PAL to NTSC: Nattress Standards Converter 2.5

I have been looking at the Nattress Standards Converter V2.5. I have an 8 mm 50-year-old cine movie converted digitally to a movie supplied to me on a DVD. That movie is now in FCE and I want to convert it to NTSC to send to a friend in Canada. (The quality of course is awful due to the original.)
I get the impression that PAL to NTSC conversion is difficult because of the different frame rates etc. Obviously, extra frames must be added to reach 29.9 FPS which probably causes jerkiness.
How successful is Standards Converter V2.5?
Will it work with FCE 3.0?
Thanks.

Remove the Apple shift fields filter - let the plugin handle all the field stuff.
PAL to NTSC shouldn't be blurry - are you viewing out of the NTSC monitor, not relying on the FCP preview? NTSC to PAL can be a touch soft, and with that I normally drop the motion blur to around 15% to get it looking better.
For upper to lower field conversion, you should be using 2.5.2 for best results, which we'll get for you via email.
Graeme

Similar Messages

PAL to NTSC, when to convert? Can't Build or Burn now.

I shot on a Pal camera and built the project as a NTSC project in FCP 5 (Studio). Converted all the PAL video into NTSC when compressing using Compression out of FCP. All seemed to work fine. Built the DVD as a NTSC project, no problems until... I can't get it to Burn, build or format. Right now, it is freezing up on build, but I've actually burned a few CDs but none of them have worked. Always crashed the DVD player in my Computer.
Anybody have any experience with this?
Would I be better off going back and finishing the project as a PAL project in FCP and then convert the whole project into NTSC? How to do that??
I've been dealing with thise issues for days now. One small step forwards, 2 big steps backwards.
Especially frustrating because I've been working on this project for years and now it is ALMOST finished, but I can't quite do it......
Any help, suggestions would be appreciated.
Thanks!
Ed

this is my workflow for shooting in PAL for NTSC DVD discs - it has worked well for a contract to USA clients for over 6 years:
shoot in PAL
edit in Final Cut in PAL sequence
export QT file - self contained, current settings
standards convert to NTSC using Nattress:
http://www.nattress.com/Products/standardsconversion/standardsconversion.htm
import into Compressor or Bitvice and produce M2V and AC3 files
http://www.innobits.com/bitvice.html
author in DVDSP in an NTSC project
build project
burn disc using Toast with TAIYO YUDEN DVD-R discs
http://www.roxio.com/eng/products/toast/titanium/overview.html?ClickID=cqk44wven vp77zlfpxaqzwqe44w77wwsxkix
http://www.jigsaw24.com/default.aspx?ITEM=JIGSG155APA&IP=5WGSTOCONSC_DISCSPLBDVDFC

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 (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

Image Sequences PAL to NTSC

I have a bunch of image sequences that are currently in the PAL aspect ratio. I'm going to be using them as title/chyron/lower third backgrounds that I'll be putting text on and using them in FCP over an NTSC sequence.
My question is how to go about making these image sequences NTSC. My first thought is simple when I build the Image Sequence in QT, setting them to NTSC standards, 29.97, Animation Codec with 720:486. Or I could set them to PAL specifications and convert them in compressor's standards convertor. I also have the Graham Nattress standards converter as well. I tried doing the first way, and the look seemed pretty close. Nothing looked squished or anything.
I think that avoiding standards conversion may be okay with these files as they are basically tiff files and not true video. Thank you, everyone!

You can also use JES Deinterlacer, which is free. Go to:
http://www.xs4all.nl/~jeschot/home.html#DEI
I had some PAL video I wanted to change into NTSC - I ended up working on the whole project in PAL in FCE, then exporting my finished movie, and only converting the final movie into NTSC at the end. JES does a very good job, but I do see some artifacts of the conversion, so I wanted to keep my edits in the clean PAL video, in case I got a better conversion later. I use FCE 3.5.1, though. I hear FCE 4 can use files in various formats at the same time. Not sure how that works, and what choices you can make about conversion, when it finally happens.
The Nattress converter demo looked good, and gets many good ratings - but with FCE 4 accepting various formats, does that not mean it should have it's own way of converting formats? don't know.

Do I actually need Nattress to convert PAL to NTSC?

Hi Everyone,
I have FCP 6.01 and I have PAL footage captured from a PAL DV machine. To convert to NTSC MiniDV, do I need to use Natress? Can't I just put the PAL clip in an NTSC timeline and render that bad boy?
Thanks so much!
Kirk

Yes,
you can either use a dirty way:
you drop different formats on your timeline and if a window appears each time you bring a new format saying if you want it to conform it with your current sequence settings you say yes (this may cause frequent renderings).
Or a clean way:
Create a ProRes sequence to host different formats. ProRes HQ more suitable for HD flavors.
Gig

How to convert Mini DV pal to NTSC in FCS

I just got two Mini DV Pal tapes that needs to be converted to NTSC for a client.
How do I do that in FCS? Anybody had this kind of job before?
Thanks for your help inadvance

You don't. You send out to a post house and have them do it. There is a plugin that will allow you to convert small clips from NTSC to PAL and other way around.
Standards Converter by www.nattress.com - demo available. Don't think this will work for full tapes though...
Shane

Can I shoot with a NTSC camera and convert to a PAL dvd through Final Cut

i am shooting a wedding for someone in Scotland that will be getting married in the States, and she wants a PAL dvd. Can i shoot the video with my NTSC camera (HVX 200) and with Final Cut convert it to PAL? If not can it be done someway?

the prefered way is to standards convert the video and import it into a PAL sequence
http://www.nattress.com/Products/standardsconversion/standardsconversion.htm
an alternative is to produce an NTSC DVD; it will playback on a computer; Mac or PC, it might play back on the users hardware DVD player/ TV combination but it might not, no guaranteed there.
Best bet is option 1

Converting PAL to NTSC

Hi Gang -
My uploaded files are in PAL format. I've finished editing my piece and now I'd like to export the project in NTSC. When I go through compressor and change the format to NTSC, It misses frames in there, thus it skips. Any solutions?
Thanks!

