NTSC camcorder with PAL footage

I have a Sony DCR-TRV950 camcorder which is a NTSC version. I have recordings that where made on a PAL camcorder. Final cut does not receive a picture. At this point you may be thinking yes and it won't, but the thing is I have managed it using Adobe Premier Pro. I still have this footage and moved it into Final cut which made a comment that the footage would be better quality if I got Final cut to move in the footage. Is this true and if it is, is there a way of getting FC to get the footage?

While your camera does support playback of PAL tapes its not true PAL its going to be PAL60.
It may be FCP does not see this as a valid or true format on log and capture.
Your best bet is either have the tape converted to NTSC prior to starting the edit or hire a deck that does playback true PAL digitise from this and edit and convert the final edit to NTSC.
Of course I am assuming you want an NTSC programme in the end.
If not working with PAL60 is not really advisable and you should hire the deck to digitise the footage in the first place anyway.

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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!

Create NTSC DVD with PAL .avi?

I have a PAL mini DV tape that I had transferred over as a PAL AVI file. When I import the file in imove and export a .MOV it doesn't play on my Apple TV? Do I need to convert the file to NTSC before importing to iMovie or is there a way for iMovie to do it? Thanks!

http://www.nattress.com/Products/standardsconversion/standardsconversion.htm

PAL x NTSC Camcorder

Hello There. This is kind of a beginner question but I am planning to buy a camcorder in the UK (PAL system) but my Powerbook has been purchased in the US (NTSC). Is there going to be any incompatibility? I plan to use the camcorder to shoot digital films only, no need to connect it to tv sets.
If I burn a DVD in my powerbook with PAL footage will I be able to convert it to NTSC?
Thanks
Daniel.

FCP is bi but don't Powerbooks, which have a S-VHS out port, come in one flavor or the other?
Still, importing and editing footage of either format should not be affected.
cheers,
x

Problems with PAL/NTSC Conversion

I have a PAL Sony handycam camcorder and Final Cut Express HD installed on my 2004 iBook G4 (both purchased in North America, if that makes any difference)
- I capture both PAL recorded footage (from my camera) and NTSC recorded
footage (from other cameras) in Final Cut
- Whenever capturing I alter the settings in “Easy Setup” to “DV PAL
firewire basic” or “DV-NTSC Firewire Basic” depending on if I’m using PAL
or NTSC footage at the time
-After capturing, when I drag captured clips from the Browser window down
into the Sequence timeline, every clip has to be rendered in the timeline.
This is very time-consuming (rendering can take up to 10minutes for what
might be a 2minute clip); and this happens regardless of my “easy setup”
settings or the regional code of the footage.
-In addition, after a clip has been rendered once, and I then make an
alteration (usually a cut) the clip has be re-rendered
-Also – when PAL footage is rendered and then exported usually frames are
dropped and the image appears choppy.
- Furthermore (and I suspect this is related) the program will not print
to video; and I have tried using both PAL and NTSC cameras. Therefore I
have to export all projects as quicktime files and then burn DVDs.
- Any suggestions?
Thanks,
Marc Griffin

Hi(Bonjour)!
One important thing: FCE sequences's settings have to match your clip's settings.
If you mix PAL material in a NTSC sequence, your material will need rendering and vice versa.
Secondly: PAL format is a 25 FPS material, and NTSC is a 30 (29.97) one.
So when you convert PAL to NTSC, there is a frame rate mismatch, thus the choppy playback.
Your camcorder cannot record PAL material if it's a NTSC model. You need a plugin that converts PAL material to NTSC.
There is a nice plugin pack from Nattress that performs PAL to NTSC conversion with various pulldown options (ie scalling 30 fps to 24 fps by blending frames selectively).
See:
http://www.nattress.com/Products/standardsconversion/standardsconversion.htm
Final Cut Studio 2 (Final Cut Pro 6) will support multiple resolutions sequences (shipping in may), it's a new great feature.
Michel Boissonneault

PAL or NTSC Camcorder ?

I reside in Australia where the TV standard is PAL.
All my camcorders are PAL.
I am thinking of buying a "Sony FDR-AX100 4K Ultra HD Camcorder".
This camera is only available in NTSC format.
With TV's,BluRay players etc having the ability to play
Both formats I do NOT see any downside in using a NTSC camcorder.
Any comments would be appreciated.

