NEWBIE- CONVERTING NTSC PROJECT TO PAL USING COMPRESSOR (?)

Hi all- thanks for any help you can offer.
I am taking a project(instructional dvd) with six chapters that I have completed in NTSC. I was told that if I want to now go to PAL, that I could go back to final cut pro 5, make quicktime movies of each chapter then put them in compressor with pal settings and make mpeg2's out of them. Then I create a new dvd studio pro project in pal and go from there. When I did that (IS that the way to go?) it seemed as if compressor took waaaay too little time to compress the chapter. Just looking for some advice on the most sure fire way (short of importing and re-editing all my clips in final cut) to convert my ntsc quicktime movies to a pal format that I can use to make a pal dvd.
Thanks so much
suz6
g5 quad Mac OS X (10.4.9) final cut studio fcp 5/ pro dvd studio pro 4

Hi:
Read this recent post in Compressor forum:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1015451&tstart=0
Hope that helps !
Alberto

Similar Messages

Convert NTSC project to PAL

I have a completed video project done in NTSC and want to make the identical project in PAL.
Is there a set protocol to accomplish this?
W

I have done it the other way, as I'm in the UK but you (unless someone can say otherwise) change the format from NTSC to PAL in Encore.
I have gone back into my Premier project and output the original footage from PAL to NTSC format, then dropped that into the Encore project, although you would have to resize your menu accordingly. Not a problem if it's just a basic menu with buttons.
I've found that most people these days have DVD players that play all region DVD's so this may not be a problem.
Hope that helps.

Converting NTSC footage to PAL with compressor 4

Hello, Please can some angel help.
I have PAL and NTSC footage. I want the end output to be PAL.
I have compressor 4. What settings, step by step do I select to change the NTSC footage to PAL.
There is info. on the web all relating to old versions of compresor where there seems to have existing a helpful NTSC/DVD setting where compressor made it clear the setting you needed. This is not an option on Compressor 4 so I am hitting a brick wall.
I would greatly appreciate some advice here.
Thank you
Nicola

What formats are your source files? What format (aside from PAL standard) do you want your output file (s) to be?
Russ

How to convert my NTSC project to PAL?

Hi! I'd like know how i can convert my ntsc project into PAL.
I need finish a DVD for my client take to ANGOLA and there is PAL system.It is possible? My Encore is 2.0.
Or It is possible put my NTSC movie into PAL project and let encore transcode the movie? Thank you very much and sorry my english.

You have several options.
1 - Create a new PAL project in Premiere Pro. Capture your footage in the usual manner, and as soon as it is in the project, hit the ENTER key to render it.
2 - Create an NTSC project in Premiere Pro, capture to NTSC DV footage, and export it out again.
Close project.
Create new PAL project, import the NTSC clip & then interpret/conform the footage to the project settings.
3 - Set up an NTSC project, capture footage, export to PAL DV or MPEG-2 from Premiere.
4 - Use TMPGEnc Xpress 4 - it's standards conversion is very good.
5 - Use ProCoder, as Ruud suggests
6 - Use CCE SP if you have it.
I'd try as many different ways as you can, and view the lot to see what looks the best.

NTSC Project to PAL - Different than previous posting

I have a NTSC project in Encore 2.0. I rendered videos for it in NTSC and PAL from Premier.
My problem that I don't want to rebuild my entire DVD project in Encore just to link the PAL videos.
But, I haven't seen a way to export the project or save it as a PAL project.
Any tips or clues? I want the PAL project to be just like the NTSC project except to use the PAL clips instead of NTSC.
Chuck

Chuck,
With all due respect, did you read/understand BJ's post just above yours?
He describes what issues you will encounter with Encore or any software, and why, even if you could convert the video on the fly, the menus would need to be re-done from scratch.
Finally, no. There is no project setting you can change. You must start a new project. If you dig around in the project folder of the NTSC project, you can probably decipher which are the menu files. Maybe you can salvage something from that.
Best of luck,
Jeff

DV-NTSC Project to PAL DVD

Here is what I intend to do:
Create a copy of the project file project_pal.fcp
In project_pal.fcp change easy setting to DV-PAL
Export sequences to quicktime
Use compressor to convert to DVD ready files
Author DVD w/ DVDSP
My questions are:
Where in here to I need to change any additional setting to make the DVD PAL ready? Is there anything in compressor or DVDSP I need to change or will exporting from a PAL project get that done?
Thanks!

