URGENT HELP Needed Compressing 24 fps file to DVD m2v

I am working on a project where all the source footage is 24fps film (in 720x486 uncompressed 8 bit QT files). I have edited the footage in FCP6 with the sequence at matching settings to the source footage. Every thing good so far.

I then export out a reference file of the final edit. Review the ref file and all is beautiful.

The problem occurs with I use compressor to convert the 24 fps to m2v. I use one of Apples default settings (DVD Best Quality 90 Minutes), drop the setting on the clip in the asset window and verify the settings, which in the summary show frame rate of 23.976. OK. Submit.

When the compression is complete, and I bring the new asset into DVDSP, the rate now shows 29.97 (open in QT confirms), and the clip stutters in play back.... i.e. dup frame every 5 frames. On the second try, I don't get dup frames, but I actually got frames dropped every few seconds. i.e. frame advance in DVDSP and the video would skip a frame. The later is extremely noticeable on panning shots.

Can any one give me some advice on how to keep the video smooth and consistent with the original footage?

Any help or suggestions would be EXTREMELY appreciated as this project HAS to go to press tomorrow.

PS I have also posted this in the Apple Support as I am desperate to find a solution to this problem.

Thanks
Gary Sumlak
thumbprints Multimedia Inc.
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
[www.thumbprints.ca]

*** Superior Film Transfers at a Reasonable Price ***

I believe that you can not use 24P on a DVD. DVD's are NTSC or PAL. There are no variants of 25(PAL) or 29.97(NTSC) available on a standard DVD using.m2v

If we ever get to BluRay then that will change.

OK, After a very long night with no end near, I figured out the drop frames are the result of feeding 24fps into Compressor instead of 23.98.

I took the footage conformed the clips to 23.98 and that particular problem was resolved....

However, conforming introduced a whole new problem: When I conform the clips, 2 black frames are introduced at EXACTLY frame 7900. I have 4 tracks of similar footage, with different language tracks. There are English, French, Spanish and German sequences. The German track is edit differently than the other 3 due to very different timing in the translation. The other three are virtually identical to the point where the black frames are introduced.

That being said, ALL 4 tracks have the black frames appear at frame 7900 regardless of the video content.

These are NTSC (720x480 24 fps with uncompressed 8 bit video).

Oddly enough, if I drop the NTSC sequence onto a PAL 24fps uncompress 8 bit sequence, the black frames do not seem to appear after the PAL tracks are conformed to 25 fps. I have not found any anyway....

Any thoughts on why I am getting this problem?

As a result, we have had to postpone the glass mastering, and needless to say, the producer is not at all pleased...

Thanks for any input.

Thanks
Gary Sumlak
thumbprints Multimedia Inc.
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
[www.thumbprints.ca]

*** Superior Film Transfers at a Reasonable Price ***

Well, taking a cue from that the PAL scaled video did not have the BLACK frame problem the NTSC 720x486 sequence had - (I type-o'ed 480 previously), I created a new NTSC sequence at 720x480 and dropped the 720x486 sequence into that, which resulted in a nice bright red "render me" line. Rendered and exported, and this time the Conform did not insert any black frames.

What a pain!! I still don't know why there were black frames in the 720x486 Seq, but I have a work around. I may just get this NTSC disc out today!!

Thanks
Gary Sumlak
thumbprints Multimedia Inc.
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
[www.thumbprints.ca]

*** Superior Film Transfers at a Reasonable Price ***

Gary,

One thing you should note, even when you bring in properly encoded 23.98 (24P) m2v files, the info will state that they are 29.97 within DVDSP. But when the final DVD is played on a computer or a progressive set top player that is hooked up to a digital TV it will not add the pull down and it will playback your footage at true 23.98 P.

This is something that confusses a lot of people and for the life of me don't know why the inspector info if not fixed in DVDSP. If you open the m2v file in QT or VLC it should show as 23.98 frame rate.

Thanks for the reply and letting me know the 29.97 thing is not just me.

On the other (black frames) front, I discovered that the Black Frames were introduced into the PAL conforms as well. Just at a different time code (3:25;16) than the NTSC. It did not matter how long the PAL clip was, the black frames were ALWAYS inserted at precisely 3:25:16, and only once for the duration of the clip. Whether it be a 4 minute clip or 20 minute clip.

I verified this on an other G5 and a Mac Pro. And they both verified the exact same time code. So at least I know it was not my preferences messing things up. But this tells me that it is absolutely a problem with Cinema Tools. I am really amazed that no one else seems to have this problem!

BTW - I tried using conform on the clip in uncompressed 8-bit 4:2:2, DV, DVDCPRO, and a couple other codecs. Conform introduced black frames in ALL versions.

My work around ended up making sure that I created clips no longer than 3 minutes.

Thanks again for the input.

Thanks
Gary Sumlak
thumbprints Multimedia Inc.
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
[www.thumbprints.ca]

*** Superior Film Transfers at a Reasonable Price ***