[Jimmy Visser]

We were shooting our own project and met up with the guy at a related event. He was there promoting his own one.

We’re a new company – still trying to figure out a shoot rate 🙂 …. but we’re basically selling them footage we have anyway and making sure we retain usage rights.

[Jimmy Visser]

Gday David,

Sorry – I’ve been posting slightly different versions of this problem as I’ve worked thru the process and I didn’t want to annoy everyone by posting everything again.

Basically – long story short – we shot a pilot doco on the Canon XH A1 at 1080f24. Problem is, our editor (who we basically have to use) uses Avid and Avid doesn’t support Canon’s 24f. Hence the need to convert.

I realise my actual question doesn’t relate to FCP; however, anyone who’s shot with 24f and expected cross-platform compatibility and/or done early post work in FCP before switching to Avid – neither of which are ideal scenarios, I admit – will be familiar with the pain and possibly (hopefully!) workflows and conversions.

Thanks for the tip on millions+… will benefit us greatly.

[Jimmy Visser]

Thanks, William. Storage space is always an issue so the advice is gratefully received.

Disappointed not to get any other responses. Thought there would’ve been a few people with this problem.

[Jimmy Visser]

Hmm. Not really that clued up on Component Out. Isn’t it analogue? More importantly, isn’t it for lining out to capture while shooting? Our project has been shot already.

Here’s the previous thread with a better rundown of what we’re actually dealing with:

https://forums.creativecow.net/readpost/45/867921

And no, we have access to Xpress Pro HD and that’s it.

Thanks for the help Terence.

[Jimmy Visser]

Hi Terence,

Because we shot in 24f. We somehow weren’t aware (after a decent amount of research) that Avid couldn’t handle it.

This is our first project, on a nothing budget, with an editor who’s cutting us an amazing deal – so it’s a matter of forcing things to work, however much pre-edit work it entails for us.

[Jimmy Visser]

Hi Michael,

Thanks for the walkthrough. I will definitely have a crack at it.

But I think my main concern is not whether Xpress Pro will handle the 24fps, but whether it can handle Canon’s 24f ‘version’ of 24fps. From all accounts it can’t – I read over at the Avid forums that direct Firewire 24f capturing is supposed to be arriving in the next instalment of Media Composer (3?).

I have seen one workaround where you can capture with HDVSplit, then convert the resulting m2t files to DNxHD with mpeg streamclip, but you lose timecode references – which are pretty important in this situation (and it adds quite a bit of work for the editor).

Bah. I don’t know. Way past confused. Thanks again for the tip, I’ll try it out on Monday and let you know how it goes…

[Jimmy Visser]

G’day Dylan

Cheers for the info. We went with 24fps because we wanted to retain the ability to sell in both (ie PAL and NTSC) markets. It appeared that 24fps would be the best way to achieve this – the least problematic in converting & finishing in both directions.

Of course I’m more than willing to have that idea argued out of me…

Jimmy

[Jimmy Visser]

Ah yes. Nowhere quite like an internet forum to feel like a complete idiot. Of course that makes sense Shane. Assuming the editor would know stuff like that was maybe a little naive.

I guess my question to Paul still stands regarding the differences between digitising and reconnecting, but after our current job finishes on Monday we’ll have a crack at using the A1 as the deck and I’ll let you know how it goes…!

Cheers
Jimmy

[Jimmy Visser]

G’day Paul

Sorry for keeping on coming back to you over this. It’s the small details I have to check. One mistake I’ve made – describing it as an MC system. It’s not; it’s just Xpress Pro.

More details will help hopefully. Editor has been importing EDLs into Xpress Pro. They successfully open into a 24p sequence but show that the media is offline. He’s then trying to batch capture with DVCam decks, which is where the frame rate errors pop up.

Can you describe to me – what is the tangible/functional distinction between digitising the sequence and connecting media to the EDL?

Also, he’d like to try the camera as the capture deck in the hope it’ll integrate better with Avid. But I don’t see why this would be the case?

Thanks again,
Jimmy

[Jimmy Visser]

Thanks for the tip Michael. So can I confirm this is what you recommend for the process:

Export 24f EDL from FCP.
Import 24f EDL into Avid.
Export new Avid sequence as 30i (do you mean 30p/60i NTSC?)
Open 60i EDL in Avid.
Batch capture tapes using new 60i sequence.

My questions would be: does this affect our ability to eventually output at 24p without losing generational quality? Also, we’re in PAL land – am I right in thinking we’re better to convert to 50i, or does that make the pulldown all screwy?

Cheers again
Jimmy