PAL to NTSC

[Filip Vandueren]

There are a number of plugins out there that do frame-blending for changing framerate.
And even some that are spec. designed for transcoding.

But if your material is not interlaced, you can try this:

– create an NTSC comp, but change the frame-rate to 24 fps
– re-interpret your PAL-footage and conform to 24fps (it will slow down about 4%)
– drop the footage into the comp and make it fit by scaling down a bit.
– now render, and in Render settings, after choosing a field-render type, choose any PULL-down.

You’ll get a 24P effect

This is the best way to convert to NTSC if and only if you can live without fields, and the 4% slowdown doesn’t bother you.
I know, those are two big “ifs”, but best of all it doesn’t use any plugins.

[Accountneedsrealnameupdate]

As above but in my experience you’ll probably get a decent result by just bringing the footage in, putting it in an ntsc comp and doing a field render without conforming to 24 first, after effects will add pulldown, it won’t be a nice 3:2 pulldown like the previous method but it will look ok and you don’t need to worry about audio. Make sure you interpret your source correctly if it has fields already (upper or lower field first). As the previous post stated it’s easier if you can deliver it with fields, if you need progressive some kind of plugin will be necessary (you can always get some result by playing with frame blending or a staight progressive render but it won’t look very nice, after effects will just duplicate frames and motion will look stuttery)
Glenn Stewart
1k studios