Which pulldown cadence for Varicam (Avid)

[Noah Kadner]

Standard is a definite across Avid. Advanced not sure on that particular system. You might want to contact Avid and see if they’ve included Advanced support on that one.

Noah

[John Byrne]

In the film settings under Project there is an option to pulldown in standard 2:3:2:3 or Advanced 2:3:3:2. My thinking was that the Varicam will only do its insert in one way or the other when creating the additional frames when recording at 23.98/24 in order to lay down the complete 59.94/60 frames that it does every second. So correct me if I’m wrong but I must only used a standared pull down of 2:3:2:3 if the additional frames are inserted in this fashion in the first place. Using advanced would then remove the incorrect frames?

[Chris Bell]

Advanced pulldown only refers to cameras like the DVX100, SDX900, and the Canon XL2. The Varicam offers no such pulldown cadence. If you downconvert in the 1200a, a standard pulldown will be created for the 60i footage. If you bring your footage in HD at 60p, the redundant frames will creat the look of a standard pulldown. This is, however, a waste of hard drive space.

Have you considered editing on Final Cut Pro? Much better support for DVCPRO HD, and you can edit in 24p and take advantage of the variable frame rates. Some versions of Avid support DVCPRO HD at 24 and 30.

Chris Bell

[John Byrne]

Chris,

Thanks very much for clearing up the pulldown issue. We are wrestling with the format right now and indeed it has been suggested that we go to Final Cut Pro because it is far more intuitive with the VFR feature. However we are set up for Avid so uncertainty reigns!

One thing I didn’t follow was your note of wasting disk space. All our footage is shot 23.98 so I thought that when ingesting at this rate, in either SD 60i downconverted or 60p in a HD project the inserted/duplicated frames would be discarded anyway.

As for edit systems – the economical choice for Avid facilities appears to me to be Xpress Pro which uses the DVCPRO 100 codec. Is there any significant advantage to be using a HD codec/environment and offlining in progressive scan as opposed to downcoverted signals in an SD project? Is it a trap to move to interlace when the footage is shot progressively?

These questions all may sound stupid, the thing is we are in PAL land and all this is very new to us.

regards,
JB

[Chris Bell]

JB,

When you downcovert to SD 60i, there are no progressive frames. If you load footage in HD 60p, you are adding redundant frames and wasting disk space. I believe Avid does offer the ability to edit natitve DVCPRO HD at 24p. Check with them. When you edit in the naitive codec, you save even more disk space.

Chris Bell

[Gary Adcock]

[Chris Bell] “I believe Avid does offer the ability to edit natitve DVCPRO HD at 24p.”

Correct
HD Avids can handle the DV100 codec natively at 60p (59.94 us), 30p (29.97 us) and 24p (23.98 us)
The Hardware FRC is needed to extract footage shot at any other frame rate. (hence the PAL problems)

gary adcock
Studio37
HD and Film Consultation