Adding pulldown to 1080P footage

[Jeremy Garchow]

OK. Please tell me exactly what hardware you have and what formats you are working in and delivering to.

Jeremy

[Mark Spano]

FCP 6.0.5 (with the rest of FCStudio), Mac Pro (10.4.11, 16GB RAM, 2×2.6Ghz Dual Core). Video hardware = MOTU V4HD (which can do hardware pulldown insertion – not at issue here). Sequence material would be Apple ProRes 1080, 23.976fps. Need to deliver on HDCAM 1080, 29.97fps. If, for example, I need to give someone with a Nitris DX my edit so they can do some finishing and color, and they’re doing the broadcast output, knowing that Nitris cannot do the pulldown insertion, how can I give them a pulldown-inserted file? That’s a purely speculative question, but one that has actually come up in my wake. I ended up using V4HD to output to tape (with pulldown) and then used Nitris to capture the whole edit (1080, 29.97) back in. How could this be achieved in software, without having to roundtrip through the machine? FYI, this method worked, my questions are purely speculative and do not apply to any of my current tasks…

[Jeremy Garchow]

OK. I am not in front of Compressor right now, but I can post the software 3:2 pulldown settings later tonight.

[Doug Beal]

You could master to HDCam at 23.98 and then select 23.98 PD on the HDCam (not PD2(SD)
The deck will output a 1080i 29.97 (Nitrous or DSversion10 will see 59.94 1080i) from a 23.98 1080Psf master

Doug Beal
Editor / Engineer
Rock Creative Images
Nashville TN

[Mark Spano]

[Doug Beal] “You could master to HDCam at 23.98 and then select 23.98 PD on the HDCam (not PD2(SD)
The deck will output a 1080i 29.97 (Nitrous or DSversion10 will see 59.94 1080i) from a 23.98 1080Psf master”

I believe this only works if your HDCAM deck has the optional Format Converter card installed. A $10K+ option many installers failed to see as necessary… needless to say the deck I’m working with has no FC options.

[Jeremy Garchow]

OK, ready? here you go:

Export a ref movie form FCP and open that up in Compressor.

Make s new QT setting and in the Encoder tab hit the video settings button.

Choose the codec of your dreams and the set the frame rate to 29.97, then click OK.

Back in the encoder tab, set the audio drop down menu to Pass Through.

GO the frame controls tab on turn on frame controls.

Resize, Deinterlace, and Rate Conversions should all be set to Fast, and then turn the Output Fields to Upper Field First. Duration should be 100%

Leave the filters tab alone unless you want to tweak something there.

In the Geometry tab set the frame size to 100% of source if your movie is full raster HD, if not choose the closest equivalent of full raster (1920 or 1280).

Hit Submit. Wait. Then you have a 29.97 Upper Field first movie with correct 3:2 pulldown. You can now dance the marimba.

You can also do this in After Effects as well if you have After Effects.

Jeremy

[Mark Spano]

Thanks Jeremy. It’s great to know Compressor will do this right without futzing with the frames. I appreciate your help.

[Johnny Smith]

i did all of that and now my 3 day syncing nightmare is over.

but your settings produced a new nightmare: interlaced footage 🙁

It doesn’t look interlaced all the time just every few seconds here and there. I’m watching it on a 46” plasma. Other than that looks fantastic.

[Jeremy Garchow]

Johnny, please explain in more detail of what you are trying to do.

[Phil Benson]

This takes quite a while whereas, in contrast, CinemaTools’ REVERSE TELECINE seems so quick and high quality (I know it’s doing the opposite).

I’m a bit worried that the workflow above is not only slow, but potentially more quality-invasive than necessary. …so I was wondering if there’s another way to preserve quality but quickly convert from 23.976p to 29.97i. Is this called “adding pull down” or “interlacing”?

One other thing, when exporting a Quicktime Movie to ProRes422HQ, I notice the “Interlaced” button (with a “Top Field First” or “Bottom Field First” menu). Does this only affect metadata, or does it actually do the interlacing?

Sorry for all the questions.
Thanks in advance for any help,

-Phil