Converting from NTSC to PAL is not a trivial bit of transcoding. There are disparate frame rates as well as different frame sizes. You can't just drop in a NTSC file in a PAL timeline and get good results.
There are three good ways to do it.
1. Purchase and use Graeme Nattress's Standards Convert plug in to convert the NTSC timeline to PAL on export within FCP.
or
2. Use Compressor's Advanced features to convert the exported NTSC file to PAL.
or
3. Take the file to a post house that can do a hardware based standard conversion.
Once you have the file in a PAL format, author a PAL disk and burn it within DVDSP.
Of course, the disk should be region free.
x

Converting ntsc dvd to pal for web

hi , i am based in uk and I have a dvd that apparently is ntsc as it plays in my dvd player and says ntsc region, it plays on the computer to.
I want to take small segments from it to convert to web format , add titles etc and upload to youtube.\
trouble is i cant rip the files to use in final cut pro, tried media streamclip but that produces jerky unusable files with random drop out and colours
I then thought play it realtime into fcp , it will play going by a firewire into capture and i see it but when capturing it stops every few seconds saying there is dropout I unchecked report on droped frames, and abourt on dropout. and capturing without deck control. i then tried to go through my dv camera but that doesnt see the picture only the sound.
I thought I could copy the dvd but it wont work either on my dvd recorder or with toast.
any suggestions how I can do this? does it need converting first if so how?
I am only using a few minutes of at least 90 minutes of footage .
thankyou
ade

>Maybe worth a feature request for CS5?
God in heaven - NO!
As Joe just pointed out, these are 2 completely different TV standards, running on different frame rates at different resolutions.
The results of attempting this "on the fly" with menus etc would very closely resemble a dogs dinner.
>I would therefore guess that you are stuck with copying the menus and other such assets into a new Encore project for each output format.
That won't work.
NTSC is 720x480, PAL is 720x576. They have different PAR as well.
If compliance is what you need, then design your menus in Square Pixels at 720 x 540, and resize the image (in PS) to the required TV standard before importing into Encore. 16/9 is worse, as you need to use different designs for each TV standard. There are no short-cuts.
Asset preparation should be done
i outside
the authoring application, never
i in
it.

Urgent: NTSC project with PAL VOB - weird symptoms

I need help with this in the next day, so I hope someone can respond quickly. (Encore CS3 on Windows XP)
I was sent a DVD with a video clip to which I need to add Japanese subtitles and show at a meeting in 36 hours, and then distribute about a dozen copies to others around Japan who will show it to other people. Although I knew it was sent from a PAL country, since it looked great on my computer, I assumed they sent me an NTSC version (I didn't realize how versatile PC-based players are - I'm smarter now). I made a new Encore project, put the VOB file in it, added my subtitles and made a simple menu, and burned a disk. I started to suspect something was odd when it took about a half hour to
transcode the 6 minute video - I was thinking that a VOB wouldn't need transcoding at all. Then when I played the disk on a regular player I could see the jittery movement, so I tried the original DVD (which of course wouldn't play) and realized that I had been working with PAL video all along.
The result of Encore's attempt to convert the video is tolerable for this purpose, especially on such short notice, but after the burn another problem appeared. I went back to my project to fix a couple subtitles, but in my timeline things started to act funny - after moving around my timeline just a little, suddenly the bounding box for the subtitles appeared much higher than where I put it and kinda squished vertically, as if it thinks the whole video frame is much vertically narrower than it really is (but the video doesn't squish; just the subtitles). Fortunately I had not saved since the burn, so I did a Save As instead, and compared the two projects. The original project with only pre-transcode data still acts okay, but the one saved post-transcode compresses the subtitle area, not immediately but after viewing just a couple spots on the timeline after opening the file.
I made the necessary edits on the original project file, and will burn another draft disk (going to bed rather than staying to watch it transcode again). But I would like to know:
Is this the best result I'm going to get with the available tools (PPro/Encore CS3, AE 6.0)? I did a search before posting, and everyone talks of DVFilm Atlantis, but I can't spare $200 right now. Actually, it looks better than I would imagine from reading DVFilm's description of how converted video looks
without their software, so either they make it sound worse than it is, or CS3 contains improved algorithms for this - to the casual eye it's only noticable in areas of faster movement.
Does anyone know what might be causing the shrinking subtitle problem in the project after transcoding? It would be nice to save my transcoded video and not have to start over every time. I want to also include another 14 minute video from the same DVD (without subititles), but then it would take a couple hours to transcode and burn each disk.
Thanks in advance for your quick help.

