in a real mess with different frame rates

Apple Final Cut Pro Legacy

in a real mess with different frame rates

Posted by Gary Caganoff on September 5, 2013 at 2:04 pm

Hi,

Feeling like a foool. I made the huge mistake out of inexperience with new equipment and having trouble getting out of it. I read some forum threads on similar issues but still a bit confused about what to do. Needing to find the best way to output a file that will play on a PAL DVD with mixed frame rate footage.

I’m in Australia so work with PAL 25fps using Studio 3 with FCP7. I usually shoot HDV but with this job which features extreme sports we used a GoPro and the Sony equivalent. We mistakingly didn’t sync the frame rates of the two cameras so shot 29.97fps on the Sony and 47.96 on the GoPro.

I realise I should have converted them after ingesting them to one similar frame rate at this point but I didn’t that know then.

As both cameras’ footage was jumpy in the timeline I changed the compression in the sequence settings to HDV which I am most familar with and rendered, which fixed the jumping problem and allowed me to edit freely.

Now, I have exported the finished piece to a QT file which plays well on the Mac. I have tried to compress for Studio Pro but an error box comes up saying it doesn’t support NTSC files in PAL mode when I import. This was the first time I realised the thing was in NTSC, DoH!

I have tried to convert the program to 25fps in the timeline as well as through compressor and the QT conversion settings but it doesn’t work – slipping the audio way out of sinc mainly.

Any tips please so I can at least get it onto a PAL DVD for my client?

Thanks in advance and apologies for my editing incompetence.

Gary Caganoff replied 12 years, 8 months ago 4 Members · 7 Replies
7 Replies

Steve Eisen
September 5, 2013 at 3:43 pm

Converting NTSC to Pal is not as easy as you think. You HAVE to do it BEFORE you edit. The free way to do it is using Compressor the $100 option is using Nattress Standards Conversion plug in.

Exporting footage and changing the sequence will NOT convert the footage.

Steve Eisen
Eisen Video Productions
Vice President
Chicago Creative Pro Users Group
Zack Hosseini
September 5, 2013 at 5:30 pm

Does the client require the DVD to be PAL or could you make it region-free? That’d certainly be the easiest option if you can do that.

Also, if you have access to After Effects, Andrew Kramer did a tutorial on NTSC to PAL.
https://library.creativecow.net/articles/kramer_andrew/fps.php

—————
Zack Hosseini
http://www.ZackHosseiniFilms.com
Zack@ZackHosseiniFilms.com

“Cinema is a matter of what’s in the frame and what’s out.” – Martin Scorsese
Rainer Wirth
September 5, 2013 at 7:12 pm

Steve is right,

we do it with a hardware conversion, to us the only way of getting a perfect solution. All other solutions and plug-ins are not perfect. If you have a lot of quick camera movement this is the only way. All editing material must be brought to one frame rate before editing.

cheers

Rainer

factstory
Rainer Wirth
phone_0049-177-2156086
Mac pro 8core
Adobe,FCP,Avid
several raid systems
Gary Caganoff
September 6, 2013 at 5:33 am

Yes, thanks Steve. I now realise this and will not be steaming on into the edit again before I convert. Wondering why these xtreme sports cameras don’t have PAL friendly frame rates?

Thanks for the pointers to Nattress.
Gary Caganoff
September 6, 2013 at 5:38 am

Hi Zack,

Thanks for your reply. Yes, PAL DVD is required as you can’t trust everyone here to have a machine that plays NTSC as well. Unfortunately I don’t have AE at the moment.
Gary Caganoff
September 6, 2013 at 5:49 am

Thanks Rainer for the advise. So as my edit is complete I would like to know what my workflow would look like changing the footage to one frame rate? As I think understand it:

1/ Use FCP media manager to copy all the used media into another folder to make a duplicate project.

2/ Put the GoPro media files through Compressor or Natress to match the Sony frame rate or 29.7. Or do I put ALL the media through for 25fps?

3/ relink these new clips to the timeline

4/ export movie for Studio Pro

Yes? No?

As I haven’t used media manager before and just had a quick try late last night, can I just copy what footage is used in the timeline rather than the entire original clip that it comes from?

Please let me know if I’m on the right track.

Thanks heaps (lots)
In appreciation.
Gary
Gary Caganoff
September 6, 2013 at 5:51 am

Ahha! Just found the reply to ‘entire thread’ button!

Thanks everyone for your input so far.

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