[Sarah]

Hi Tom,

The TC filter is still not working in FCP but I have upgraded Squeeze and it’s working in that again and that serves my purposes.

If I wanted to get the filter back in FCP the thing I would try is to re-install FCP and if I could wind back time I would have cloned my system drive when I got my new system with FCP installed then I could have really wound back time when the problem arose and that would have fixed or helped identify where it was coming from.

Thanks for letting me know about ProxyMill

Hope you get it sorted out in FCP. Let me know if you do.

Cheers,

Sarah

[Sarah]

Hi Mark,

Thank you for your reply. I did what you advised and got rid of the offending frame in FCP.

All good, NTSC DVD happiness! Thank you so much for your help. You saved me.

Sarah

[Sarah]

Hello again,

I did the PAL to NTSC conversion in compressor 3.5, staying in uncompressed 8bit to see if that would fix the flash to colour bars issue (in case the issue lies with going from my 8 bit PAL master straight NTSC mpeg) but the issue is still there.

Would compression markers around the problem area fix it? I have not used compression markers in Compressor before. It seems you would need to insert them in FCP first and export them with the master?

I also have AE 10 and I heard that this does an ok standards conversion but I am not sure how to do it? I am not an AE user.

If buying twixtor for AE would save me a whole lot of heartache I would do it. I tried the trial version and had issues with the images jumping at some cut points. I heard that Twixtor does this at scene endings and that you can tell it when the scene ends. My issues were not at scene endings. The info I have found on using twixtor on the Twixtor website or in the manual does not give detailed info on PAL to NTSC conversions.

I would be extremely grateful for any advice on how get the best results out of Compressor, AE or Twixtor.

The movie I am working on is a 19 minute short drama film with synch dialogue and music. I am trying to create a NTSC DVD for film festival submissions.

Cheers,

Sarah

[Sarah]

Hi,

Reporting back in after trying Mark’s excellent advice.

Looks very good and, of course, sounds great and all in synch. One issue is that there is a flash to colour bars near the beginning which I guess is compressor’s way of saying – “on no lost the plot for a moment”. No other visual issues at all.

I realise that this is not the forum for discussing visuals, but Mark, since you are so knowledgeable about the visual side of things, I was wondering if you had any ideas about how to fix this issue.

The encoding took 3 hours, which surprised me as when I was making the PAL mpeg it took about 10 hours – the film is 19 minutes long.

Wondering if I should do the NTSC conversion to the same master format as the PAL master I am working from and then do the mpeg version?

I have included screenshots of my settings.

Anyway, Mark you have solved the problem I was having with the audio and I am very grateful for that.

Cheers,

Sarah

[Sarah]

Hi Mark,

Thank you so much!

That is such a clear explanation of what is going on and what needs to happen. I think I will be ok with the settings. Thank you for the offer.

Will set it up to run overnight and will let the forum know how it goes.

I am very grateful for your help.

Cheers,

Sarah

[Sarah]

Hello again Rafael, thank you for the tips.

I repaired disc permissions, trashed FCP preferences to no avail.

I started in safe mode. FCP wouldn’t run in safe mode but Squeeze would.

In safe mode I have the Time Code filter working in Squeeze but it does not work when I start up normally.

So, I’m thinking I have something on my system which is interfering with TC filter in FCP and Squeeze.

Stupidly, I do not have a clone of my original system that I can go back to.

Do you have any idea where I should be looking for what is taking out my TC filters?

Cheers,

Sarah

[Sarah]

Hi Rafael,

Thank you for answering my post. Yes that is correct.

Sarah

[Sarah]

Thanks Rafael, appreciate your input.

Sarah

[Sarah]

Hi Michael,

Thank you for your very prompt reply and for explaining the process to me.

I had provided the post house with an ungraded 1080p 8 bit QuickTime which they graded and are mastering to HDCAM tape.

So, if I understand correctly – my progressive master will sit in an interlaced wrapper on HDCAM Tape and play as progressive in theatres and as interlaced on TV. I have requested that they give me a progressive HD quicktime so that I can make progressive DVDs and webmovies as needed.

Thanks for helping clear this up for me,

Cheers,

Sarah