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PAL/NTSC Conversion Mistake
Hi,
I am stuck with a project for not checking the format before I started the project. Now here’s the situation.
I am editing a documentry of around an hour’s duration. It was shot in India on a PAL format. The editor working before me had already captured the footage. So when I was assigned for editing I opened a timeline in NTSC setting (Details below) & edited the whole program with PAL footage clips. It asked for rendering for time & again, but since I haad never worked in mixed formats it never struck to me about the different format. Now at the time when the original editor is back & he noticed this mistake. He has tried to open a timeline in PAL setting & cut paste the entire program, however it is asking for hours of rendering & also the file resolution differs. How would I be able to go back to the orginal PAL format without rendering & maintaining the orginal resolution. I would deeply appreciate if anyone can suggest some solutions to this problem.Orginal Source
DV PAL, CCIR 601
720X576
25FPS
Audio 48K/16 Bit IntegerTimeline Settings
NTSC DV
3:2
720X480
Pixel: NTSC CCIR 601 DV
720X480Field: Lower Even
29.97
Compressor: DV/DVC Pro NTSCThank you.
Regards,
MANDAR -
5 Replies
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Hi
Once you have copied and pasted your timeline to a new PAL Sequence, select ALL the video clips, and in the Edit Menu>Remove Attributes select Distort and click to remove the -20% vertical distortion that FCP has applied in the distort field of the Motion tab.
Get rid of any trace of NTSC-format rendering to be on the safe side. -
Paul , Thanks a ton. I am trying to do according to what you have said, but the edit menu only has Remove distortion, so I am confussed.
It would be really kind of you if you can explain ” click to remove the -20% vertical distortion that FCP has applied in the distort field of the Motion tab”Regards,
MANDAR -
Sorry for being the one to bring bad news.
I’m afraid you’ll have to redo the whole project, since there’s one thing you can’t change after the fact: Your NTSC timeline has 29,97 fps, PAL needs 25. Unfortunately you can’t change this value when there’s already something in the timeline, so image size is not your worst problem. While FCP accepts different speeds in the clip and in the sequence, it will not do a smooth conversion. That’s why we need tools like Graeme Nattress’ for PAL <-> NTSC conversion.Regards,
Uli
Author of “DVDs gestalten und produzieren”, a book on professional DVD-authoring in German.
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Uli,
My first question is, Since my footage is already in PAL, than how am I able to view it in NTSC timeline?
Isn’t it possible to retain my edit if I paste back the Same PAL footage which I have edited in NTSC timeline , back to PAL timeline?
Can you suggest any other methods , Since I took 3 months to edit this program & I have to submit it for broadcast in another 2 weeks.
Please let me know.
Thanks you very much!
MANDAR -
Hi Mandar
You can see it because FCP is (more or less) able to mix and match everything (even if changes in speed won’t look perfect). It should have shown you the red bar and have forced you to render the footage, though, when it was first cut it. What you can do is this:
– set up a PAL timeline (matching precisely the settings of your source clips)
– open your NTSC timeline, keeping them both open
– double click on every clip in the NTSC sequence, so it opens in the viewer
– drag the clip from the viewer into the PAL timelineIf you don’t need rendering in the PAL version, everything should be OK.
Regards,
Uli
Author of “DVDs gestalten und produzieren”, a book on professional DVD-authoring in German.
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