HDV PAL to HDV NTSC to DVD, best conversion method?

I'm cutting a feature doc shot in HDV PAL. What would you recommend the most efficient way to turn out an HDV NTSC master (to produce a DVD) for the North American market?
I'm far from any post production house, in the wilds of New Zealand. Ideally I want to be able to do the conversions using the FCP Studio setup ... but need to be able to promise my producers that the end result will be top quality. Is this a Nattress question? Like, for instance, does a Nattress conversion give the same quality result as a hardware conversion, tape to tape?
I'm thinking that if I can make a straight FCP\Nattress? conversion and end up with TWO HDV masters, PAL and NTSC. And then take each HDV master and produce two separate MPEG2's for the two DVD masters, using Compressor and DVD Pro ... then that might be the easiest way to go.
If there is a better (even though more expensive way to go, other than a $900 an hour pp studio in L.A.), I want to be able to suggest that to the producers also. Let them choose...
Thank you,
Ben

Hi Ben,
Why do you try to conform to 24 fps if you want to convert PAL (25fps) to NTSC (30fps) ?
You also doesn't need to de-interlaced video, do you? What for ?
Is it for a theatre release or a television ?
Maybe I didn't understand your problem...
I've never done it but I would suggest to try to conform your quicktime file like that in Cinema Tools:
Open file
Conform
29,97
or
30
I think one is for frop frame and the other one is for non-drop but I don't know which one, I am not familiar with NTSC either.
If it's for television you should choose drop frame I think to have the right lenght.
There is also Reverse Telecine that you can use for NTSC but overall, I would suggest that you take a deep look into Cinema Tools help/manual because it's really well done and I'm quite sure you'll fine all your answers in it.
Regards,
Marie

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PAL letterboxed to NTSC anamorphic DVD

I'm trying to figure out a good workflow to go from a PAL letterboxed
QuickTime movie to an NTSC anamorphic DVD. A rather depressing assignment.
Using Compressor, I started with the DVD: 90-minute Best setting.
In the MPEG-2 Video Format section, I selected NTSC, 29.97, 16:9, top first.
Turned on all the frame controls--set to better or fast,
and set Source Inset (Cropping) to 16:9. That works, but there are some
nasty interlacing artifacts.
Am I doing something absurd here?
Would it make more sense to split the workflow:
first deinterlacing, then resizing and changing the frame rate,
followed by the MPEG-2 encoding?
I could split the process up with a New Job with Target Output,
or I could do all the "mastering" in Shake, and just use Compressor
for the MPEG-2 encoding.
Any words of wisdom would be most appreciated.

OK, I figured out a great workflow, and I'd like to share it.
1. Compressor: Setting: DV PAL Anamorphic
a. Encoder: Video Settings: Frame Rate Current, Scan Mode Progressive, Aspect Ratio 16:9
b. Frame Controls: Resize Better, Output Fields Progressive, Deinterlace Better, Adaptive Details Off
c. Geometry: Source Inset: Crop 16:9
2. Cinema Tools: Conform to 23.98
3. Compressor: Setting: DV NTSC Anamorphic
a. Encoder: Video Settings: Frame Rate Current, Scan Mode Progressive, Aspect Ratio 16:9
4. Compressor: Setting: DVD: Best Quality 90 minutes
So, to summarize, I used Frame Controls to do the heavy lifting of resizing and deinterlacing, and avoided the issue of retiming by conforming. Since the footage was progressive, converting to NTSC was easy, and didn't require Frame Controls. DVD looks nice.
And the cool thing about the new Apple Forum Format is that I can answer my own questions!

Best conversion method for video so that it is viewable on my ATV and Touch

I have a bunch of home videos, podcasts, and movies that I would like to put in a format so they play well on my ATV and iPod Touch. The home videos were created in iMovie and shared to my iPod (using the link in iMovie). All play on my ATV, only some play on my ipod touch. Basically I want to convert or create all my video once and have it play on both devices. Any help would be appreciated.

