-
PAL to NTSC or viceversa, which is better?
Hi, I’m involved in a project that’s going to go out in various formats and TV standards, would it be better to shoot (EX1+EX3) in PAL or NTSC, for then releasing in both standards?
EX3, MBP17″2.93GHz, FCS2, Media100, BtcSP, DVcam
-
11 Replies
-
It might be best to shoot at 24p( 23.98) and the speed change for 25 (PAL) and add pull down for 29.97 (59.94) (NTSC)
30p often doesn’t do well going to 25p. It also isn’t a Blu-ray standard. That would mean shooting 60i (59.94).
Maybe someone else can speak to the efficacy of going from 25p or 50i to 60i (59.94)
I’m also curious if anyone has used 720 59.94p or 50p as source for conversions. -
If you have to deliver NTSC/PAL I would suggest 1080/24p. That’s the standard for most masters created today (at least in the U.S.) from which all conversions are derived. It’s made easily into NTSC with pulldown and easily into 50i PAL with a conform from 24p to 25p.
Noah
Check out my book: RED: The Ultimate Guide to Using the Revolutionary Camera!. Unlock the secrets of the 24p, HD and Final Cut Studio.
Now featuring the Sony EX1 Guidebook, Panasonic HVX200, and Panasonic DVX100.
https://www.callboxlive.com
DSLR Cinematography Blog -
I have mixed 1080/60i and 25p on the same timeline in FCP-6 and had no problems at all. It rendered just fine and burned to blu-ray without a glitch. The only thing I noticed was a slight jitter in the 25p footage due to the progressive format but that would happen regardless of NTSC or PAL.
-
That is what you would call a bad standards conversion- most broadcasters would reject such a thing. But if it’s just for personal use and you don’t mind the look- go for it.
Noah
Check out my book: RED: The Ultimate Guide to Using the Revolutionary Camera!. Unlock the secrets of the 24p, HD and Final Cut Studio.
Now featuring the Sony EX1 Guidebook, Panasonic HVX200, and Panasonic DVX100.
https://www.callboxlive.com
DSLR Cinematography Blog -
How should I have done it? Thanks in advance.
-
Low budget method would be to use Apple Compressor with Frame Controls to do the standards conversion. Telestream Episode can do this too. Natress has a Standards Conversion Final Cut Pro Plugin as well. The render times for this tend to be long but if quality is important and you don’t have the budget for hardware conversion, that above methods would all do a reasonably good job.
-
I exported the timeline to Apple Prores 422 and then used that file for my Blu-ray. Is this not a good method? I was told at another forum that Prores is great for this.
-
Anybody from PAL land to voice an opinion (preferably with previous experience)
EX3, MBP17″2.93GHz, FCS2, Media100, BtcSP, DVcam
-
Which area is likely to be your major market? Where are you based? Is all of your production/post production equipment (Monitoring, Masterings etc) standards agnostic?
One option to shoot and master 25p for PAL then conform to a 24p for NTSC (with pull down added for 29.97) … this is commonly called the “Slow PAL” method, and for someone coming from a PAL area needing to put something out to an NTSC market then it would be the likely method of choice.
The converse option is as above ie to shoot and master 24p then conform to 25p for PAL land (does that make it the “Fast NTSC” method?)
They are both much of a muchness method/workflow wise, you just have to decide who/what/where is the primary market and/or how it affects your production (and your capability to deal with it).
Best
Andy -
Conforming may be the best method because there is no rendering so you end up with the original picture pixels by pixel.
When “standard converting” you will get better picture when going from 24/25 fps to 30fps, than when going from 30fps to 24/25.
That in my short experience.
Cheers,
Rafael
Reply to this Discussion! Login or Sign Up