pal to ntsc conversion

[Don Greening]

[chokecherry] “I’m willing to redo it all, but How do I do the conversion?”

Compressor 2 will do the conversion for you or you can buy something like the Nattress Standards Conversion filter for FCP that’s available here:

https://www.nattress.com/Products/standardsconversion/standardsconversion.htm

You didn’t say where you’re located, but I’d recommend your final output be the same as your country’s video standard. If your footage is interlaced then you’ll be safer keeping it the same throughout your workflow. There are better de-interlace plugins available than the one that comes with FCP but then again it’s more money.

Yes, it is better quality-wise to crop your 16:9 footage to the 4:3 aspect ratio than to go the other way. Make sure you’re not cropping anything important at the sides of the frame when doing this.

– Don

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[Walter Biscardi]

[chokecherry] “I had been dropping both types of clips into a PAL 4:3 sequence and FCP would convert by rendering ,”

FCP is not converting the footage. It’s merely rendering it so it will play back, but it’s not properly converted. You will notice stuttering in the playback of the NTSC footage. You need to use something like Nattress Standards Converter to do a true conversion. We’re using that right now and it works brilliantly for only $100.

For 4:3 into 16:9 there are a lot of options to fill the frame from a graphic background to a blurred background, etc…

We’re currently cutting a 1080i/50 HD series that incorporates 4:3 SD NTSC, 4:3 SD PAL, 720p/50, 1080i/60 all into one episode. I’m converting everything to PAL first using the Nattress plug-in and then scaling / treating the 4:3 material to fill the 16:9 frame.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
https://www.biscardicreative.com
HD Editorial & Animation for Food Network’s “Good Eats”
HD Editorial for “Assignment Earth”

“I reject your reality and substitute my own!” – Adam Savage, Mythbusters

[Meredith Holch]

OK, I’m now going to get the Nattress plug-in, there seems to be consensus about that. However, I still am still hearing some say go with a 4:3 sequence, and some say go with 16:9. The footage that is 4:3 was composed with becoming 16:9 in mind. I am planning on using the widesreen matte filter in FCP. I really don’t see how I can scale up 4:3 to 16:9 without a major quality loss. Also, I don’t quite understand how if I use a 16:9 sequence, anyone without a 16:9 viewer capability on their TV screen would be able to see it correctly. However, I do believe there is a plan for a tape to film transfer, so maybe I do HAVE to use a 16:9 sequence? Or will a widescreen matt on a 4:3 sequence serve the same purpose since it’s the correct ratio? Yes, I’ve read everything I could find on the web about this, and I’m still confused!

[Meredith Holch]

OK, I just downloaded the Nattress converter & tested it out. I can’t believe I can only convert each clip once I drop it into the timeline! This is horrendously slow, and if I change my mind and take it out of the sequence, then later decide to add it back, I’ll have to render convert it again! Is there really no way to convert the clips IN THE BROWSER so they’ll be converted permanently?
Also I still am still hearing some say go with a 4:3 sequence, and some say go with 16:9. The footage that is 4:3 was composed with becoming 16:9 in mind. I am planning on using the widesreen matte filter in FCP. I really don’t see how I can scale up 4:3 to 16:9 without a major quality loss. Also, I don’t quite understand how if I use a 16:9 sequence, anyone without a 16:9 viewer capability on their TV screen would be able to see it correctly. However, I do believe there is a plan for a tape to film transfer, so maybe I do HAVE to use a 16:9 sequence? Or will a widescreen matt on a 4:3 sequence serve the same purpose since it’s the correct ratio? Yes, I’ve read everything I could find on the web about this, and I’m still confused!

[Walter Biscardi]

[chokecherry] “Is there really no way to convert the clips IN THE BROWSER so they’ll be converted permanently?”

No, if you want to do that, you go out and purchase a hardware converter and make the conversion as you capture. Probably in the $5,000+ range.

Or you simply export the clips from Nattress as a self-contained movie, which is what we are doing here.

[chokecherry] “This is horrendously slow, and if I change my mind and take it out of the sequence, then later decide to add it back, I’ll have to render convert it again!”

That’s why you don’t do your conversions until you’re done with the cut. Just throw the clips into the timeline for the rough edit, convert at the end for the final cut.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
https://www.biscardicreative.com
HD Editorial & Animation for Food Network’s “Good Eats”
HD Editorial for “Assignment Earth”

“I reject your reality and substitute my own!” – Adam Savage, Mythbusters

[Meredith Holch]

Thanks for the quick reply. 2 questions: 1) I don’t understand your suggestion of making a rough cut w/out rendering, because how am I supposed to see how it’s working if I don’t render it? Is the G-converter filter an effect a real time video card would allow me to see? If so, what would you recommend? 2) How do you export the clips from Nattress as a self-contained movie? Do you mean convert the whole sequence at once? The Nattress literature suggests that’s not very stable/reliable.

[Alexander Kallas]

But please consider quality,
FCP is not a format conversion tool, so decide what your final output format will be and convert the other media to this before editing.
Consider the quality of the conversion also, some of the s’ware converters look ok but blow them up to delivery size/codec and then judge. IMHO the best one is in Compressor2’s optical flow technologiy, VERY slow, really only useable in an Intel Mac.
Same with 16:9 and 4:3, it’s a bit like circles and squares, you can do it but can your client accept the result? So which rato do you want/need?
Depending on your delivery ( test for quality loss), to avoid the black bars, you can scale and cropp the 4:3 to fit into a 16:9 sequnce, but you already knew that. Not bad for web or DVD. but ? for other formats.

Cheers
Alexander

[Uli Plank]

I’m afraid you’ve misunderstood the role of the G Converter. It is software only and it’s for FCP and it’s slow

[Walter Biscardi]

[chokecherry] “1) I don’t understand your suggestion of making a rough cut w/out rendering, because how am I supposed to see how it’s working if I don’t render it?”

I didn’t say don’t render it. I said don’t use the Nattress filter on the rough cut. Just throw your NTSC footage into the PAL timeline and let FCP just render it out as a placeholder. The video footage will stutter on playback, but you can at least see if the shots work. That’s what we did here.

[chokecherry] “2) How do you export the clips from Nattress as a self-contained movie?”

You follow graeme’s instructions per clip. When you’ve got the single clip converted, you export that as a self contained movie and bring it back into the project. You do this with every single clip and put the imported clip into your timeline. This is what we’re doing here and it’s working very well.

You do NOT do this with a sequence as you will have interlacing problems at every cut.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
https://www.biscardicreative.com
HD Editorial & Animation for Food Network’s “Good Eats”
HD Editorial for “Assignment Earth”

“I reject your reality and substitute my own!” – Adam Savage, Mythbusters

[Walter Biscardi]

[Uli Plank] “Sorry to say this, but you have a nightmare of a project at hand and you first have to consider your complete workflow before getting into editing.”

Absolutely well put. We actually spent a few days just chatting about our 1080i/50 project and doing a few tests before fully committing to the edit. NTSC SD / HD and PAL SD along with 720p mixed into this project has been a technical nightmare, but with Graeme’s filters and using a bit of Shake, we’ve been able to pull it all together.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
https://www.biscardicreative.com
HD Editorial & Animation for Food Network’s “Good Eats”
HD Editorial for “Assignment Earth”

“I reject your reality and substitute my own!” – Adam Savage, Mythbusters