I'd agree too, and indeed where I want video for my iphone I export it as a separate movie. However the OP has specifically stated the goal of having one movie to do all jobs.
In this case exports have to be targeted for the ipod/iphone and not the tv. How this is achieved depends on the video that is being converted. For the types of video mentioned by the OP, handbrake is not the answer.
Where possible avoid doubling up on processing, so from imovie export for the ipod/iphone (this varies depending on which imovie you use. For videos that aren't in imovie, the 'create ipod or iphone version' option from the advanced menu in itunes will do the job in most cases. Other tools you might use are Quicktime or even mpegstreamclip if your source video is either mpeg1 or mpeg2.

HDV to NTCS DVD works... is it the same for a PAL DVD?

Hello
I created a DVD from HDV material using these settings with compressor:
http://www.larryjordan.biz/articles/bkhdvconvert.html
basicallythe options are: DVD Best Quality 90 min 16:9
Video Format Tab in the Inspector to manually set filed dominance to "botom first"
It worked fine.
Now i need to create a PAL DVD. what would i need to change?
just set the video format to PAL in the inspector window? and then in DVD studio pro set it to PAL again?
thanks.
Leon.
thanks.

let me see if I can help out a little here.
The problem with converting 1080i to SD in software is that FCP seems to do a not-very-good job of downsampling the image, particularly when you are going directly to DV. Details get blurry, and other compression artifacts become quite noticeable. I have also experienced trouble with the HDV fields not getting processed correctly if I go to SD mpeg directly from an HDV timeline or movie file.
Your best bet is one of the following workflows:
Export a 1080i HDV or AIC movie file and re-import to FCP. Place this clip into an anamorphic SD sequence. It doesn't matter if the sequence is DV or Uncompressed if you send the sequence directly to Compressor from FCP, because this will ignore any rendered material and use an uncompressed image buffer as it encodes the mpeg. Do not letterbox your widescreen video if you are going to DVD - widescreen DVD video should always be full-frame anamorphic.
Your other option is to attempt to use Compressor to down-res the sequence or a self-contained movie of your HDV, starting with one of the advnace format conversion presets in Compressor. However, you'll have to cutstomize the preset by turning on the frame controls, and testing the settings to make sure you are happy with the result. Turning on frame controls will increase the ratio of your encoding time anywhere from 4 to 20:1.
I have tried all of these methods, and none of them look as good as capturing the downconverted video from the deck after mastering to HDV tape.
Hope this helps -
Max Average

Convert HDV PAL 1080i50 to NTSC HD 1080i

Has anyone ever successfully converted HDV PAL 1080i50 to NTSC HD 1080i. we keep running into problems with cinema tools. Both the preferences in the file menu and button marked "conform" in the open clip dialogue are GRAYED OUT!! Please help...
We've also tried using MPEG Streamclip 1.9 to conform our footage with meager results. Basically we always end up with jumpy footage.
Also if no one knows how to do this, what about converting 1080i50 to 1080i/p 23.98/24?? Is this possible? Can it have smooth playback?

I've done it in a different way.... I've used FCP Media Manager to recompress the HDV footage to DVCPRO HD, then it works in Cinema Tools, although I've gotten glitches in the video for some reason on occasion. Inotherwords, the orginal PAL DVCPRO HD file is perfect. Then when I conform it in Cinema Tools to 23.98 (which takes about a second), it's now a perfect NTSC file with the exception that at around 5 mins. in, there's a five frame glitch, which I have no way to explain except that there's a glitch in the software which causes that...

