Compressor vs Cinema Tools for frame rate conversion

I have to convert large numbers of animation files from avi 24 fps to prores 23.98 fps. The workflow I'm looking at uses Compressor to go from avi to prores, and Cinema Tools to go from 24 to 23.98. I know I could change the frame rate in Compressor, but it's my understanding that doing so could introduce motion artifacts caused by including the frame rate conversion in the compression process. In Cinema Tools, I'm using the Batch Conform command to simply change the QT header from 24 to 23.98, so there is no compression being done.

Is my understanding of these processes correct, and does anyone see a flaw in my logic?

I've found Compressor's retiming features to be decent most of the time on the higher settings, but it adds significantly to the render time. The workflow you proposed should therefore be much quicker.

My software:
Pro Maintenance Tools - Tools to keep Final Cut Studio, Final Cut Pro X, Avid Media Composer and Adobe Premiere Pro running smoothly and fix problems when they arise
Pro Media Tools - Edit QuickTime chapters and metadata, detect gamma shifts, edit markers, watch renders and more
More tools...

Check "so source frames play at 23.98fps" in frame controls. You can even set it at fastest, because when conforming frame rates, you don't need optical flow running.



www.strypesinpost.com

Checking 'so source frames play at 23.98' changes the frame rate by simply changing the QT header, as Cinema Tools does? No interpolation?

If so, that's just what I need, and it saves me a step.

Thanks!

Are you sure about that? The Compressor manual doesn't specify if it modifies the frames or not.

My software:
Pro Maintenance Tools - Tools to keep Final Cut Studio, Final Cut Pro X, Avid Media Composer and Adobe Premiere Pro running smoothly and fix problems when they arise
Pro Media Tools - Edit QuickTime chapters and metadata, detect gamma shifts, edit markers, watch renders and more
More tools...

Yes. The Compressor documentation is quite undocumented. Compressor also does a standard pulldown to convert from 23.976 to 29.97, which is also not documented (but covered in Brian Gary's Compressor guide), and the pulldown seems consistent and removable in JES Deinterlacer and CT.

Just make sure you specify frame rate at 23.976 in the video settings. Also make sure the audio in compressor is set to "enabled" and "linear PCM". Compressor will resample the audio and do a pitch shift to compensate, something which CT doesn't do.

Yes, you will skip a step, but Compressor comes with its overheads probably due to its fancy UI, auto detection (which screws up from time to time if you try to batch convert HDV to ProRes without specifying frame size), and real time preview. Because of this, I usually use Compressor droplets when I have a batch to deal with. I also find the new droplet window in Compressor (FCS 3) to be slow especially when you have large batches to convert.



www.strypesinpost.com