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Converting 23.976 to 29.97 with 3:2 pulldown using Compressor
When working with 23.976p footage, I know that many capture cards will add 3:2 pulldown when laying video off to tape, but what if you don’t want to go to tape? What if you just want a 29.97 file, but have a 23.976 video? I ran into this issue when I began submitting video to DG FastChannel. They require 29.97 MPEG-2 files.
First I tried taking the finished 23.976 sequence and nesting it in a 29.97 sequence. This appears to work OK at first, but on closer inspection FCP uses the inferior 2:2:2:4 pulldown pattern to turn 23.976fps into 29.97fps. This looks pretty bad with any amount of motion going on in the video. There is no way to get FCP to change it’s pulldown pattern when rendering files.
After much research into the issue and trial-and-error, I finally came up with a solution using Compressor. I thought I’d post it here to hopefully save others from bashing their head against the wall looking for a solution short of round-tripping to tape and back. Here you go!
1. In FCP, select your sequence then choose FILE > SEND TO > COMPRESSOR. Or you can export your sequence to a video or reference video then open that in Compressor.
2. In Compressor, select your video then right click and choose NEW TARGET WITH SETTING > APPLE > FORMATS > QUICKTIME > APPLE PRORES 422 (HQ). Or pick whatever codec you like to work with.
3. Click on that newly created compression setting to open it in the Inspector window. Click the Encoder tab. Click the Video: (Settings…) button. Make the frame rate 29.97. Check the interlaced box. Set it’s drop down menu to Bottom field first. Click OK.
4. Click the Frame Controls tab. Set Frame Controls to On. Set Output Fields to Bottom first. Leave Deinterlace on Fast. Leave Adaptive Details checked. Leave Rate Conversion set to Fast. Leave the Set Duration to: on 100% and make sure it’s radio button is selected and NOT the “so source frames play at 29.97 fps” button.
5. Make changes to the Filters or Geometry sections as needed. Those settings listed above are the ones critical to getting the proper 3:2 pulldown added.
6. Submit the compression, then bring the resulting video back into Final Cut Pro. Place it in a 29.97 timeline and make sure you watch it on an NTSC monitor to verify that it looks good. If you step through it frame-by-frame you should see the familiar pattern of 2 split/interlaced frames followed by 3 whole frames. This is a very important step. I tried many solutions that looked OK playing back on the computer monitor, but looked terrible on the NTSC monitor.
Yay! Hopefully you have successfully added the 3:2 pulldown and now you can compress it for DGFastChannel or do whatever else with it you need to do.
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32 Replies
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I can attest to this working very well. I just used it to make some 23.98 footage cut well on a 29.97 timeline. It also worked well when plans changed and we needed to master in HD instead of SD. I had to convert the footage a second time and it matched perfectly with the SD offline.
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If you use Episode to create your DG fast channel files, it dies it there too.
Compressor also does a good job if you set it up correctly.
Jeremy
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I’m a big fan of using JES Deinterlacer for tasks like this. It’s fast, free, and handy!
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I tried using Episode to add the pulldown but it didn’t work correctly for me. It looked pretty jumpy playing back on the NTSC monitor. It appears to be a simple setting within Episode but it just doesn’t work. How do you add pulldown with Episode?
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hey matthew
thanks so much for this How To. i also have to convert stuff for DG and that’s how i found this post.
thanks
e
Eric Hansen – The Audio Visual Plumber – http://www.avplumber.com
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Does this method going through compressor give a better result than if you brought the 23.976 clip into Cinema Tools and used conform to change it to 29.97?
Jim McNally
The Commercial Factory
http://www.commercialfactory.com -
While Cinema Tools can remove pulldown, it can’t add it.
The results of using your proposed method will actually cause the footage to be played back at 30p which is a significant speed up.
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Jim,
Using Cinema Tools “conform” function will only change the metadata of the file, tagging it as 29.97. Play this back in Quicktime and you’ll see that this is not at all what you want. It just makes everything play back faster, including pitching up the audio significantly.
So the answer to your question is yes. The compressor method is much much better.
Matt
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Not true. Compressor can do both. It can add pulldown and remove pulldown. Perhaps you meant to say Cinema Tools can’t add pulldown?
Matt
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Jeremy writes: “While comprssor can remove pulldown, it can’t add it. ”
using the process outlined by Matthew, Compressor does indeed add pulldown. maybe you mean Cinema Tools? i don’t know the app that well, i’ve only used it to change the time base of footage to slow it down (ie. 60p to 24p slow mo).
e
Eric Hansen – http://www.erichansen.tv
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