• Apple Final Cut Pro

  NTSC to PAL conversion and exporting

  Posted by Denise Powers on August 23, 2013 at 10:16 pm

  Hi,
  I just cut a project that uses primarily PAL footage, but I have some clips that were shot with NTSC (29.97 fps) in 16:9 (720×480 instead of 720×576). I had naively hoped that by setting the project parameters at the beginning, the FCPX timeline would work the magic it is supposed to work and convert the files to PAL (I’ve tried using both ‘custom settings’ and ‘set based on first clip’), but it appears that the NTSC clips are not being converted–the info box in the upper right corner still lists 29.97 fps

  Now I’m having problems exporting it, and I’m wondering if the different kind of footage is creating the problem, so I’m trying to find another means to convert the footage before I use it.

  I’m lost with Compressor–can I convert just the clips I need? Or do I have to do everything in the event library? If someone can walk me through that, I’d appeciate it.

  Or it would also be great if you have some other suggestion for ways to work with PAL and NTSC footage in the same project. I’m less concerned about the 16:9 issue, so even if the result gives me a squished image, I don’t really care, I just need to get the project exported!

  Thanks much!

  Denise

  Bret Williams replied 13 years ago 4 Members · 6 Replies
• 6 Replies

• 

  James Cude

  August 23, 2013 at 10:51 pm

  The original clips shouldn’t change in the inspector but the export should conform to the project settings. What sort of issues are you having in the export?
• 

  Denise Powers

  August 23, 2013 at 10:58 pm

  Hi, thanks for responding so quickly. I did just notice as I went through the footage frame-by-frame that the frame rate in the timeline is 25 ps even though all the info in the info box corresponds to the original file.

  When I export, I’m getting errors like “failed due to an error in frame 293,” so basically I’m dividing 293 by 25 to figure out which clip is causing the problem and then replacing it with something else. Perhaps it’s coincidental that the problems are all happening with the NTSC footage. So far, it’s stuff from the B-rolls, so it’s easy enough to pop something else it, but if it happens with an interview segment, I’ll have a real problem…

  Any clue what’s causing this?
• 

  James Cude

  August 23, 2013 at 11:30 pm

  Have you updated to version 10.0.9 yet- that is supposed to be fixed.
• 

  Denise Powers

  August 23, 2013 at 11:38 pm

  Thanks. Doing that now. Tried the other night, but hard drive was too full, so had to move stuff off. Basically, some of the clips are failing to render completely–or at least there are little residual orange marks in the bar where the render indicator is. I can’t figure out what’s wrong with the clips, though–they’re just video images, no titles or animations.
• 

  Ronny Courtens

  August 25, 2013 at 6:56 am

  Hi Denise,

  What James said. Plus you might consider deleting your unused render files, or all of them, before exporting. Export failures are often related to conflicting render files.

  – Ronny
• 

  Bret Williams

  August 25, 2013 at 7:30 pm

  And the NTSC stuff is going to have a strange look to it since FCP has to skip frames to make it play at 2fps. If it’s just broll, try changing its speed to “conform.” Instead of playing at 30fps it’ll play every frame and conform its speed to 25fps. Which will appear a little slower, but depending on the broll subject matter it may be ok. And it’ll play smoothly.

Reply to this Discussion! Login or Sign Up