PAL to NTSC - FCP 7

Hello -
I have ready made project file for FCP 7 that is in PAL format.(it already has effects and video and titles in it.about 2 min)
So, I open the the project file in FCP 7. Then add rest of my NTSC footage on to same timeline and I edit. (1 hour footage, DV)
Then, I EXPORT to MOV. Made DVD using Toast.
The motion is kind of jerky not as smooth.
Any help on this will be greatly appreciated.

Read this: http://documentation.apple.com/en/compressor/usermanual/#chapter=1%26section=8

Similar Messages

Pal footage in FCP to NTSC in DVD Studio Pro

I've been struggling with how to take my PAL project from FCP and get it to work as NTSC in Studio to burn a DVD. I set up Compressor to to compress as NTSC but when trying to import the Asset into Studio, I get an Incompatible Media message.
Have I missed a step here? BTW, the footage was shot on a Sony HD camera, so there's that issue too. I can get a file in Quicktime, but the image is washed out and has artifacts when I make the DVD. So obviously, I'm looking for something better.
Any ideas? Thanks!

You should do this in two stages.
First of all generate a master that uses the equivalent NTSC codec that your PAL version was made with, then make the DVD SP assets from that.
Alternatives for standards conversion:
[JES Deinterlacer|http://www.xs4all.nl/~jeschot/home.html] -decent quality and free.
[Natress Standards Conversion|http://www.nattress.com/Products/standardsconversion/standardsconver sion.htm] -great quality, costs $100.
Take the original to a production facility that has either a Terranex or Snell & Wilcox converter. This will cost money so shop around. But you will get excellent results and it is real time, the other methods all take a very long time, even with a powerful high end Mac.

Converting PAL to NTSC in FCP

How do I convert PAL to NTSC in FCP?

Hi
May be my Amateuristic way can be of help ?
PAL to NTSC or NTSC to PAL
A. Copying commercial DVDs - No Not possibly at all - Not even legal to discuss.
B. Home made DVDs (DVDs without copy protection)
C. Movies from iMovie or FinalCut
• Save as full quality QuickTime .mov and convert this with JES_Deinterlacer (free on internet)
NTSC ---> PAL.
• Most often not necessary - Most stand alone PAL DVD-players playback NTSC
(if TV is old in BL/W)
PAL ---> NTSC.
• If played on Mac - not necessary AT ALL
• If on NTSC DVD-player - CONVERSION IS NEEDED - nearly no Stand alone NTSC-DVD-players
playback PAL at all.
To do this You need to convert the PAL DVD to streaming.DV or full quality QuickTime .mov
• I use Roxio Toast™ to do this (There are no free converter)
• JES_Deinterlacer (free on internet) to convert to NTSC
• Set up an NTSC project (29.97fps or 30) in iDVD and import then burn
I burn to
• Verbatim DVD-R
• Set down burn speed in iDVD to x1 or x4 recommended by many
• Secure a minimum of 25Gb free space on internal boot hard disk before burning (IMPORTANT)
PAL is 25 fps and an analog TV standard of 625 lines
NTSC is 29.97 fps and 520 lines
NTSC (29.97fps) 520 lines - about 640x480 pixels (square) 720x480 rectangular (narrow) pixels
PAL (25 fps) 625 lines - about 768x576 pixels (square) 720x576 rectangular (narrow) pixels
to use a photo 702x480 resp 576 then add 9 pixels on each side to add together as 720
If iDVD hangs on PAL or NTSC.
Bengt W wrote
Deleting iDVD pref. file - should return You into NTSC mode.
Yes iDVD can switch to PAL - BUT as You see with a rather lousy result.
a. Need to convert to PAL - most often not - Most PAL-player can playback NTSC
and on a fairly new TV in color. (old TV in Bl/W)
(Other way around - from PAL to NTSC most often a must - few NTSC-player can use PAL)
b. IF MUST - then use JES_Deinterlacer to do this conversion - so much better and free.
My list on this (or rather PAL --> NTSC - just think the other way around)
I have to send it overseas
That too can be a problem. As USA = NTSC = 29.97fps and EU = PAL = 25fps.
DO Not let iMovie or iDVD do this conversion from one to the other - Result will be Very
BAD
I save the movie as a full quality QuickTime .mov file then I use JES_Deinterlacer to do the conversion - then I cont. in iMovie or iDVD with project set accordingly.
JES_Deinterlacer is free on Internet and there are Pro applications but not that much better and costs are astronomical.
PAL-DVDs - don't play in US
NTSC-DVDs - usually plays well in EU
All plays well on a Mac - What ever.
Allosaurus writes
Thank you SDMacuser. I dumped all the plist icons with no result, and was getting pretty plist off when it occurred to me to delete all the previous dvd.proj files. Bingo. That did the trick. So thank you for all your help and the additional information you provided.
Yours Bengt W

