that's worse than if it was shot on NTSC to begin with.