HV20 Workflow

I found a nice workflow article on the apple website:

[support.apple.com]

I went through this process and am still not sure about the specifics of what is happening: I'm shooting in the HDV 24p Cinema mode. Then I capture in FCP 6 and the resulting clips in the browser window say they have a vid rate of 29.97 (odd since I thought they'd be 24). I put these clips through compressor using the ProRes 422 codec and then import the new clip files into FCP and sure enough the clip has a 23.98 vid rate.

Here's the kicker...the new file is three times the size...from just under 3 GB to over 10GB. Zonkers. Am I doing that right?

DK

What's happening here is that your footage is being shot 23.976 frames per second with a 1/48 shutter (unless you manually change the shutter; don't), and recorded to tape with 3:2 pulldown. Compressor removes the pulldown and writes the footage out in ProRes format for editing.

Yes, the file size is correct.

Thanks for the insight. I like it when things work, but strive to also understand why they work. One other mystery is that in this 23.98 sequence I can drop both 29.97 and 23.98 versions of the same clip and they seem to be the same length, with no repeat frames or interlacing. They are frame for frame the same. Shouldn't they be different?

Dk

A 23.976 clip and the same clip with pulldown added are the same length. They just use different time bases. Thirty seconds of 23.976 and thirty seconds of 29.97 are both thirty seconds.

If you drop a 29.97 clip with pulldown into a 23.976 sequence in Final Cut, I believe it does a very poor job of conforming. It doesn't intelligently remove the pulldown, that's for sure. But it won't alter the duration of your clip.

Hey Jeff:

Can you post the URL to: [support.apple.com].

Thanks!

I can understand the duration of the clip being the same, but am puzzled as to why they seem identical frame to frame. I would imagine one or the other would have some duplicate frames. Does FCP remove the added frames of a 29.97 file automatically when put into a 23.98 sequence?

DK