Graeme Nattress sells a well regarded standards converter.
www.nattress.com
x

Losing audio sync which converting pal to ntsc

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

Nir:
I learned this Compressor settings for standard conversion in previous threads:
"Load your DV PAL movie into Compressor 2, then choose
Advanced Format Conversions > DV NTSC from the settings.
Then, under the Frame Controls tab, alter your settings to:
Frame Controls: Custom
Resize Filter: Better (Linear Filter)
Output Fields: Bottom First
Deinterlace: Better Motion Adaptive
Adaptive Details: checked
Rate Conversion: Better (Motion Compensated)"
Export your NTSC timeline as Quicktime Movie self contained and use the preset (it takes long but great results).
It seems to be from Hanumang and was posted by Andynick. Thanks both !

I want to convert a movie that I've created in iMovie from PAL to NTSC.

I've created a large movie using PAL but now want to convert it to NTSC to send to my family in Canada. It took ages to create. Is there an easy way of doing the conversion? I don't want to have to do it all again.

Hi
A. Using iMovie'08 to 11 - Will not give 100% result - as You want interlaced SD-Video = NTSC
B. Converting from PAL to NTSC - is Never 100% loss free - but You lose a bit
I use iMovie HD6 or FinalCut - as they can deliver 100% over to program that converts.
• iMovie and iDVD can convert - BUT RESULT WILL BE Very POOOOR.
My notes on How I do it
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

Burning converted PAL to NTSC movie file on to DVD

Hi.
I'm having a few problems based around standards conversion from PAL to NTSC. I have some old home movies (PAL footage from my time in Europe) which I have been editing in iMovie. I have (I think) successfully converted the finished project into an NTSC format. However, when I burn to DVD in iDVD I am getting nasty red and green vertical lines ruining the picture when played in my home DVD player. This disfiguration seems to be triggered or coincides with any peak in the audio.
Is this a PAL -> NTSC standards conversion problem? A problem with the file I am burning to my DVD through iDVD, or a problem with my home set up? Needless to say the movie plays fine on my Mac and my home set-up plays other commercial DVD's perfectly.
Any ideas?
Thanks and Happy New Year.
Tom

Hi tommycrops
Welcome to apple discussions. I suggest narrowing the issue down as much as possible ... one idea is to make a disc image to the desktop of the finished iDvd. Test playback with apple's dvd player. Assuming it plays as expected then burn to Verbatim Dvd-R at 4x.
Also make sure all energy saver controls (in system pref's) are set to Never while working within iDvd. Disconnect all external third party devices prior to burning the dvd.
If none of the above works for you then go back to your original iMovie project file, check all movie properties and try to open it within QT Pro/player prior to burning. You'll need to verify playback prior to burning.

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

Converting subtitle file length from PAL to NTSC

We're releasing a PAL version of a movie in the UK, whilst another company in the US will issue an NTSC conversion from our PAL master. The NTSC master therefore will run exactly 3.8462% slower than the PAL 25fps master, after standards conversion and speed correction.
We'd like to be able to use our PAL spotted subtitle file for the NTSC release, but I need to know if it's possible to 'stretch' the subtitle file by the required 3.8462% in order for it to match the NTSC running time.
I have tried a shareware app called Subtitler (by exporting the track description file and importing into Subtitler), but it does not allow me to input a stretch as a percentage - merely in frames, seconds, minutes etc, which adds the same amount to each subtitle.
Does anybody out there know of a way to create the modifid subtitle file?

Yes, I have already converted the original supplied .txt file, but (and as with most subtitle files it seems) I have had to tweek it myself and add a whole load more subtitles (directly in DVD Studio Pro), which are translations from Chinese to English, which were not included in the original supplied French to English file (the film is set in China and has both French and Chinese throughout!). I have also created another separate Chinese to English file in DVD Studio Pro. So you see my dilemma...
If only Subtitler was more stable - It crashes every time I import the DVD Studio Pro Item Description file.
A friend converted the original supplied file from PAL to NTSC using the excellent (but PC only) Subtitle Workshop.
I have been in direct contact with the very helpful author of the shareware Subtitler app, and he is working on a revision to fix the bugs.

Nattress pal to ntsc degrading the image

Hi everyone,
I'm trying to use Nattress's Pal to NTSC converter & the clip got more blurry & degrading than the original PAL source. Has anyone has this same problem?
My setting:
put the source field order as UPPER & destination as LOWER
De-interlace option as NORMAL. (also tried SMART too)
Gconverter also add in the fields SHIFT direction, I chose: +1 for the first attempt, -1 for 2nd, & non for the 3rd, but still get the blurriness look (kind like degrading the image)
Is it because of the FIELD order, or De-interlace OPTION?
or should I try PROGESSIVE OUPUT option too?
I left the pulldown offset as 0
thanx
JP

Remove the Apple shift fields filter - let the plugin handle all the field stuff.
PAL to NTSC shouldn't be blurry - are you viewing out of the NTSC monitor, not relying on the FCP preview? NTSC to PAL can be a touch soft, and with that I normally drop the motion blur to around 15% to get it looking better.
For upper to lower field conversion, you should be using 2.5.2 for best results, which we'll get for you via email.
Graeme

PAL to NTSC: Nattress Standards Converter 2.5

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