*** HDV to SD DVD

I've been following the post below for a while now in order to take HDV footage to a SD DVD more quickly but I'm running into problems. The post basically calls to create a DVCPRO 50 anamorphic sequence, and drop the HDV sequence into it (nest it). Sometimes this works, but sometimes the HDV sequence I'm dropping in doesn't resize itself like it's supposed to. It is really inconsistent. Just exporting from the timeline directly to compressor to make DVDs is quality I'm happing with, but it takes about 60 hours to convert a 1 hour film. Can anyone either explain why this may be happening and/or pass along some links to a better (and faster) workflow for going from HDV to SD DVD?
For FYI, here is the post I am referring to:
My new HDV to SD workflow is as follows:
Capture and edit Native HDV in FCP 5.0.4 or later.
Create a DV50 timeline (DVCPRO 50) 4:3 or 16:9 (Anamorphic)
Set the Field Dominance to Upper (Odd)
Set the Video Processing - Motion Filtering Quality to Fastest (Linear)
Drop the HDV onto the DV50 timeline, it will scale / letterbox correctly, you can alter the scale and pan it to your liking on the DV50 timeline.
Export the DV50 as a quicktime movie.
This will be fairly quick, because there are no filters required for the field dominance upper, as it matches the HDV - we will let compressor switch the fields instead. However, because of this, firewire preview will have the wrong interlacing, and appear jerky on movement. You can DV (DV25) preview DV50 rendered timelines, it seems to convert on the fly.
Drop the exported DV50 movie into compressor.
Don't add any conversion settings yet, click on the DV50 line, and bring up the inspector window, change the Native Field Dominance to be Upper - same as was in the timeline.
Now add some DVD conversions, match 16:9 conversions with DV50 Anamorphic movies, and 4:3 with regular DV50. Use the 2 pass setting. Because we set the Native Field Dominance to Upper, the MPEG-2 videos will have their Field Dominance set to Top First - this is correct.
Submit.
Timings: (1 min 56 sec timeline) on 1.5 GHz G4
Save DV50 from timeline 10 to 11 minutes
Create 2 pass MPEG-2 from DV50 - 30 minutes
Total time, for 1 min 56 sec of HDV to DVD, 40 minutes on 1.5GHz G4
Previous time, going from the timeline via compressor was 68 minutes.
Create DVD's from those assets, they seem to be the best quality possible in the fastest turnaround time, and using DV50 as an intermediate seems to remove the darkening problems of None, has a colour-space that matches the final MPEG - unlike DV (DV25), and does not require too much HD space. It also creates the MPEG quite quickly too, because the DV50 decode is pretty fast.
If this set-up works for you, and improves things over what you are currently doing, let me know. If it does not, let me know why not! If you think there is a better quality method, share it!
Now, over to you guys, I need some feedback and some advice from the pro's:
With the Upper (Odd) / Top First Field Dominance, from FCP through to Compressor, a lot of time is saved when making the DV50 movie, because it does not need a shift fields filter, BUT, will there be problems with a MPEG-2 that has Top First field dominance on certain DVD players ? It seems to work on the players I have tested. It is possible to do the Lower (Even), Shift Fields +1 filter and Bottom First MPEG workflow, but it is quite a bit slower, although it does preview over firewire on DV properly. Any thoughts from someone who knows this stuff better than me - is the end result the same, or am I relying on the DVD player handling the MPEG properly ?
All thoughts welcome.
Some other updates:
I had a lower quality export of a HDV sequence, to an HDV quicktime movie. I have tried all evening to track it down, and post, definitively what it was, but I am at a loss. I can't reproduce it. I thought it was to do with conformed vs. un-conformed timelines, but they now seem to produce the same result.
Well, this is interesting anyway, Choosing Sequence -> Render All -> Both (and make sure everything is ticked), you will get a long Conforming HDV Video step. Now Print to Video won't repeat the (first) Conform, and happens quicker, and exporting the movie happens a lot faster too. Make sure you have filled any gaps with slugs, gaps will slow things down, even after the conform.
Timings:
1 min 56 sec timeline, about 14 cuts only HDV edits, just a rough cut.
1.5GHz Powerbook G4.
Save HDV from unconformed timeline: 10 minutes
Conform Timeline: 8 minutes
Save HDV from conformed timeline: 1 minute
Weird, huh ? Why doesn't it just conform, then export ?
PowerBook G4 Mac OS X (10.4.4) Z1U
The prob

I've followed Bonsai's instructions to create DVDs from HDV footage from this link:
http://www3.telus.net/bonsai/Welcome.html
But my current problem is that when I drop my HDV sequence into the DV50 timeline, it doesn't resize and scale at all.
Here's a photo of my canvas for reference:
http://i172.photobucket.com/albums/w27/bcpatters/canvas.jpg
Does anyone know why this is happening and how I can solve it?

