[nonhuman]

I have a video that I've been working on for my company. My job was simply to make any last minute changes and then send it off for post-production. Unfortunately, it was created in our London office and so was in PAL rather than NTSC. In order to convert it from PAL to NTSC in a manner that didn't completely screw it up I exported the original project into an NTSC DVCPRO50 file, then created a new project and imported the dv file back in. This seemed to work fine, and it left with with the video in 720x480 resolution, 30 fps NTSC.

So I sent that off to post-production, and according to them it plays fine on their computer, but when they print it to tape (beta) the motion comes out all jerky. Neither their staff editor nor myself could come up with a way to fix this. The video has to be ready to go on Friday, and it needs to look good (will be shown in front of hundreds of people).

I can only come up with two possible explanations: 1) the conversion from 25 fps PAL to 30 fps NTSC is the cause, or 2) my converting it to NTSC DVCPRO50 is the cause. As my machine is not equipped to put the video out to a tv monitor or to tape I have no way of actually testing any changes other than sending it back to the post-production company and waiting for them to have time to try it (and bill us for it), so I'd much rather get an actual explanation for what is causing this and why so that I can be sure that when I send the fixed version to them it will actually work.

Can anyone help me out with this?

[iMOTOR]

Originally Posted by nonhuman

As my machine is not equipped to put the video out to a tv monitor or to tape

You were editing in FCP, right? As noted in another thread, just find a cheap dv cam (canon works good) hook the firewire to the Mac, then hook an s-video to the cam, and you've got a tv monitor.

Originally Posted by nonhuman

The video has to be ready to go on Friday, and it needs to look good (will be shown in front of hundreds of people).

Is there any way you can leave it in Pal and project it off the computer???

[dlefebvre]

You could try this:
1- Export a PAL quicktime movie from the original PAL project.
2- convert the PAL movie to NTSC using the freeware JES deinterlacer

Also, since it's going to be output to Beta, maybe DVCPRO50 is not the way to go. I believe they will have to convert it anyway to output to Beta.

[nonhuman]

Originally Posted by dlefebvre

You could try this:
1- Export a PAL quicktime movie from the original PAL project.
2- convert the PAL movie to NTSC using the freeware JES deinterlacer

Also, since it's going to be output to Beta, maybe DVCPRO50 is not the way to go. I believe they will have to convert it anyway to output to Beta.

Sweet, I'll try that thanks.

The reason I went with DVCPRO50 is that I wanted a full-quality export, but when I did just plain old DV NTSC it came out looking really crappy. They will have to convert it, but they'll also be working with it in FCP themselves because it's going to be part of a big loop of videos, so I figured DV was a good way to go for now.

[nonhuman]

Originally Posted by iMOTOR

You were editing in FCP, right? As noted in another thread, just find a cheap dv cam (canon works good) hook the firewire to the Mac, then hook an s-video to the cam, and you've got a tv monitor.

Yeah, We've got a cam in the office, but for some reason I can't seem to find a 4-6 pin firewire cord which makes it hard to actually use the camera... Argh.

Is there any way you can leave it in Pal and project it off the computer???

Nope, the video is an ad that's going to be put onto a loop tape with a bunch of other ads to be shown at a conference.

[nonhuman]

I think JES deinterlacer may have done the trick. I'll know shortly. Thanks dlefebvre.

[dlefebvre]

I hoped it worked. If yes, I'm glad I could help.