I had already tried changing the filename extension to MPG and importing into AE (see my previous post). That
definitely didn't work - it looked as if it took random frames from all over the video and interchanged them, as crazy as that sounds. Per your suggestion I used PPro as an intermediate step to change it to PAL AVI, and that was okay. But after AE changed that to NTSC AVI, the result is not as good as what Encore did. Encore's output just has jaggies where there is strong movement (like an oversized version of interlacing), but the AE attempt has a kind of temporal jerkyness - all movement stops and starts continually. Perhaps a newer version of AE would do better, but...
Never mind - for now I'll just use what I have, and I just finished an email to the people who made the video, asking if they can mail an NTSC DVD that I can use later (it'll take a while for mail from South Africa to Japan, so I'll have to wait a bit before making multiple copies of my DVD for distribution). Thanks for trying to help!

How do you convert NTSC footage to PAL?

I've got some footage on a Mini-DV tape recorded with an NTSC camera, which I need to edit in my FCE PAL project. I can playback and see the footage on my Sony DSR-PDX10 DVCam, but FC Express doesn't recognise it when I connect my camera to my computer. Do I need an NTSC camera for that? What should I do?

Hello independentfilmmaker,
after a bit of research it seems that the issue is the signal that the camera is sending out. I'm no geek, but from what I understand the camera sends out an identifying signal to the computer. If that signal differs from the footage that is actually being captured, there is a conflict and you won't be able to capture. Have a look at these:
http://www.dvd-software.info/forums/ftopic1858.html
http://forums.dvdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=17789
So there seems to be a possibility that you might be able to capture using iMovie. I know that it can be done with HDV, since i did it a couple years back using a Sony HVR-A1E to play and capture tapes shot in 1080i60. Alternatively you could try some other capture software:
http://www.bensoftware.com/btv/dlbeta.html
hope this helps
mish

Converting NTSC sequence to PAL?

I have read through the posts and it seems that this should be possible, but the only thing I have found to steer me along is a post suggesting the use of Standard Conversion, but that link clearly states that it not be considered for sequences in versions 5 and up of FCP. So I am desperate. I have never done this before, totally at sea - can someone tell me the steps and settings needed to convert footage in a HDV NTSC sequence (containing SD footage) to a SD PAL format? Any help or links would be very much appreciated. Thanks.

Why not use MPEG STREAMCLIP 1.9.2?
http://www.squared5.com/
You would have to export the Sequence into QuickTime:
1: From FCPro > File/Export/QuickTime Movie
2: Keep all the same settings
3: Uncheck "Make Movie Self Contained"
4: Name and Save your movie.
This will create a referenced movie from the timeline of FCPro.
5: Bring newly created .mov file into MPEG STREAMCLIP
6: Use the file menu Export into whatever you'd like.
Let me know how it works for you!

How to convert NTSC audio to PAL?

I have converted my PAL video to NTSC but the audio was mixed separately and so it's still set at 25fps and hence becomes out of sync when I lay it against the video track.
So how do I convert the separate audio.aiff files from 25fps to 30fps?
Thx
Kevin

Hi Jim,
Wow right in front of me!
Though when I save it as a .wav file FCP still gets it at 25fps but if I save it as a .stap file it came in as 30fps.
Cheers
Kevin

Best practise to convert NTSC footage to PAL

Hi,
I have received a drive with NTSC footage and it needs to be edited to made available in both NTSC and PAL format.
Importing the NTSC footage is straight forward, but if I need to encode it out for the PAL format, is there a process available to do this through Premiere Pro?

