• Apple Final Cut Pro Legacy

  Convert NTSC to PAL

  Posted by Sue Lawson on June 30, 2008 at 5:20 am

  Hi all.

  Client would like me to create a PAL DVD for him of his feature-length project. Currently, the project is NTSC, SD, 29.97. On previous projects, I’ve used the Standards Converter for FCP from Nattress (love his plug-ins and filters!) with great success. However, that was just a single clip here and there.

  Am I able to export the entire 2-hour NTSC timeline as a QT movie, bring it back into the project, drop it into a PAL sequence, nest it as a single clip, apply the Standards Converter to the “single-clip” in the PAL sequence and then drop the *original* (i.e. the QT movie) into the image well?

  Will this work?
  … and if so, do I need to make the QT movie self-contained, or can I use a reference movie?

  … or, am I better off doing the entire standards conversion in Compressor or Episode?

  Thanks in advance for the guidance!

  — Sue

  Dual 2.7 GHz PowerPC G5
  2.5 GB DDR SDRAM
  GFX: ATI Radeon 9650

  Mac OS 10.4.11

  Final Cut Studio 2
  FCP 6.0.3 Compressor 3.0.3 Soundtrack Pro 2.0.2 Motion 3.0.2 DVDSP 4.2.1

  Sue Lawson replied 17 years, 10 months ago 4 Members · 4 Replies
• 4 Replies

• 

  Gary Adcock

  June 30, 2008 at 1:06 pm

  [Sue Lawson] “… and if so, do I need to make the QT movie self-contained, or can I use a reference movie? “

  Self contained will always work better here, then the power is being used to process rather than re-rendering.

  “… or, am I better off doing the entire standards conversion in Compressor or Episode? “

  For a single DVD — Episode / Compressor will allow for multiple CPU’s to be used- nattress /FCP will only use what FCP allows.

  gary adcock
  Studio37
  HD & Film Consultation
  Post and Production Workflows
  Inside look at the IoHD
• 

  Steve Eisen

  June 30, 2008 at 1:09 pm

  Sue

  Check out Walter’s response above.

  Hardware will give you the best quality.

  Steve Eisen
  Eisen Video Productions
  Board of Directors
  Chicago Final Cut Pro Users Group
• 

  Walter Biscardi

  June 30, 2008 at 1:11 pm

  [Sue Lawson] “Am I able to export the entire 2-hour NTSC timeline as a QT movie, bring it back into the project, drop it into a PAL sequence, nest it as a single clip, apply the Standards Converter to the “single-clip” in the PAL sequence and then drop the *original* (i.e. the QT movie) into the image well?”

  This will not work as you will essentially get a flash frame on every edit. Nattress even warns you about this in the instructions. Each cut edit will essentially split the screen in half for one frame creating a flash frame. We have seen this here when we tried it.

  Master the show off to tape or a self contained quicktime and take it to a post house that can perform this conversion for you. We send all our NTSC material to PostWorks in New York for PAL conversion. They handle both SD and HD at a very reasonable price.

  Walter Biscardi, Jr.
  Biscardi Creative Media
  HD and SD Production for Broadcast and Independent Productions.

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• 

  Sue Lawson

  June 30, 2008 at 3:05 pm

  Thanks guys!

  — Sue

  Dual 2.7 GHz PowerPC G5
  2.5 GB DDR SDRAM
  GFX: ATI Radeon 9650

  Mac OS 10.4.11

  Final Cut Studio 2
  FCP 6.0.3 Compressor 3.0.3 Soundtrack Pro 2.0.2 Motion 3.0.2 DVDSP 4.2.1

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