24P to NTSC

Friends...

I've gotten some great advice here about this project previously...but now that it is done, I just wanted to check the current thinking on converting from 24P to Standard NTSC.

I've finished a project which I shot and cut in 24p 1080. I am now ready to output the final cut - which must be in Standard NTSC. I want to keep the full image - i.e. letterbox. What is considered the best process for doing this? Do I create a new NTSC timeline and drop the final 24p picture on it and then render?. Or do I output the 24p video using Compressor and change it into a NTSC pic at that time... then re import it to the new timeline? And in either case, when should I resize the image to preserve the letterbox?

By the way... my Black Magic Extreme has a down conversion setting for outputting - HD to SD on the fly - but is that best quality? And so far... it seems to squeeze the picture rather than outputting a clean letterbox in NTSC.

Thanks in advance for your advice.

Ron

>my Black Magic Extreme has a down conversion setting for outputting... it seems to
>squeeze the picture rather than outputting a clean letterbox in NTSC.

Go to decklink settings in preferences, select downconvert options to "letterboxed".

Also, i think you can set the pulldown on the card at the same time.



www.strypesinpost.com

Why on earth would you letterbox?
You know widescreen video in SD is anamophic, do you?

Bouke
www.videotoolshed.com

Not everybody wants to take the risk of coming across a non-anamorphic-enabled device. So there's a good reason to just go to letterbox.


www.derekmok.com

Usually my rule of thumb. DVDs, leave as 16:9, DVD player will letterbox. SD 4:3 broadcast letterboxed 4:3 or "center cut", depending on specs.



www.strypesinpost.com

Yup. DVDs should always be anamorphic; let the player sort it out. But if you're mastering a widescreen program to NTSC videotape, you may in fact want to letterbox.

I do the same thing. But if push comes to shove, pillarboxed (letterboxed SD on widescreen device) is better than proportions out of whack (anamorphic 16:9 on non-anamorphic-enabled device)!


www.derekmok.com