-
Frame Rate Converter making Varicam footage look awful
Hey All,
I shot some stuff on an old tape based Varicam, in several different frame-rates, like 32, 36, 40, 48, 54, and 60fps. All on one tape. Here’s my problem, I’m on an Intel Mac with Final Cut 6.0.6 with a Kona 3 card. I did like the instructions have said, I digitized all the footage as AJA Kona 720p 59.94 DVCPROHD. I then applied the FRC to it. Now instead of buttery smooth slow motion shots, I’ve got “choppy” slow motion that looks like the pulldown is all screwed up and stuff. Not pretty at all.
Now here’s where things get weird. I next tried the easy setup of AJA Kona 720p 23.98 DVCPRO VFR. When using this setup, SOME of the footage comes in looking correct, buttery smooth slow motion, BUT, my clips are somehow much shorter than what I captured, like it only captured a third to half of what I specified. And some of my clips look like normal 24fps footage EVEN THOUGH I shot them at all of the other frame rates. What’s going on? What should I do? Do I need to go through and log and capture each clip individually, like mark in’s and outs on each individual shot from the tape? Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks.
-
2 Replies
-
FRC is for footage shot 60fps only. It slows it to 30fps or 24fps. It doesn’t work with footage shot in the other frame rates.
Frankly, I’m not sure what you do with footage shot in those other rates. Before FRC we had to get the tapes dubbed, running them through some sort of hardware converter. Panasonic Varicam specific if I recall. But that was years ago. Those are very odd frame rates to have recorded on tape, and need something to deal with them.
But I’ll bet someone here has dealt with those rates.
Shane
GETTING ORGANIZED WITH FINAL CUT PRO DVD…don’t miss it.
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def -
Wow, is it really that much trouble dealing with frame rates between 30 and 60fps? If I had known about this I would have just used my handy HVX200 and saved myself the grief! If anybody knows a way I can successfully capture that footage just let me know. Meanwhile I guess I just keep plugging along with the second method I discussed earlier. Thanks in the meantime Shane.
Reply to this Discussion! Login or Sign Up