FCP to PC, Mac and Television Pal and NTSC

I am editing a DVD for a French dancer who wants to send out the footage as a promotional piece. Target is Europe, North and South America. PC, Mac and Television. When things looked OK on the Mac I burned a dvd from DVD studio Pro. Checked on two PC laptops, a PC tower, a pal system television with dvd player and my Mac tower and powerbook G4.
I have now been reading articles and talking with people about the difference between the gamma
of 1.8 for Mac and 2.2 for PC and 2.5 for television. CRT and LCDs. What is the best we can do today when editing for people who are going to receive and play on different machines?
The new Mac cinema display does not change every time I move my head like the less expensive
LCD monitor I used in France and the PC and Mac laptops. Is it recommended in the video editing
world to buy a pal and/or ntsc monitor to color correct for Pal and NTSC? Does one have to linearize in some way on both?
Both Pal and NTSC seem to play on all computers.
thanks for help
Bill

I'd just monitor it on a well calibrated external monitor and leave it at that.
If people will be playing it on a PC it will look like any other well calibrated thing would look on a PC and again on the mac.
If people thought PCs were too dark then they'd complain about them and never use them and you wouldn't have to ever worry about it... but they don't.
Just do a normal calibration and leave it at that. You'll kill yourself over EVERY combination!!
CaptM

Burning PAL dvd from NTSC FCP 6 project?

I need to burn a European market PAL dvd sample from a NTSC project. I've done this before for a European film festival, but it was a very hit or miss process.. Basically, back then, I mixed the project down as both PAL and NTSC files, then burned every combination of NTSC and PAL format DVDs (PAL file/PAL dvd format, NTSC file/PAL dvd format, PAL file NTSC format, and NTSC file/NTSC format).. I expected the PAL/PAL to work, but it didn't. In fact, I seem to remember that one of the combos that I least expected to work actually did.. maybe the NTSC/PAL disk (can't remember for sure)
Will someone please advise me as to the correct way to burn the NTSC project, such that it will be playable an European PAL format machines?

If you need a true PAL dvd, you need to convert your ntsc quicktime to a PAL quicktime using either compressor or something like graeme Natrresses standard conversion plug in. You will also need to recreate your dvd menus and reauthor the dvd.

NTSC to PAL or PAL to NTSC

I have a client shooting a project in a couple of days and they are wondering what is the best frame rate to shoot at. They will be shooting to HDCAM SR 1920 x 1080 4:2:2 YCbCr 10 bit or to a drive 2880 x 2160 RAW 12 bit Bayer data. If they shoot 2k, the files would be rendered out into 1920 x 1080 Quicktimes to work with.
Ultimately, the project will end up as 1000 NTSC DVDs and 1000 PAL DVDs.
I will be editing with FCP and creating the DVD with DVDSP.
I had received advice to shoot everything PAL 25fps, and then convert the final product to NTSC. We never work with PAL so I was wondering if it would be better to shoot NTSC and then convert the final product to PAL.
I'm new to PAL so any advice, information or links to other posts/workflows will be appreciated.
Thanks,
Chris

G.
One of the advantages of Shooting with a PAL camera is that you don't have too many frame rates to worry about and no pull down is needed.
You can shoot PAL (50 fields per second as opposed to NTSC 60 ) at 25frames ps (or better 50fps, talk to your DoP about this) edit easily with FCP on a PAL timeline and eventually convert to NTSC using [Nattress Standard Converter|http://www.nattress.com/Products/standardsconversion/standardsconvers ion.htm] or Compressor 3.
However, there are a couple of things you can take into account:
1)most DVD players nowadays can play both PAL and NTSC (Not all though)
2)If you are used to a specific workflow stick with it or do some tests before you take any decision.
You could shoot with a PAL camera and edit a few minutes in FCP, do a standard conversion with Compressor then encode and import the asset in DVDSP to burn a DVD to see if you are happy.
Testing is a crucial step of the work and hiring the camera for half a day will cost you much less than a rushed decision.
Best,
G.