FCE4 / HDV / Apple TV / DVD

Hi, bonjour,
I'm new to apple and FCE4. I used to work with Adobe Premiere but since it takes a whole lot of work to get HDV footage in an Apple TV format, I switched to imac/FCE.
Can anyone tell me what the best settings are to put HDV footage to DVD AND to Apple TV using FCE4
Kind Regards,
Message was edited by: Ludovic Claeys

Assuming you're using iDVD to make the DVD you use two separate export functions. You export to QuickTime Movie and take that to iDVD. You export to QuickTime Conversion and use the Apple TV preset for the other. You should probably read up on using the application.

PAL to NTSC for DVD

I have got a PAL Final Cut Pro sequence that needs to be made into an NTSC DVD. What's the best way of doing this?
Can I just export my project as an NTSC self-contained movie and then encode it to mpeg2 and put into DSP as I normally would with a PAL project?

You need to converter the PAL sequence to NTSC before create the NTSC DVD. There are several ways to do the standards conversion.
1) Compression 2 has conversion in it now - just make sure you use the otipical flow setting to get the best result. Down side is it is VERY slow!!
2) Graeme Natress has a plugin for final cut - www.natress.com
3) We use the standard alone DVfilm application, Atlantis - with this you export your sequence as a self contained movie, and then open it in Atlantis and let it do the work. www.dvfilm.com .
We choose Atlantis over Natresses standard conversion because it worked a little bit better for us with slow-mo of fast action sequences, but we haven't used the latest versions.
With Atlantis we get a conversion time ratio of 1:3 eg. 1 minute of footage takes 3 minutes to convert. Thats on a Dual 2.5Gb G5 with 2Gb of RAM.
Of course once you;ve run the standards conversion you get out a NTSC-DV sequence and then you need to encode this to mpeg2.
Hope this helps.

Best settings PAL 50hz to NTSC

Hello, we are ingesting PAL feeds from India and encoding for distribution on a hardware platform in the USA. The platform supports 29.97 and 23.97 inbound frame rates. What would be the best settings in FMLE? There is no 23.97 frame rate in FMLE, and when I try 29.97, FMLE switches to 25.
So I picked 24, but I'm worried about frame drops and losing sync, should I be, or is this the best setting?
Thanks
- Joel

OK, I figured out a great workflow, and I'd like to share it.
1. Compressor: Setting: DV PAL Anamorphic
a. Encoder: Video Settings: Frame Rate Current, Scan Mode Progressive, Aspect Ratio 16:9
b. Frame Controls: Resize Better, Output Fields Progressive, Deinterlace Better, Adaptive Details Off
c. Geometry: Source Inset: Crop 16:9
2. Cinema Tools: Conform to 23.98
3. Compressor: Setting: DV NTSC Anamorphic
a. Encoder: Video Settings: Frame Rate Current, Scan Mode Progressive, Aspect Ratio 16:9
4. Compressor: Setting: DVD: Best Quality 90 minutes
So, to summarize, I used Frame Controls to do the heavy lifting of resizing and deinterlacing, and avoided the issue of retiming by conforming. Since the footage was progressive, converting to NTSC was easy, and didn't require Frame Controls. DVD looks nice.
And the cool thing about the new Apple Forum Format is that I can answer my own questions!

Pal / ntsc training dvd roms

hi there,
does anyone know if i buy ntsc training dvds will they be playable in my imac in pal land?
thanks
BArry
imac g5 Mac OS X (10.4) fcp

Yes, they will. FCP can handle both PAL and NTSC formats (and a lot more besides!)
Bear in mind though that if you wish to play an NTSC timeline out to an external deck/monitor the deck and monitor will need to be NTSC-capable, which could present you with a problem. But for strictly computer-display learning purposes, you'll not have a problem,

Convert PAL project to NTSC to burn a region free DVD

I have a two part question that I'm in need of advice on.
PAL/NTSC
I have a short film in a premiere project format PAL 25fps. In order to prepare for DVD burning do I need to just convert the exported PAL file to NTSC or do I need to begin with a premiere project with sequence setting as NTSC 29.9fps?
Then...
Do I just burn to a blank DVD using a standard DVD burner?
Thanks in advance!

Convert on export, but you will take a quality hit, Premiere has to somehow create 4.97 extra frame every second, this will show on any moving material. There are special hardware convertors that do a better job but these tend to be expensive. You will have to author the dvd using a program like Encore that can be downloaded using Adobe CC (you will need to get Premiere CS6 as this includes the last version of Encore).

