looking for help on frame rates/NTSC to PAL conversion

tikigod19

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hi all,

I'll get straight to it, I bought a camcorder that was sold as PAL, an NTSC one arrived, I arranged a partial discount and kept it as recordings play back fine on my tv when connected directly as you'd expect. The real issues have now shown themselves when it comes to editing and burning to DVD.

I film in NTSC as I have no choice, but should I edit (premiere pro cs4) in a 50i pal timeline or 60i ntsc? Should I then export 50i or 60i? Is it best to keep the frame rate consistent throughout the editing?

I have canopus procoder which i've read converts great but it does not open .MTS files.

If the NTSC footage plays fine on my tv, should I edit, output and author a dvd ALL in NTSC? Would that also play back without the jittering/jagged edges etc that I'm seeing when I convert to PAL at different stages (either when exporting from premiere or when authoring the DVD)

I wont often mix PAL and NTSC footage in one timeline but I'll take the hit with that and possibly deinterlace which I think will fix it but also lose quality. For now I'm after a way of editing all NTSC footage to produce a DVD that'll play on British dvd players without stuttering/flickering/having jagged edges etc.

I've tried playing a HD PAL mpeg (exported from a HD NTSC timeline) on my PS3 directly and although the quality is fine, it seems like every 5th frame or so it skips a frame which looks like a stutter. I have exported an NTSC HD MPEG but have not yet watched it. If that works I can keep all of my edited pieces in NTSC mpeg for playback from my hard drive via PS3, however the real issues come when I want to burn a DVD to give to friends...

I'm desperate for some answers so if you have any input I'd love to hear it!
 
I very much doubt you will find any UK DVD players or TV's that wont happily play NTSC footage without any issues. So I highly recommend that you don't convert your NTSC foortage to PAL. Even a good converter is likely to show some signs of frame rate conversion (judder in playback) and there will be a hit in quality. Flickering can be cause by using a 60Hz recording device in a country with 50Hz power - ie the flicker is caused by difference between the power cycle and the recording frame rate and is most noticable under fluoresent lighting.

If editing PAL & NTSC together onto a single DVD then you will need to convert to one format or the other as I'm sure you can't mix the 2 on a single disc.

Also worth mentioning is that PAL & NTSC only exist in SD video. They are the systems used to display the colour info in a video and HD is a standard for all countries. The only differences with HD are the frame rates used - 25p/50i, 30p/60i depending on the region or 24p if sourced from film (ie most BD discs).

Mark.
 
I very much doubt you will find any UK DVD players or TV's that wont happily play NTSC footage without any issues. So I highly recommend that you don't convert your NTSC foortage to PAL.
Totally agree, in fact some region2 DVD were NTSC

If editing PAL & NTSC together onto a single DVD then you will need to convert to one format or the other as I'm sure you can't mix the 2 on a single disc.
Also true, in this case its worth finding out if the PAL to NTSC footage is better tthan NTSC to PAL , then outputting accordingly
 
You can do decent NTSC to PAL conversions,and vice versa, but you'll probably need Snell and Willcox equipment to get really good results, and AFAIK, prices start around the £100,000 mark - secondhand !!

Procoder is the closest us normal mortals are likely to get to reasonably good conversions, but they're not without some artifacts.

As the others have already said -- don't!! :)
 
phew!! lucky I checked this... was just about to bid on a PAL model after arranging the refund! I managed to burn a 100% NTSC... sorry...60i disc start to finish... by that I mean 60i timeline, footage (obviously), exported mpeg and a 60i preset on the authoring program.

It SEEMS to display ok. The only thing I really want to do now is find a 50i raw file online and do the same with that (50i down the line) and see if the quality is higher.

Its also a benefit to me to be able to play the HD mpeg directly on my AV hard drive. I tried with the PAL but it stuttered. I'm now outputting a 60i hd mpeg from a 60i timeline, if this displays fine then I think I will indeed stick with it.

Thanks so much for your replies, you really saved the day.

on the canopus procoder vibe, it doesnt seem to open mts files?
 
Assuming you mean Procoder 3 (AFAIK, the earlier versions didn't handle AVCHD files) then change the file extension from .mts to .m2ts.
 
Download the Trial of TMPGenc4 to convert and judge for yourself
 

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