PAL to NTSC simple solution

I realise there are probably many threads discussing this topic but I have just finished converting a 25fps movie to 23.98fps i.e PAL to NTSC and found after a lot of trial and error and trying an array of recommended methods that the simplest and best result is this:
1. Export your movie as a self contained clip from FCP and the audio as an .aiff
2. Open the clip in Cinema Tools and conform it from 25fps to 23.98fps
3. Open a new project in FCP and import the clip and the .aiff
4. Double click the clip within the Browser and adjust its speed to 104.165 with frame blending off which will adjust the clips lenght to the same exact lenght of the original PAL file and the .aiff
5. Put the video clip onto a time line with the same settings as the clip along with the .aiff audio
This final clip will now have a frame rate of 23.98 and the exact lenght of the original PAL clip with the original audio in sync.
For some peculiar reason the running time of the movie shown in the timeline is not the same as that shown in the browser but when you export it for dvd using compressor the resulting m2v is the correct lenght. You must also export the audio from the new timeline to go on the dvd as either another .aiff or a dolby digital.
There are some odd things going on with the stated running times of everything but the end result is correct.

I'm with Michael on this.
I use Graeme Natress's Standards Converter for this within FCP if it is a small project and use Compressor feeding Qmaster clusters for something more lengthy.
Clusters make a huge difference in the performance of Compressor. I have Clusters set up on machines running 10.6.8, 10.7.5 and 10.8.3 so I know it works on the range of current OSX versions.
Digital Rebellion has a good write-up on how to set up Qmaster.
Good luck,
x

Transferring the film to video best practice and combining PAL and NTSC

Could anyone help me with the following 2 questions that I was asked in our small school video lab, I don't really have much experience with negative film and NTSC. Thankyou so much.
1. "I may be going back to the film negative to cut it, based on the FCP EDL. This means that Final Cut has to maintain perfect synch. I know that with AVID, it's more reliable to transfer the film to video at 25 fps rather than 24 fps. Do you have any idea whether this is also the case with Final Cut??"
2. "Some of my source materials is on PAL and some is on NTSC. Is that going to be a nightmare?? Will I be able to convert from one to the other when I import?? Or will I need to get the NTSC miniDV tapes transfered to PAL so that your PAL deck can read them? "
we normally use PAL (In UK).

1. This is where Cinema Tools comes into play. It can conform your edit list from FCP back to film.
There is a wealth of information in the Cinama Tools handbook and Help menu item.
Someone else might be able to contribute more information, my experience with CT is very limited.
2. Some decks are switchable between PAL and NTSC. If yours can do this then you can capture your footage in a preliminary project and convert it for free with [JES Deinterlacer|http://www.xs4all.nl/~jeschot/home.html] which does a decent job or for $100 with [Natress Standards Conversion|http://www.nattress.com/Products/standardsconversion/standardsconver sion.htm] which does a very good job. Both will take some time, best to capture only what you really need.
The best possible conversion is done with dedicated hardware solutions such as those offered by Snell & Wilcox. Real time with excellent results. This would be the way to go if you have a lot of material or if your deck is not PAL - NTSC switchable.