NTSC & PAL both in the same DVD

There are really no way to put the two standard in the same same dvd?
I mean whatever kind of dvd; dual layer or other?
thanks for any help

Longer answer:
Actually you can, although it is, I believe, against the DVD standard.
Or more precisely: you COULD - I put some NTSC tracks and some PAL tracks on the same DVD I authored about four years ago in DVD Studio Pro v1.5.
The DVD's menus adopted the video standard (PAL or NTSC) specified for the whole DVD, but the individual tracks retained their own video standard.
When re-visiting it later, with DVDSP v.2 (I think) it would no longer let you do this, saying "assets must be of the same video standard".
I kept v1.5 on my machine for a while when I still needed to do this. Have long since deleted it.
So, now: no you can't.

Does DVDSPro able to convert PAL clip to NTSC by itself ?

I am in PAL country. I wan't to make an NTSC DVD from a PAL clip.
Do I really need to convert this clip to NTSC before I put it in DVD Studio Pro ? Why ? DVD Studio Pro isn't able to do it by itself ?
iDVD apparently can (it's written in the manual)
thanks

PLAN9 (from the outside space??)
Of course !
DVDSP is not a encoding/conversion tool.
Yes, DVDSP is not Compressor. But, when you want to burn your DVD, it encodes mpeg2 files, doesn't he ? Thus, DVDSP can encode files with the help of Quicktime in the background. So if I make it your way, in some ways I use Quicktime twice in a row. Is it really the best way to do ?
You cannot even import PAL assets in NTSC project.
Did you try it ? I am making it at this moment, and it's works.
In all the discussions, people say "first you have to convert your files to NTSC" and "you can even import PAL files in a NTSC project"
Please help me. I don't understand.

IDVD-change PAL video to NTSC video format on burning

Hi.
I have families overseas and would like to send them family movie video. But the problem is they have NTSC format or signal system and we have PAL here in Australia. Is it possible for a video made by PAL video camera burn as NTSC to dvd using iDVD?
I have just bought my new Mac Mini Intel Core 2 Duo Leopard. I don't know anything about iDVD and I still have to use and try it.
Can any one help me.
Many thanks.
JVale

Is it possible for a video made by PAL video camera burn as NTSC to dvd using iDVD?
Yes, BUT .......
PAL and NYSC video have different frame rates and image sizes. Quicktime, as used by iDVD can make the conversion, but the results probably won't be great quality.
Make sure you have iDVD's preferences set to NTSC BEFORE you start a new project to send to them.

From PAL project to NTSC - easy way?

Hello,
I made a nice PAL DVD9 with 4 menu's and some submenu's and tons of little transition movies, and 10 shorts (animation) and some extra's (trailers, making of). The DVD's now at the replicator, has been tested and will be pressed.
Now I have to do an NTSC version. We've rerendered all of our motion menu's, and converted other video assets.
Now, do I really have to physically remove all video assets from the assets menu in order to make the disc an NTSC disc, then import all NTSC video assets and figure out where they were supposed to go (43 menu's and tracks!)?
Isn't there an easy way out? I removed all the PAL MPEGs so now they're missing and offline, but DVDSP4.2 still doesn't allow me to change the project to an NTSC one. I can however replace (relink) the missing MPEGs for the NTSC versions I encoded! But I take it there will be trouble at the mastering fase when I deliver a 'PAL' disc with all NTSC video..

Hi Roloff
Unfortunately there's no way around replacing the mpegs. Personally I replace them all manually to make sure everythings everythings hunky-dory - but I suppose if you make all of your NTSC file names identical to your PAL names you could re-link them automatically. Which ever way you do it though, all your chapter markers and connections should remain intact if you only delete the asset from the tracks and leave the track itself.
If DVDSP is not letting you change the project from PAL to NTSC then there still must be some PAL assets in the project. If you have any menus that DVDSP has encoded, you'll need to remove the mpegs that DVDSP created for the project as well. Also DVDSP will not let you make a PAL disc with NTSC assets.
Hope some of that helps.
Cheers
B

HDV PAL to HDV NTSC to DVD, best conversion method?

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