Harm, I found this query today as I have a similar situation. I shot a memorial service for a client who, after the fact, told me that she needs to send several DVDs to Norway! Knowing that I might be facing a transcoding challenge, I came here and found your reply. With consideration for Todd's point to After Effects (which I suck at, candidly), I am pleased to know that PAL DVD players can handle NTSC encoded stuff. THANK YOU!!!
P.S. I've seen your advice in other areas of the PPro forum and have always appreciated your insight...thanks for that, as well!
Terry W.

Down Converting DVCPro HD to SD using Compressor 2

We just recieved and installed Final Cut Studio...
Everything that we are shooting and editing is in the DVCPro HD format.
From time to time, we need to Deliver this footage on DVD. With Compressor 2, I understand that you can take the DVCPro HD files and Downconvert them to Standard Definition.
My question is how do I accomplish this?
Do I just load the DVCPro HD file into Compressor, and enter in a Standard Definition MPEG2 Preset, and compressor will do the downconversion?
Thank You in advance for any help!!

Do I just load the DVCPro HD file into Compressor, and enter in a Standard Definition MPEG2 Preset, and compressor will do the downconversion?
Yes, that should work. However, if you don't like the results you may have to try some "tweaks" to the preset. The Compressor help files (electronic manual -- PDF) will have information on this.

NTSC vs. PAL: asset question

Hoping this will be a trivial question for someone, since my DSP 4 documentation doesn't seem to have much to say about it...
I'm planning to produce a series of DVDs whose content will consist of a large number of video assets (2000+). Currently, these assets are in NTSC MPEG-2 format, with corresponding audio assets in either AC3 or AIFF. My question is: what do I need to do in order to produce a complimentary series of PAL DVDs with this content, given that DSP doesn't appear capable of importing NTSC video assets into PAL projects directly?
Now that I'm on an Intel-based machine, I've sent in my upgrade fee for the latest version of Final Cut Studio (which of course includes DSP), so I'll have that at my disposal. Does this software provide a batch-friendly means for me to do what I'm attempting, or do I need additional tools?
TIA for any advice.
PowerBook G4 Mac OS X (10.4.8)

You will need to convert NTSC assets to PAL assets to do it properly (including menus). Compressor does conversion and there is also other software, such as www.Nattress.com, which does conversion.
The quickest (but may not be best) is to run the assets in bulk through Compressor (but this will also depend on whether you have the Final Cut files still).
2,000 video files is daunting, so try to stay as organized as possible
Also as an aside, more people who use PAL (ex-U.S.) have the ability to play NTSC as compared to the U.S. which is more NTSC centric, so you may want to keep that in mind depending on the project, the audience and whether you will need a PAL version.

Converting PAL to NTSC using Compressor, FCP or iDVD?

Hi guys,
I'm currently editing some PAL footage from a Canon DSLR which has been compressed into an Apple Prores which measures 1920 x 1080.
I need to put my finished project on a DVD so it to play in the US.
Should I export to NTSC in FCP, Compressor or simply setup iDVD as an NTSC project and hope that dropping my completed PAL is converted into NTSC?
What are my options to convert my PAL footage into NTSC and at what stage should I do it?
Finally what NTSC video format would be ideal for HD video on DVD?
Thanks in advance!

You could pay to have a post facility do the conversion, which would give the best quality. OR, do your standards conversion in Compressor or in JES Deinterlacer.
Giving iDVD an NTSC 1080 Pro Res file may work well. Do a test on a short representative section of your movie and see. If it doesn't meet your expectations, go into Compressor and resize to 729x480 anamorphic (PAR of .84); turn on Frame Controls and set Resize Filter to Best. Submit and then bring that into iDVD.
No doubt you appreciate that all DVDs are SD and that the end product, while potentially quite good, is compromised in image quality compared to your high rez original. If you want higher resolution, you have two options: red laser AVCHD disks for videos <20 minutes or Blu Ray, which is a whole different kettle of fish.
Good luck.
Russ

NEWBIE- CONVERTING NTSC PROJECT TO PAL USING COMPRESSOR (?)

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