Hdr-hc3 problems! Interlace? PAL to NTSC

Hello. I am having problems editing a video shot in Sony hdr-hc3 PAL version. I captured in hdv and edited. In the timeline I put 25 frames per second. 1440 x 1080. 16x9... Compression HDV 1080i50
Well, I exported everything. Export/Current Settings. Then I burnt a dvd with dvd studio pro and when I look the video in the TV it looks really really interlaced. Everytime there is movement, the image looks double. Well, I have tried with after effects to remove the pull down but it's not useful. It seems it's not really a interlace problem because when I say to guess pulldown... it doesn't appear anything. I also tried with cinema tools... i did the reverse telecine... but doesnt work... or at least i dont have any idea what i have to do...
I also tried with compressor but the same problem... I dont know if I have to do something in final cut, after i export from final cut... or what i have to do with this problem. The motion looks horrible. HELP PLEASE!
Thanks a lot!

As a last resort (in case you are stuck which is a common fate of most users when dealing with this horrible legacy of NTSC frame rates) you have a simple solution that will produce flawless, no hiccups conversion from PAL to NTSC. You will need sufficient space, patience and willingness to accept 4% change in pitch.
a) edit your footage in 25 progressive. Export it as image sequence. Export audio separately.
b) In QTP import image sequence to NTSC frame rate 23.976. Add your audio (SCALED) to your movie.
c) Import your movie to 23.976 FCP sequence.
d) export it NTSC mpg2, which will add standard pulldown to bring it to 29.97.
(all this can presumably be done in FCP, if only one could figure out how!)
(Note to Apple.Please kindly note that 24 is not 23.98 nor it is 23.976, Your documentation is all over the place with no rhyme or reason. 24 can mean (FTC, QT) 24 or 23.976. Strangely 23.98 seems to be always used to denote 23.976. This is not nice nor professional and is awfully confusing)

Good old PAL to NTSC

Ok I have to convert Pal to NTSC and then burn to DVDSP. Is what Im doing correct and giving me the best possible quality?
1, Cut my master piece in fcp and exported it with QT (pal) 15GB
2. Opened compressor 2 and used advanced format conversion DV NTSC
3. Change file format to mpeg2 (in the inspector)
4. 1 pass VBR best (in the inspector) - is this the best/normal setting
5. Thus got a summary saying something like this - please forget the est file size as I used small clip to get same info
Name: DV NTSC
Description: DV/DVCam NTSC with 48kHz stereo audio
File Extension: m2v
Estimated file size: 5.91 MB
Video Encoder
Format: M2V
Width: 720
Height: 480
Pixel aspect ratio: NTSC CCIR 601/DV
Crop: None
Frame rate: 29.97
Frame Controls: Off
Aspect ratio: 4:3
Field dominance: Progressive scan
Average data rate: 5 (Mbps)
1 Pass VBR enabled
Maximum data rate: 7.5 (Mbps)
High quality
Best motion estimation
Closed GOP Size: 15, Structure: IBBP
DVD Studio Pro meta-data enabled
It is saying it will take 4/5 hrs to encode this. Do I then import this asset into DVDSP with NTSC mode on and build and burn my DVD? Ship it to the states and never have to worry about doing this crap again.
Owen

If you are planning to use Compressor's default PAL-to-NTSC preset then I'd do a short test to look at the quality of the conversion. I believe that the conversion presets that Apple offers use a low quality setting which may not produce results to your liking (others have reported so).
In any case, you can change Apple's presets to give higher quality but the processing times will increase dramatically. As an alternative, you might want to give the freeware utility JES Deinterlacer a try. JES does fast, good quality deinterlacing and standards conversion (PAL to/from NTSC) and it's a free download from places like VersionTracker.com.

Capturing a PAL source to FCP?

Hello.
Does anybody know the process to capture a PAL source on FCP using a NTSC system (America). I do have a JVC deck that can play and recognize the PAL source, but it doesn't capture to FCP. I've tried the various presets etc. in the log and capture window to no avail. What do I have to do?
Thanks,
Jordan

In the FINAL CUT PRO menu, there is a selection for EASY SETUPS.
Select it.
You will then see a list of presets. Many of them are PAL.
Shane
"There's no need to fear, UNDERDOG is here!"

