Editing mixed PAL and NTSC footage for NTSC output

[Michael Sacci]

For better result use a standards convert of the PAL footage before you start. With the new FCP6 You can drop PAL footage on a NTSC and it will play it and render it out as NTSC but the result will not be as good.

Natress.com has a highly recommended standards conversion filter.

[Matthew Nelson]

My big rule is only standards convert footage once. Since your final output is NTSC I’d convert your PAL into NTSC before cutting. If you have the $$ go Alchemist PhC if you have no $$ use Compressor’s Advanced Format Conversions.

I’ve had mixed results with compressor. When it’s on it looks spectacular when its off it’s jutter city. If you go Compressor its about a 30:1 to 40:1 render ratio so cluster, cluster, cluster if you can. Nattress has a standards converter filter if you get no love from Compressor.

If your NTSC is 23.98 3:2 telecine and your PAL is 25P you are in luck. Just reverse the telecine on your NTSC footage. Capture the PAL with audio and video split. Use Cinema tools to pull down the video to 23.98 and Soundtrack Pro to retime the audio to match. Then edit away in 23.98.

[Nick August-perna]

So I’ve captured the PAL as PAL in FCP. It’s roughly 250 clips totalling 6 hours. I should do a conversion now of all those PAL clips using the Nattress converter? Then edit in an NTSC sequence? Any guess on how long that will take?

Thank you.

[Uli Plank]

If you don’t have progressive footage (so you can go the retiming route), that will take forever. Have them hardware converted or use them right away in your edit and replace the ones you need with Nattress’ G Converter later.

Regards,

Uli

[Stuart Simpson]

Your render times for 6 hours of material are going to be loooooong. Especially you decide to use compressor… Brace yourself if you have an older machine!

-Simmie
1 MacPro – Kona 3
2 G5 – Kona LH
2 G4s – Cinewave
xbox360, Wii, PSP, PS2
https://www.speak.co.uk

[Frank Andersson]

I totally agree – get the conversion done with hardware and then do “the extras” you might need with Nattress. Nattress do a fantastic job – really, but it will take you forever to do 6 hours of conversion with software…

Frank Buck
.: Denmark :.

[Nick August-perna]

That was my hunch. I’ll edit in a PAL timeline since most of the footage is PAL. I’ll keep the Pal and NTSC stuff on separate tracks. Then I’ll convert the Pal tracks and put everything in an NTSC timeline at the end.
Or should I edit in an NTSC sequence right away? Does it make a difference?

[Bob Flood]

hi

Its a good idea anytime you have to “re” or “convert” footage or sound, to wait uuntil your edit is done and you have made decisions about waht shots you will use, then whatever you need to “re or convert” you are doing with the absolute minimum.

even if your clients clients wants to cahnge something, its still only a one or 2 shots (you hope 🙂 )

another thing to consider when mixing PAL and NTSC is that even with good standards conversions, I can still tell the difference between the 2, and maybe your client can too. Be ready to add some kind of time or frame manipulation to your NTSC footage to get it to “cut” with the PAL so it all looks like it was shot the same (you may never get a perfect match, but you can get close!)

hope this helps

“I like video because its so fast!”

Bob Flood
Greer & Associates, Inc.

[Rachel leah Jones]

similar issue — my question is this: ANY problems encountered while mixing the 2 kinds of footage (in an NTSC project/timeline) just for offline editing? i definitely only want to convert those clips which i will decide to use in the onlined final cut… i’m using FCP 6.0.1?

many thanks
rachel