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Activity Forums Apple Final Cut Pro Legacy Mixing PAL and NTSC-am i asking for trouble?

  • Mixing PAL and NTSC-am i asking for trouble?

    Posted by Alex Dorn on November 12, 2010 at 7:47 pm

    I thank you all in advance for some advice.

    I will be shooting a two camera interview tomorrow, but will be using one PAL camera and one NTSC. Recording production sound onto the NTSC camera. (working with what we have)

    Am I asking for a nightmare in post, or will the compressor converted PAL to NTSC file play ok with my other NTSC file in a multiclip? Given that it’s a celebrity interview, it will overwhelmingly use more of one side than the other, but I was planning on shooting the celebrities with the PAL camera since it’s newer/better blah blah.

    Should be fine… right? Right?

    gulp

    Paul Jay replied 15 years, 6 months ago 5 Members · 5 Replies
  • 5 Replies
  • Gary Askham

    November 12, 2010 at 8:29 pm

    If your project is to show to your friends and family then do what you want.

    If you’re working to any kind of professional level than do it properly. Hire another camera. You can get a Z1 for £80 a day. If your budget doesn’t stretch to this than you don’t deserve to be filming the interview.

    Compressor isn’t a standards convertor. You can spend an age messing around with settings until you get something that approaches decent quality and then spend another age actually converting the footage. But it will never be as good as if you shot it with the correct equipment.

    ————————
    FCP and Avid Technical Support
    Air Post Production
    Shoreditch – London

  • Patrice Freymond

    November 12, 2010 at 8:33 pm

    1) If picture quality is important to you, get one of the rushes transcoded properly, i.e using dedicated hardware like an Alchemist (S&W). Shoud be the one that is not in the standard that will be aired

    2) Sounds like a good technical book covering standards could be a good item on the christmas gifts list 😉

    patrice

  • Alex Dorn

    November 12, 2010 at 8:43 pm

    Thank you guys, you are reconfirming my doubts about it.

    however:
    I should clarify this is for a webcast, not broadcast, (although they’re getting closer and closer to each other, no?)

  • Michael Gissing

    November 12, 2010 at 9:37 pm

    [Alex Dorn] “I should clarify this is for a webcast, not broadcast, (although they’re getting closer and closer to each other, no?)”

    No not really. Adherence to tech specs is mandatory for broadcast. The internet is totally unruly.

    Mixing frame rates is a nightmare. You are not asking for trouble so much as begging for it. What is the PAL camera that you want to use? Many cameras can shoot a variety of frame rates, so see if it can be switched to match the frame rate of the B camera. Are you shoot SD or HD? The advantage of HD is you can also match the pixel size as well as the frame rate.

  • Paul Jay

    November 12, 2010 at 10:03 pm

    When you put 25 fps footage in a 30 frame timeline. FCP will create 5 new double frames every second.
    This will look bad on moving things.
    When you put 30 fps footage in a 25 frame timeline. FCP will remove 5 frames every second.
    This will look bad on moving things.

    Jes Deinterlacer is a great free tool for standards conversion. It’s not always a miracle worker, but it’s a great tool.

    If you still have a choice. Shoot and edit same framerates.

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