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NTSC Widescreen 24p
Hi, I’m using Avid Media Composer with Nitris DX on a Mac Pro quad-core machine.
I’ve never ventured outside the realm of sony HDV cameras but I have some footage shot on a Panasonic camera. It was shot in native 24p in NTSC widescreen and I have two issues:
1) I’ve hardly ever worked with NTSC and never used “widescreen” NTSC video, period. Avid seems to assume any NTSC footage shot in 24p is 4:3 so it’s letterboxing the footage during capture. The director sent instructions for capturing with Final Cut that make apparent FC has the exact capture setting I would need, but I’m not sure how to accomplish it with Avid.
2) He used some sort of film adapter (I’m assuming a lens adapter to get a 35mm look and depth of field) which results in the footage being upside down (I believe, horizontally mirrored as well).
I know I’ll have to deal with the upside-down footage after capture, but it’s worth my time to consult the pros and make sure I capture it correctly in the first place. I don’t want to sacrifice any video quality right out of the gate. Additionally, I would like to maintain the 24p workflow, if possible, all the way from capture to DVD encoding.
I’m working long distance here and it’s a pet project for all involved so time isn’t really an issue. I apologize if I’m looking over something very obvious and I’ll try to get more information about his equipment if necessary. I primarily do after effects work and editing is just a hobby so it’s probably a burden on the world that I have access to an Avid system rather than something more novice-oriented.
A friend of mine has both Final Cut and Premiere Pro CS4 and they both have an NTSC widescreen 24p capture preset. I’m just curious if Avid has such a setting that I’m missing.
Thanks in advance…
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5 Replies
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When you create your project in the select project window, ( the first window that opens when you start the MC app.)you can specify 24p and set your raster dimension.
I have worked pretty much all wide screen and some 24p over the last year and have had no issuepswensen
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[Bryan Sanders] “2) He used some sort of film adapter (I’m assuming a lens adapter to get a 35mm look and depth of field) which results in the footage being upside down (I believe, horizontally mirrored as well).”
Start as Paul suggests. If you already started a project (which it sounds like you have), you will have to make a new project – choosing the 24P option. You shouldn’t have any problem bringing in the clips. Keep in mind that 24P doesn’t play very nice with other frame rates and can cause a real headache.
Also, something different from FCP is the option to change the Composer window (the source and record monitors) to 16×9. You can do this by right-clicking in the gray area above the source or record window and choosing 16:9. The other way is to go to Settings>Composer>Window and select 16:9.
Hope this makes your project smoother.
Ed
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Anything worth doing at all, is worth doing well.
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Hi, thanks for the responses. My version of media composer does not let me choose raster settings for NTSC at 24p, only 720p.
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Actually, forgive my ignorance guys, but I’d like to make sure I’m capturing this properly in the first place. I’m using a Sony HVR-M1OU deck and they’re panasonic mini DV tapes. I tried capturing with Premiere Pro just as a comparison and I get the letterboxing and pillarboxing there too. It doesn’t seem to make any difference if the deck is in HDV or DV mode.
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I don’t remember if your deck has an LCD display or not, but it sounds like you need to check your deck’s settings. If it does have a display does it show your footage as letterboxed? How are you capturing? The anamorphic flag is carried over firewire so your deck may automatically be formatting the video as letterboxed 4:3 on the output side. I would start by checking the deck’s output settings.
I cut on 2.8.3 MC and have done widescreen DV and DV50 from tape and P2 cards. The Avid really doesn’t “assume” 24P footage is 4:3. If you’re importing from P2 it brings the footage in as anamorphic and let’s you decide how to crop (letterbox, center cut, fullscreen, pan and scan, etc.). If you’re capturing from tape the format decisions are made in the output settings of your deck.
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