NTSC to PAL

Hello All,

I have some footage that was shot 16:9. The project was edited in Final Cut 5 NTSC. I have gone through a tutorial online for converting NTSC to PAL. There was 35 mins of footage and it took Compressor 36 hours to convert it. Now I need to author it to DVD. But Compressor exported it to a .mov file. And I believe DVD Studio Pro only accepts .mv2. Please help. Anyone let me know what is the best way to get this project into PAL format.

Thanks!

> Now I need to author it to DVD. But Compressor exported it to a .mov file. And I believe DVD
> Studio Pro only accepts .mv2

Not true. DVD Studio Pro can take most codecs, such as DV NTSC, Uncompressed SD, even DVCPro HD. I haven't work with it in PAL, but it should be about the same, just a matter of setting the DVDSP project file to PAL.


www.derekmok.com

Ok great! Thanks, I will try to move forward with the project.

In the future, try doing the standards conversion first with MPEG Streamclip and see if you're happy with the results. It takes about 6-8 minutes per minute on my MBP 2.15GHz. I've never had the patience to sit through a Compressor conversion.

Even better than 36 hours of compression baby sitting - use Nattress Standards converter best 100 dollars you'll ever spend if you do PAL to NTSC or the other way around - great tutorial - resizes compensates for different frame rate - the works - we used it on a shoot in Zambia (shot in NTSC -converted to PAL for broadcast there - looked stunning on the air)

Renders quickly too!

Nattress Standards Converter

Andy

Alright, compressor finally finished converting the NTSC file to PAL (after 48 hours). Now the file is over 9GB. Clearly too big for the single layer DVD that I have. Is there any other third party software available that will do this conversion? I looked into the Nattress Standards Converter and it seems too complicated for me.

Please help. If anyone knows a better work around I would greatly appreciate it.

You do realise that any PAL DVD player that was manufactured in the last ten years or so is NTSC compatible? It's only you NTSC guys who can't watch our stuff.

If you do need to convert it, I'm seconding Natress. If it seems complicated, maybe you should go to a post house and pay them to do it for you.

> Now the file is over 9GB. Clearly too big for the single layer DVD that I have.

Not necessarily. If your source movie file is 9GB, your MPEG-2 may not be. Because DVDs use one file format, what matters the most in DVD encoding is the length of the show, not the size of the original file used as the basis for the MPEG-2 encoding. For example, a 13GB DV NTSC movie file is an hour long, which will fit comfortably onto a video DVD because in MPEG-2 form, one hour will not be 13GB. There are some variables (eg. the bit rate used to make the MPEG-2), but it won't be 9GB unless you're talking about encoding Berliner Alexanderplatz.


www.derekmok.com

Ok, I will ask the client how old their DVD player is. I looked into a post house. The guy I called said he is not "thrilled" to take on the project. Whatever that means...

Derekmok,

Compressor exported a .mov file. Should I take that file into MPEG streamclip and convert to MPEG-2?

No, MPEG Streamclip is for the other direction -- extracting video content from an encoded video DVD. I'm not saying it can't prep an MPEG-2 for DVDs, but I've never tried it and I don't know anybody who uses it for that purpose. At a quick glance inside my copy of MPEG Streamclip, I don't see an MPEG-2 or DVD option.

To prep an MPEG-2, Compressor will do fine. Or just drop the .mov file into DVD Studio Pro and let it do the MPEG-2 conversion. You get more control with Compressor, though. Also I'm hoping one of the people in PAL land will jump in -- I work NTSC so there might be differences in the process I'm not aware of.


www.derekmok.com

>>The guy I called said he is not "thrilled" to take on the project.<<

Pfft. Great bedside manner. This stuff is really pretty simple in the grand scheme of things.

>>Also I'm hoping one of the people in PAL land will jump in -- I work NTSC so there might be differences in the process I'm not aware of.
<<

Nah - same. Just let DVD SP do its thing.

Ok thanks for all the good feedback. First thing I need to find out is if the client has a "newer" DVD player. If so, all of this is not even necessary. I had no idea PAL DVD players were NTSC compatible, and I guess the client didn't either or they never would have requested a PAL and NTSC version.

Thanks again!

Quote
>>Also I'm hoping one of the people in PAL land will jump in -- I work NTSC so there might be differences in the process I'm not aware of.
<<

Nah - same. Just let DVD SP do its thing.

Pal encodes on the wrong side of the road, that's all. Otherwise, yeah, same.



Michael Horton
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