Standards Nightmare!

My specs - currently on G4 867MHz Powerbook attached to a Cinema Panel, Panther, FCP 4. 512 memory. (lots of external 1394 drives)

I will be bumping up the memory, and possibly buying a new system/FCP Studio.
but for now...
I am about to take on 2 projects ...
1- standard NTSC Beta
2 - PAL 3/4 umatic SP (yep, you read that right!)

Am I headed for a nightmare? What I/O box can you suggest for FCP working with both standards? And is it component or composite analog that gets converted to digital thru firewire? Any quirks I need to look out for? I have heard there may be monitor problems with PAL. Can my current system handle this?

Your help is MOST appreciated!

Pal isn't that bad to deal with. Most capture cards (and boxes) deal with it just fine. As do most pro monitors.

The thing I would be concerned about is the 3/4" PAL deck. Maybe have them dub it to PAL DV for you.



- Justin Barham -

What is your editing timebase? PAL or NTSC? Can't put NTSC and PAL in the same timeline. However you capture, one or the other will have to be converted to your timeline standard. There's a software standards conversion tool over at nattress.com.

Clay