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Extracting 23.976p from AVCHD MFX 60i PF24
I’ve shot some material using a cheapie Canon Vixia HF S200 camera using the the AVCHD MFX 60i/PF24/ setting. But, no matter which program I use to get it out of the camera, it transfers as 29.98i.
Canon initially said that iMovie was the recommended way, then changed their minds. So I have tried Final Cut X, Final Cut Pro 7.03, and ClipWrap, but all of these give me 29.98i.
I believe I am correct in thinking that the camera records 60i, from which 23.976p can be extracted but have had no success.
Does anyone have an idea of how to do this. The Canon tech support guy tried very hard to help me, but ultimately gave up.
I could stick the 29.98 into Compressor set at the highest quality to transcode the frame rate to 23.976, but it takes absolutely ages to do it, so it’s completely impractical. Can’t afford Teranex.
Ideas greatly appreciated,
Harry.
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3 Replies
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It’s probably too late, but here’s my guess.
I’m not really familiar with the S200 but I’ve seen some other Canon cameras behave similarly. With those, when you shoot 24p you are indeed shooting 24fps, but it is embedded in a 60i wrapper. You are not doing anything wrong shooting… or anything wrong capturing… it is both shooting and capturing exactly as it was designed to, in 60i.
I had a similar situation before… prior to switching to the C300 about a year and a half ago we shot with the XLH1. In HD mode, 24p (or Canon’s 24f) did indeed capture at 24fps. But in standard-def mode, 24p was embedded in a 60i wrapper… no way around that. It still was true 24fps and had the proper 3:2 pulldown, but the actual footage was 60i.
I can’t attest to the methods that you try, but if you have access to Premiere it will do it quickly… just put your 60i footage on a 24p timeline and output a new clip(s). It shouldn’t be too render heavy or take too long if you have a reasonably powerful machine.
Otherwise, then yes Compressor is probably the best bet… heavy render times and all. I would test that first on a few-seconds long clip (a clip with good action) so you can toggle through the individual frames to make sure it’s doing it exactly right and at an acceptable quality.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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Harry, did you ever get an answer to this question? I’m now in the same situation. However, I got farther than you did. I can get it to 23.98 but I’m very unhappy with the results.
Here’s what I did. Using FCP7 I logged and transferred to Pro Res – comes in at 29.98 interlaced, go to Tools/Reverse telecine Cinema Tools and it converts it to 23.98. Unfortunately, for some massively confusing reason, it also created duplicate frames and has terrible artifacts. I need much better than that, so, I’m wondering if you ever developed a solution to this?
Cheers.
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I used something called “Free AVCHD to .MOV”. You can Google it. Amazingly, it worked. I transcoded to ProRes422 LT. At first I saw nasty interlacing and messed around with various de-interlacers. But, mysteriously, the problem went away. I just hope it doesn’t return.
By the way, after transcoding it to ProRes422 LT, per above in Free ACV etc, I imported the files (which were continuous) into FCP 7.03 and then exported them as one QT ProRes422 LT file. This was to make a Multiclip.
It may be that the weird interlaced artifacts magically disappeared during the export. I can’t remember.
Anyway, Free AVCHD to .MOV is free. And it’s good quality too.
Let me know how you get on. Curious to know your results.
Harry.
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