Final stage of NTSC to PAL conversion using RE:Vision FX

[Jonathan Miller]

Jennifer, the COW has a RE:Vision FX forum where you can get answers straight from the software’s creators.

That being said, it sounds to me like you’re just seeing the fields in your movie. Computer monitors display video in a different way than television monitors (NTSC or PAL…doesn’t matter.)

Without knowing any more about your situation, I would say your DVD will play fine on a PAL TV.

Keep in mind that if you ever end up doing mission critical format conversions, you should always have a monitor that can play NTSC and PAL. Most broadcast monitors have that capability. It will just let you sleep better at night knowing that you verifed everything looks correct with your own eyes.

Good luck!

Jon
TreeLine Productions
Fort Collins, CO USA

[Jennifer]

Thanks a lot Jon !

You’re a great help ! I hate technology !
Actually, it

[Jonathan Miller]

Since you’re using AVI’s, I take it you’re using some flavor of a PC?

I’m a Mac guy, and haven’t edited anything on a PC, so I’m not sure how PC’s handle movie files. I can tell you, though, that QuickTime (before version 7) used to default to a lower quality mode for playback that would throw away half of the fields for playback on a computer monitor. This was only while viewing on a computer…the file still retained all of the fields information and would play back normally out of the computer on a broadcast monitor. I always hated this, but luckily you could tell QuickTime to show you the fields by selecting “High Quality” mode. Then, you’d see the “comb”-like effect you mentioned earlier.

You said that you haven’t noticed this problem in the comp window in AE on your footage. Well, that’s probably a combination of how AE and Twixtor work. After Effects treats video basically the same way QuickTime used to. It will only show the upper or lower fields of a clip by default. This is to eliminate the “tearing” that you’ve been seeing. When I use Twixtor (amazing product by the way) I have to interpret the footage and tell AE to show both fields (by turning “Interpret Footage” to “Off”.)

So, you should be able to see both fields if you do a preview on the unadultered clip. But, when you add Twixtor (even just by itself) the plugin deinterlaces the footage. It eliminates the tearing in the clip without throwing out half of the fields and thereby eliminating half of the clip’s resolution. When you look at a preview of the clip converted to PAL in the Comp window, it’s deinterlaced. You won’t see the fields until you reinterlace it by rendering the final clip out and “Render Using Fields”

Hope this sheds some light on the situation.

Good luck!

Jon
TreeLine Productions
Fort Collins, CO USA

[Jennifer]

Thanks a lot Jon !
It definitely makes more sense now. I’m still not clear what’s the difference of rendering with fields or applying Reinterlacer, but I post this question in RE:Vision forum. Anyway, thanks a bunch !

Cheers,

Jennifer