Need some advice with frame rate conversion

[Shane Ross]

[Isaac Hagy] “1. What is the best way to force the 29.97 into a 23.98 timeline?”

You need to convert the footage with Compressor. Change the frame rate and set the frame controls all to BEST. Depending on how much footage you have, this can take a while. Just dropping it into a 23.98 sequence will not do it properly.

[Isaac Hagy] “2. Do I do conversions during transcode or after edit is finished?”

Before you begin editing. You might have to transcode it first, then do the frame rate conversion.

[Isaac Hagy] “3. Am I heading toward a sync nightmare? “

Shooting all those formats…you are already in the nightmare. And unless you convert the footage properly, before you edit, it will get worse.

[Isaac Hagy] “1. Compressor – this conversion looks decent with Best Motion tabbed, but yikes is it going to take an eternity. I am not sure I can spare it. “

Then don’t shoot multiple frame rates. Or live with the improper ways that are faster. No one is saving time by shooting multiple formats and frame rates. The more formats and rates you shoot, the longer post will take.

[Isaac Hagy] “2. MPEG STREAMCLIP – surprisingly this looks almost as good as compressor to me and takes half the time – could this be possible? I have a feeling I am missing something. “

It doesn’t quite get the pulldown removal right. But, if you like how it looks…have at it.

[Isaac Hagy] “3. Render in FCP : easiest but a bit stuttery”

Yeah, it does it all wrong. Every 4th frame is a duplicate of the 3rd. Bad bad bad.

Want it right:? use Compressor. Quick, but not quite…MPEG STreamclip.

Shane
Little Frog Post
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def

[Kevin Johnson]

You should pick your framerate based on deliverables. Unless you are going to film, it is much cleaner to add pulldown to your 23.98 footage in compressor than it is to deinterlace/remove pulldown from 29.97 footage.

Kevin Johnson

Autodesk Smoke Artist
FCP Editor
Washington, DC

[Isaac Hagy]

Thanks,

I have heard it is cleaner going from 24 to 30, but since this is backed by a studio there is a chance of film out or DCP projection, in which case it is probably a safer bet to finish in 23.98 – correct?

Thanks again.

[Isaac Hagy]

Thanks alot,

Of course time often equals quality. In your opinion is BEST light years smoother than BETTER, which I noticed Ken Stone recommends on his site?

Also, when you say :

“Before you begin editing. You might have to transcode it first, then do the frame rate conversion. ”

Are you recommending I transcode from h.264 to ProRess in a separate pass from doing the frame rate conversion. I was planning on doing them both at the same time in compressor?

Thanks,

Isaac

[Isaac Hagy]

Comverting all the footage in compressor at BEST. Still doesn’t look great, acts almost as if it has a poor twixtor effect on it. Any thoughts?

[Joseph Owens]

“Better” Compressor conversion from 2997 to 2398 is going to be almost as good as “best” in more than 90% of all cases. You already know that choosing “Best” adds a zero to whatever render time you were quoted in “Better”. So do it all, then re-submit the stuff that doesn’t turn out so well, (the 10% originals) back through at “Best”. It will be worth the effort to work at a unified 2398 frame base.

But don’t trust FCP to do the 2:3 cadence to create 2997 correctly. It doesn’t.

jPo

You mean “Old Ben”? Ben Kenobi?

[Isaac Hagy]

Thanks, I have been biting the bullet and doing it at BEST and running the footage off of 4 machines. Not terrible times, but the quality is really still not great. I am getting pretty bad “ghost” on certain frames. Is this unavoidable. I am almost thinking the ghosting is worse than just having lost frames?

Isaac

[Shane Ross]

If the footage was shot 29.97 without pulldown, meaning it was meant to be 29.97 and never meant to be converted to 23.98, then it will have a slightly odd cadence. Not look like the 23.98 footage. It might be slightly softer, But it shouldn’t have ghosting.

Shane
Little Frog Post
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def

[Isaac Hagy]

That was my thought. And with fcp or mpeg stream clip I see the cadence issue, but with compressor I get something that looks like a bad twixtor effect.

HERE ARE TWO SAMPLE IMAGES :

[Shane Ross]

Wow…

Those are interlaced frames condensed to progressive. Wow I wonder if you need to deinterlace it first. Wow, my settings don’t do that.

Shane
Little Frog Post
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def