PAL to NTSC Big Problems

We shoot and edit in PAL on FCP and output to Quicktime MOV. When I convert the MOV to MPEG2 NTSC in Compressor I am getting some bad shuddering on any camera pans.
I have tried changing field dominance and turning on and off the deinterlacing. I have even tried transcoding from an encoded mpeg 2 PAL with no improvement
I am using version 1.2.1 of & have almost no control over the GOP settings. I don't know what do do
Please help

As a last resort (in case you are stuck which is a common fate of most users when dealing with this horrible legacy of NTSC frame rates) you have a simple solution that will produce flawless, no hiccups conversion from PAL to NTSC. You will need sufficient space, patience and willingness to accept 4% change in pitch.
a) edit your footage in 25 progressive. Export it as image sequence. Export audio separately.
b) In QTP import image sequence to NTSC frame rate 23.976. Add your audio (SCALED) to your movie.
c) Import your movie to 23.976 FCP sequence.
d) export it NTSC mpg2, which will add standard pulldown to bring it to 29.97.
(all this can presumably be done in FCP, if only one could figure out how!)
(Note to Apple.Please kindly note that 24 is not 23.98 nor it is 23.976, Your documentation is all over the place with no rhyme or reason. 24 can mean (FTC, QT) 24 or 23.976. Strangely 23.98 seems to be always used to denote 23.976. This is not nice nor professional and is awfully confusing)

PAL to NTSC (again..kind of)

Ok, I have a project that i need to deliver in NTSC. I am hopefully going to get hold of an NTSC camera and thus avoid the conversion issues, however, if I have to use a PAL camera what would be my best course of action to deliver NTSC?
Would I be best to edit a pal project, and then convert it when i've finished?
or
Convert the raw capture footage and edit in NTSC?
I'm presuming that if I set my project/timeline settings to NTSC and capture from a PAL source I'm entering a world of pain.
Cheers
Matt

If you can not shoot NTSC and have to shoot PAL, you can:
A. go to a transfer house and have them transcode the original PAL material to NTSC tapes. Once the material is in NTSC, capture, edit, title, etc and output.
or
B. Ingest the PAL materia into FCP, run something like Graeme Nattresses, Standards Converter to transcode the material to NTSC, edit, title, etc and output.
or
C. Ingest the PAL material, edit, title, etc and output as PAL, then transcode to NTSC.
You may want to do a couple of quick tests to see what workflow yields the best looking material.
good luck.
x

Pal to ntsc small query

I have read up on the forum re producing an NTSC dvd from a Pal file and taken on board the suggestions re compressor & nattress etc. One quick question though. A friend of mine who shoots in Pal and produces dvd's in both pal & ntsc says he simply nests and exports the Pal project using QTconversion, sets up a new NTSC sequence and imports the qt file into it.
I have tried a small clip this way and if I look at the new clips properties in QT player, it appears to display as the correct frame rates etc for NTSC and seems to play ok.
Is there something very obviously wrong with this method? I am assuming so as otherwise everyone would use this method.
I think my friend is working on the basis that he says FCP will happily handle a mix of PAL & NTSC in the same timeline so switching is not a problem?
Confused?

All my movies/DVD are short ones then I use the Natrress plugins with very good results. It works inside FCP. It's a time consuming process, but you can leave working alone as heavy renders.
About how to test reaults, I don't find any other option that using a real NTSC TV. I'm sure you can find some models there with both standards PAL and NTSC.
Don't judge the conversion in the computer monitor because you need to check there is no problems with interlacing/scan.

PAL to NTSC - losing audio sync

hi
i have been using nattress standards conversion to convert a 6min DV PAL Video to NTSC.
it works fine, besides the audio which went out of sync.
i have tried re-converting to original video to NTSC with the "sync to external audio" but the results are the same.
am i doing something wrong or is it always like that ?
is there a way to do it (in compressor ???) without losing to sync ?
thanx
nir

One of the reasons I can't use the Nattress system is because I can't get the audio to sync - despite using "sync to external audio" as you found.
As Silal pointed out, a great way (high quality / hassle-free) to convert PAL to NTSC (although it takes a lot longer than Nattress) is the Hanumang method listed on Silal's link.
Andy
Quad 8GB. 250+500 HDs. G-Raid 1TB. NORTON. FCP 5.1.2. Shake 4.1. Sony HVR Z1E Mac OS X (10.4.7)
"I've taught you all I know, and still you know nothing".

PAL to NTSC - FCP 7

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