This camera is only available in NTSC format.
The camera is also available in PAL framerates.
You should read Sony Australia sites not Sony USA.

Convert PAL footage to NTSC

Hi, I have edited some PAL footage in FCP and now need to convert to NTSC. I have exported NTSC via Compressor but the footage looks "jumpy" not smooth. Is there a "best" way to do this? Should I export first then convert? Your experience would be appreciated. Thanks.

First, I used Compressor and discovered the problem, then exported a DV PAL .MOV and ran it through my Windows conversion software, ProCoder. There are slight differences but the "biggie" is still there. It was interesting as I watched the preview window of Canopus ProCoder... it would render a one second chunk quickly, then slow, and speed up again for the next second... etc. I only notice this hesitation when the video is doing a PAN, and a lot of information is being recorded. I don't notice this anomaly when the camera is moving slowly or is on a steady shot.
Your description - from the beginning of this thread, in fact - sounds like frame judder, the phenomenon where, when doing a software conversion, the convertor only does a mathematical calculation to meet frame rate requirements. In laymen's terms, when you're doing a conversion from PAL to NTSC, unless you're using advanced settings (bearing in mind the longer encoding times), your convertor is simply adding an extra frame every 5 frames (to get 30 NTSC frames out of 25 PAL frames). As you've seen, with slower action motion this isn't usually so bad. But with high-motion footage (or camera movement) the presence of the duplicate frames are jarring.
As already mentioned, if you want to use Compressor 2 (or any other software convertor) to do this, you must use the Better Rate Conversion and Resize settings, with Frame Controls set to Custom. Instead of simply duplicating frames, this redistributes the motion across frames by creating frames. If you want the quality, and don't want to fork over dollars for filters, you have to bear with the encoding times. (I fully understand if you can't bear with it, just thought I'd confirm that you can't escape it though)
Alex' suggestion of the Nattress tools is a good one, though, since his filters render very fast. Either that or get it converted at a local post house using a hardware convertor.

Oops... pal footage in an ntsc sequence

Just wondering is there any fix (besides checking your settings before you begin your project) for having edited a whole project in the wrong format. I have pal footage in an NTSC sequence. When I did a copy from the ntsc sequence and pasted into a pal sequence everything was not represented as it was in the original ntsc sequence which I realise is a result of in and out points changing because of the different frame rates between formats and how that translates to the timeline. Is the only option to re edit the whole project?
cheers

Yep, had to do the render. When I right click on the clips in the sequences and select Item Properties>Timing it shows there is 1 frames difference between the in markers. eg. ntsc sequence in marker 00:01:50:06 pal sequence in marker 00:01:50:05. The pal sequence with the copied clips just doesn't seem to display or cut together as it did with the ntsc sequence. Sorry for the muddy explanation

Converting 24p to NTSC 30 fps with existing footage already captured

Working on a project that should have come to me downconverted to NTSC 30fps. I already have footage that was shot DVCPro 24p and have started working (selecting) with the footage. We would like to shoot our remaining footage downconverted in-camera to NTSC 30fps.
So - I'm curious if FCP allows you to convert material that's already been captured.
Thanks
G4 Mac OS X (10.4.3)

You'd need to use the Standards Converter from www.nattress.com.
$100 but worth it. It also converters 30 to 24, and PAL to NTSC, and vise versa.
Shane

Combining NTSC & PAL footage

I have HDV footage that is both 1080/60i (NTSC) 1080/50i (PAL).
i need to make an edit that includes footage from both, with final delivery being SD PAL DVDS.
what workflow would you suggest, bearing in mind issues of cost and time?
thanks for the guidance!

well in your favor the resolution of the two formats are the same, so at least the combining of the originals sources does not require scaling ... although there will of course still be some retiming
if the target format s NTSC then the best retiming you'll get is going to be by using the "Slow PAL" method ... that means you're going to slow the footage down by 4%. if the two formats will not be intercut in a manner that would make the difference in speed hopelessly obvious then thats probably the best way to go
to retime using Slow PAL, first open *Cinema Tools* and choose *File > Batch Conform...* then target your PAL media's source directory by selecting one of the source clips within that folder, and in the subsequent Batch Conform window set the *Conform To* popup to 23.978 FPS and click the Conform button.
now switch back to FCP and set the *Final Cut Pro* menu *> System Settings* window *> Playback Control* tab's *Pulldown Pattern* to 2:3:2:3
with that pulldown pattern, using the conformed PAL media in an 60i timebase sequence should produce nice results

