[Neil Ryan]

and finally, NTSC discs playing on a NTSC-playable PAL system don’t look the same as when they’re played on their native NTSC system.
To make NTSC only discs to ship worldwide is a compromise.
Hollywood doesn’t do it, and not just because of region-encoding issues …

[Neil Ryan]

[Ed] “any modern PAL DVD players will play NTSC DVDs, so you really only need to create NTSC
DVDs”

… and on that subject, why don’t NTSC players play PAL discs, if the reverse is true ..

[Neil Ryan]

“2) Can I then put both versions onto a DVD that will work …”

No. You cannot put both PAL & NTSC on one DVD. DVD Video discs are either PAL OR NTSC; simply and only ever one or the other.

“1) Can I convert my NTSC version into PAL without a lot of headaches?”

Well, not too many headaches. You basically have to re-do everything. Is that a headache?
The still images used in the menus (including overlays on motion menus) need to be resized from frame size to another; PAL & NTSC have different frame sizes.
And, as mentioned in the previous reply, the video all needs to be converted from standard to the other.

Note: computers will play either PAL ot NTSC. Can be useful for testing.

[Neil Ryan]

Tell my mother-in-law her cooking is lousy, and you’ll get that voice!
The levels may vary as her head spins, however.

[Neil Ryan]

[Rupert St Leger] “Since the final product will be standard (4:3)”

Rupert, can you explain why this is so? (I wouldn’t say 4×3 is ‘standard’ these days.)

My feeling, given that it is ALREADY shot in 16×9, is that you have the option to look to the future and create a 16×9 master, or live in the past by creating a 4×3 master from existing 16×9 footage.
Surely, your client’s need for a 4×3 master is a one-off. Will they NEVER require a widescreen version?
If you create a 16×9 master, there are other, more successful ways to create a 4×3 master from it, than FCP.

Would love to hear the whole story…

[Neil Ryan]

“Since the final product will be standard (4:3)”

Why not produce a 16:9 master, seeing its originated in that format, then do a 4:3 centre cut version if required.
The 16:9 master shows far more foreward thinking; i.e. If you create a 4×3 only master, now, but later, want to show it on a widescreen, or even air it, the 4:3 master creates horrible limitations …

Far easier to go 16:9 > 4:3 than the other way around.

Neil.

[Neil Ryan]

Did you check the ‘Schedule …’ tab in Energy Saver prefernces?

[Neil Ryan]

Would pay to do some research into the Colour Smoothing filters (under Keying) including on this forum.

They can improve the efficiency of the various keyers.

[Neil Ryan]

[Matte] “DVmatte Pro

http://www.dvgarage.com“

I went there … the site still talks about FCP 4 … no reference to FCP Studio/FCP5.
It has a forum, and a post from this month spoke negatively of the product, and says since purchasing the product over a year ago, there haven’t been any updates.

So my initial visit made me nervous, right from the start …

It has a demo version to download, so it may be worth the try …

[Neil Ryan]

Will you be keeping your Avid as well?

If not, get a copy of Avid Medialog, so at least you can open the Avid projects to see what was in the bins.
You will not be able to open any Avid Sequences, however.

Also, if you don’t have your Avid system, you cannot, later, buy Automatic Duck to open your Avid Sequences in FCP, as the first step is to export the Sequences OUT of the Avid…

Food for thought.