Hey guys,

I'm in the middle of editing a large project that was shot DVCProHD 720p60. The client just asked me if I could edit at 23.98 instead of 59.94 since it's going straight to DVD. He said he had been able to just drop the 59.94 clips onto a 23.98 timeline, but when I do that I get the orange bar -- which is what I thought would happen! (His RAID just died so he can't double-check his settings to confirm this).

I'm going to keep cutting at 59.94 for now but I'm concerned about doing this conversion at the end -- plus there's animations to be made in AE and we have to get the specs ready and decide on a timebase. Is there any way to batch convert all of my clips to 23.98 if that becomes necessary? The frame rate converter works if I remove the duplicate frames but it won't convert the audio. Cinema Tools perhaps?

JK

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SCQT! Self-contained QuickTime ? pass it on!

<<<I'm concerned about doing this conversion at the end >>>

As well you should be. I don't believe there is any really good way to go from 60 to 24. In the physical world, there is a way to shoot with a 144 degree shutter which gives a one-and-a-third video frame for every film frame (assuming 60 fields). The problems are trying to get that shutter opening perfect. If you miss it, you get two little horizontal splits across the picture each one third from the other.

This would obviously be much easier to do electronically, but you're still going to have motion problems as rapid sideways motion will show the splits. If you don't do it that way, then there will be missing motion bits in the 24 frame version. Some people see this as "gritty" motion. Also keep in mind your motion blur is going to be wrong--further contributing to the stuttery motion.

By the way, this is a similar process that computer monitors display television anyway, so a lot of people see this as normal. It's only normal if you never see the show displayed correctly. LCD monitors help cover this up, too, as they can't flicker fast enough to see the problem.

But yes, it wouldn't surprise me that you got a render bar.

This test video isn't in 720P, but it's in full-on NTSC with the fields identified. I'm betting if you tried to convert this to 23.976, you would see some very strange artifacts, and it's a cousin to the process you would need. Most computer systems will not display this video correctly, although it sails through a regular DVD player with glass monitor just fine.

[www.kozco.com]

All that and finding CineTools experts can be an interesting search.....

Koz