Creating a video DVD for PAL TV using video from an NTSC Camcorder

Hey Guys,
I'll be owning an AVCHD NTSC camcorder (Canon HF S10) and need to know whether Final Cut Express includes the functionality of importing the video from the camcorder and exporting it to a DVD for a PAL TV system.
Will you share your experience?
Many thanks!
-Max

I'd suggest you do a search of the forum. This has been discussed often. Yes, FCE supports AVCHD. Most PAL DVD player will play back NTSC.

Export or convert PAL footage to NTSC

Hi, I have edited some PAL footage and now need to convert to NTSC. I have exported NTSC via Compressor but the footage looks "jumpy" not smooth. Is there a "best" way to do this? Should I export first then convert? Your experience would be appreciated. Thanks.

Graeme Nattress has a standards conversion filter that is well regarded.
you can find it on his web site: www.nattress.com
Be aware that you may see some drop in quality going to NTSC from PAL. PAL just has more information in the frame.
Good luck.
x

How to make an NTSC DVD from Pal & NTSC videos using CS3

Hi!
I am on CS3, on Windows.
I need to create an NTSC widescreen DVD from footage that is both NTSC and PAL. Also some of the footage is 4:3 and some 16:9.
What would be the best way to accomplish this.
I created an NTSC widescreen project in Premiere CS3. Imported all footage and arranged on timeline.
While exporting to Encore or to Media Encoder for MPEG 2 DVD - I am constantly getting the error "Failed to return video frame". Or "An unexpected error occured." I am unable to burn even and AVI. I have confirmed, that all audio and video clips are exact duration and that there is no gap between frames on timeline.
I am able to successfully burn most of the clips individually (except one from about 20 + clips) - but fails when I export them togetether.
I am racing against time, I have very tight timeline, I need to get it done today :-(
I would appreciate help from experts on:
1) What could be causing this error - how can I fix it?
2) Is the workflow I am using (combining all clips as they are), the way to go - or do I need to do something before I combine/export them for NTSC Widescreen DVD.
Thanks.
Rene

I think you are starting on the wrong track with this, if your source video is a DVD disk then you should not be converting it to anything. You just need the raw mpeg video from the dvd itself. a dvd consists of VOB files but they are really just mpg files with different header information. In most cases you can even rename a .vob file to .mpg and play it with any media player program.
Anyways you should go download this free program: http://www.svcd2dvd.com/VOB2MPG/default.aspx
It's a great little simple utility, you point to your video_ts folder and it will export the vob files for each title into a solid .MPG file which you can import into premiere and edit any way you would like. without wasting time or quality encoding to a different medium codec.
I will say that CS4 is much better at handling mpg files then CS3 if i remember correctly, but see how it works for you.
Good luck!

Working with pal format

I've got to work with a footage in PAL format. I first set it up to PAL DV. I've captured images, but couldn't not batch them... It does not work properly. Does anybody know what should I do to fix that? The error msg is 'General Error' that's all... Thanks!
powerbook g4 Mac OS X (10.4.8)

Olá Enriqueta!
Hum ... let me see!
You´re using a PAL tape in PAL player (or compatible), your sequence preset is DV/PAL, and you´ve already logged your material.
Can you control your machine or you´ve just inputed your timecodes?
Have you changed the pre-roll and post-roll fo your machine (?) in those menus you can choose the machine you´re using?
You´re capturing your material via firewire?
The "easy-setup" doesn´t work with you (?) i´ve done NTSC work and it was very simple!
Do you have an external monitor so you can try change the external view of your material (?) this way you can see if FCP accept your input signal.
If you´re using firewire try change port i had and hub and from time to time it was impossible to capture that way (don´t ask me way!)
The error you said ... is at the begining of capture (?) / when open the capture window (?) / when you try to capture?
Try restart your mac with the machine on (camera) then open FCP!
... ok ... i´ll stop ... for now ...
HBars

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.

NTSC camcorder with PAL footage

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