Converting HD 24p to SD 29.97

[Chris Borjis]

export as is from the timeline, then use compressor to resize
be sure that frame controls are turned on and set for highest
resize quality, also the frame rate control should be able
to be set 1 setting lower than maximum (otherwise it might take a week)

[Mike Turner]

I tried spitting out a generic FCP Quicktime @ 1280×1080 24p, dropped it into a SD 29.97 time line, re-sized it, and put the graphics back on. When I rendered it out it looked pretty good. I just wanted to make sure that I’m getting the best product. I’ll try your suggestion.
Thanks,
Mike

[Eric Johnson]

Do you have a Kona card, Preferably a Kona 3?

Is it going to Tape or DVD? Are you planning on playing out to tape? Where is this going?

If it’s going to tape. through a Kona to the deck (DVW-500 or 2000?) then this is a really easy process.

Set you system up to play out 1080 24, then set the video playback to 1080 29.97. In the Kona Control Panel, under format, set your secondary SDi out to 525 29.97.

Then all you have to do is play out and it will happen in real time, with the Kona doing the Pull down.

[Mike Turner]

I tried Chris’ suggestion and that worked really well. I exported the edit with GFX and they are nice and crisp. To your question, I would be laying off to Digi-Beta.

[Shane Ross]

How are you laying off to digibeta? You have a capture card? Any HD capture card will do the downconvert and frame rate conversion just fine…Deckling, AJA, Matrox. So since you need a card to output to digibeta, it would be best to let the card do the downconvert…it is much better than FCP does on the timelne.

Shane

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[Chris Borjis]

shane the decklink doesn’t hardware downconvert 720P though (I wish they did)

mike, fcp doesn’t resize that great, if it looks good as is, it would
look spectacular if you used compressor or an aja card to do it.

[Mike Turner]

I tried both the Compressor and Kona conversions and I have to say the Compressor looked a touch better. I have 24p animated GFX in the piece and they look a little more crisp with the Compressor down convert. There seemed to be a little ghosting going through the Kona. Thanks everyone’s for your input.
Mike

[Jeremy Garchow]

I bet your pulldown’s all screwed up. I would make your SD movie @ 23.98 and let your capture card add 3:2 pulldown to it on playout.

Jeremy

[Sean Oneil]

[Jeremy Garchow] “I bet your pulldown’s all screwed up. I would make your SD movie @ 23.98 and let your capture card add 3:2 pulldown to it on playout.”

I second this. You do NOT want to edit 24-based footage at 29.97. It destroys the 3:2 cadence. Even if you’re ready to finish, there could be a tweak here or there, you may need to output a video for the web – who knows. As long as the video lives on a computer, it should be 23.98.

Sean