Converting NTSC to PAL

Santiago Casas

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Jun 10, 2002, 4:54:15 PM6/10/02

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Hi everyone from Spain.

We've created an animation feature in Electric Image which we've put together in After Effects in NTSC format (to burn DVDs). Since NTSC is 30 frames/sec. and PAL is 25, when we convert it to PAL it jumps and jitters. Does anyone know of a plug-in or technique to make this conversion as smooth as it looks on NTSC (i.e., by inserting frames??).

Thanxx very, very much. Santiago (sca...@jazzfree.com)

Ps. This is very URGENT...

Jim Howells

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Jun 10, 2002, 5:45:50 PM6/10/02

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Well the best looking method would be to rerender the EI animation and AE comps in 30 f/sec. (My vote)

The other method would be to take it to a high quality duplication house many can do the conversion.

But then the last is to take the footage drop into a 30 f/sec comp and render to fields with frame blending.

Santiago Casas

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Jun 10, 2002, 6:08:03 PM6/10/02

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Santiago Casas

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Jun 10, 2002, 6:24:09 PM6/10/02

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Thanx, Jim. Unless AE can actually take care of the problem or there is specific software for it I think I'll go for your second option. We've tried various methods and none of them work. Thanx again, Santiago

garyoldknow

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Jun 11, 2002, 9:18:57 AM6/11/02

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Hmmm. You can tell after effects to conform the footage. Try command F. Set it to 29.97fps it should then run it out without the dropped frames but it will make it longer than before... by around 1/5 of a sec per second of course

David Bogie

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Jun 11, 2002, 4:30:56 PM6/11/02

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Best thing you can do is go back to EI and render your movie in the proper format.

The conversion is going to look goofy no matter what you do because you are throwing away five frames of action. Your characters either get to their destinations five frames sooner or you're going to lose five frames of their waling cycles, you pick.

You could interp your footage at 60 fps and build it in a 60fps comp, separating fields. Then render it out at 25fps with frame blending. The results are still goofy but you will have sort of hidden ten additional fields within your film. Umm, after proofreading this message, I can see it makes almost no sense.

david

Rick Gerard

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Jun 11, 2002, 9:11:41 PM6/11/02

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I'm not sure which way you're going. If you're going from PAL to NTSC then you can just render your PAL footage interlaced and add 3:2 pulldown. If you’re going the other way round, interpret your 29.97 FPS footage and remove the 3:2 pulldown. That’s about as close as you can easily get.

If the question was a little clearer, I may be able to give you a better answer. I’ve mixed PAL and NTSC footage on several occasions and there are several techniques for mixing. If you just want to transfer from one format to another the best way is by using hardware. Take your PAL or NTSC footage to a good post house that has NTSC – PAL conversion equipment and have them make you a new tape. It’s will probably cost you $50 to have it setup, but it will save hours of fussing around, rendering and testing…

Jonas Cox

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Jun 12, 2002, 5:19:32 PM6/12/02

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Try converting it at the output stage. Open the render settings in the render queue, select "Use this frame rate" and enter 25 as the frame rate.

Jonas Cox

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Jun 12, 2002, 5:22:02 PM6/12/02

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P.S. I think there's confusion as to what exactly you're trying to do. I am recommending how you can go from NTSC to PAL, and garyoldknow seems to be recommending how to go from PAL to NTSC. I hope one of our methods works!

stib

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Jun 18, 2002, 6:47:51 AM6/18/02

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One would think that there would be more demand for quicktime NTSC/PAL converters, but they're really hard to find.

There is a quick time converter available but I think it might be only PAL to NTSC. try:

http://www.dvfilm.com/atlantis/ <http://www.dvfilm.com/atlantis/>

they have a free demo available.

David Durant

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Jul 7, 2002, 1:07:04 PM7/7/02

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I would be interested to learn more of the techniques you have used for mixing PAL and NTSC

Rick Gerard

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Jul 7, 2002, 3:57:14 PM7/7/02

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NTSC is 29.97 not 30, and you want to remove frames, not add them to convert to PAL

The easiest and best way to convert between formats is to take your video tape to a duplication facility and have them run the conversion for you through a hardware based convertor. It's fast, cheap, and does the best job. Canopus has a software utility that does a good job using the computer.

Here are a few problems that you have to overcome.

1. Frame rate difference. 29.97 doesn't exactly fit by any even multiple into 25. the potential problems include flicker, motion artifacts, sound sync. You can do a quick fix by adding or removing 3:2 pulldown, depending on which way you are going. You have to be careful to maintain sound sync when you do this and make sure that you’ve properly separated the fields.

2. Interlacing. Both formats are interlaced, which helps, but each format has a different number of scan lines. It is extremely important that you separate fields or de-interlace the footage that is to be converted. Potential problems include field reversal, flicker, softening of the image, distortion (round things are not round any more).

3. Pixel aspect ratios and color ranges are different for each format. AE will handle the pixel aspect ratio conversion automatically if you fuss with the default settings and you can fix the color space problems with a levels call, but potential problems include a general softening of the image and poor color reproduction.

You can solve these problems using software, but the hardware solutions, especially the professional level solutions, do a much better job and it's in real time. The set up is usually between $20 and %50 bucks plus the cost of the tape stock and dub. I don't know about anyone else, but I can't afford to mess with it. I just have it done.