Playing 24p (23.98) HD on FCP 29.97 timeline

[Sean Oneil]

The problem is that when putting 23.98 on a 29.97 timeline, Final Cut does not add standard 2:3 pulldown. Instead it adds 2:2:2:4 pulldown. Their reasoning (presumably) is that adding 2:3 eats up too many computer resources for realtime video handling.

If you have a Kona or Blackmagic card, all you need to do is edit in a 23.98 sequence. The card will do the work for you by adding 2:3 pulldown on video output automatically.

Sean

[Mpigott]

Quoted….
The problem is that when putting 23.98 on a 29.97 timeline, Final Cut does not add standard 2:3 pulldown. Instead it adds 2:2:2:4 pulldown. Their reasoning (presumably) is that adding 2:3 eats up too many computer resources for realtime video handling.

If you have a Kona or Blackmagic card, all you need to do is edit in a 23.98 sequence. The card will do the work for you by adding 2:3 pulldown on video output automatically. End Quote

We have A Kona 2 card but I am using the Pro Io card right now; as all my animation, titles, and other SD
footage are 720×486 29.97 frames per second.

If I switched to output on the Kona, my entire timeline would have to be re-rendered and God know what it would do to my standard def item!?

[Paul Campbell]

I’m dealing w/ a similar situation here. We shoot 1080p at 24 frames, which is ultimately destined for SD cable TV at 29.97. We also use the XDCAM, but I use the XDCAM Transfer app to import the footage from the flash cards. It’s been suggested to me that rather than doing this, I should use our Kona board to capture the footage, as this would help a great deal with the downconversion to SD before I bring it all into FCP. (The problem I’ve been dealing with is that the footage in FCP doesn’t look as good as it should, but I’m not quite sure why yet)

Is this what you’re saying here? Thanks,

[Sean Oneil]

[mark pigott] “If I switched to output on the Kona, my entire timeline would have to be re-rendered and God know what it would do to my standard def item!?”

Then you need to use a 3rd party filter to add 3:2 pulldown. Check out Nattress Standards Converter.

Unfortunately this whole 4:2:2:2 thing that FCP does is awful, archaic, and just plain dumb. It is by far my biggest complaint about FCP right now – especially since FCP 6 was marketed as being able to mix formats. Please send them feedback on this issue.

Sean

[Mpigott]

[Paul Campbell] “I’m dealing w/ a similar situation here. We shoot 1080p at 24 frames, which is ultimately destined for SD cable TV at 29.97. We also use the XDCAM, but I use the XDCAM Transfer app to import the footage from the flash cards. It’s been suggested to me that rather than doing this, I should use our Kona board to capture the footage, as this would help a great deal with the downconversion to SD before I bring it all into FCP. (The problem I’ve been dealing with is that the footage in FCP doesn’t look as good as it should, but I’m not quite sure why yet)

Is this what you’re saying here? Thanks,”

Yes, we bring the XDCam in through the Sony transfer sofware, I have
fiddled with the Settings/ playback settings/ Pulldown but none of the
settings make the pans look any good!

[Mpigott]

[Sean ONeil] “Then you need to use a 3rd party filter to add 3:2 pulldown. Check out Nattress Standards Converter. Unfortunately this whole 4:2:2:2 thing that FCP does is awful, archaic, and just plain dumb. It is by far my biggest complaint about FCP right now – especially since FCP 6 was marketed as being able to mix formats. Please send them feedback on this issue.”

We have Nattress Film Effects like G Film and G Film Extra; will this do the pulldown that I require?

[Dan Riley]

Mark,
I just did a test. Here’s something that works.

To test this do this export one of your clips with a pan in it:
From FCP, file-export-quicktime movie-current settings- do not make
self contained.

Take this file and drop it into compressor.
Go to settings, Apple-other workflows-advanced format conversions-
standard definition. Drag the setting you want ( I used 8 bit uncompressed
for my test)
Now go to the inspector, frame controls.
Frame controls ON
Deinterlace BEST
Rate conversion BEST
100% of source.
Don’t Save As, just go back up to the control area where your clip is and
touch the rectangle that says your format of choice. Hit submit.
Hopefully you have Compressor set up to use all 8 of our cores
if so it won’t take long, otherwise it will take a bit to process.

Drop the resulting file into your SD, 29.97 timeline of the same format you asked
Compressor to make. You should see a very smooth pan.
I just did a test using DVCPRO HD 720p 23.98 footage and it worked great.

And I know exactly what you mean when you talk about what it looked like
when you dropped the original 23.98 clip onto an SD 29.97 timeline.
It would look like crap. What I’m telling you to do above should look
very good.
Let me know.

Dan

[Rich Rubasch]

Hey Dan, although it might look very good, don’t you lose all the original clip information once it’s in the sequence? No tape info, timecode etc? Isn’t that all stripped out? This sure won’t work good on long-form projects where you might need to go back for some clips.

I understand, however, that you were trying to find a solution without having to get Nattress standards Converter. Still, FCP has to deal with this in the future as we will face this more and more.

Rich Rubasch
Tilt Media

[Dan Riley]

Nattress won’t work in this situation.
Nattress will make 29.97 into 23.98, but not 23.98 into 29.97.
At least that what I saw when I tried it today for this post.

Dan

[Dan Riley]

My Bad. You are talking about Nattress Standards converter.
I don’t have or use that. I have Film Effects and Bag of Tricks.
They don’t do 30p to 24p. The Nattress site says the
Standards Converter plug-in does that conversion.

But if you don’t have Standards converter you can load all the problem
clips into Compressor and batch all of them overnite. Now you have all
new clips to import and you could use them at all times in your
sequences, thus not having the match back problems you mention.
It’s nice to have a choice.

Dan