Conversion of HDV 1080/50i footage (PAL to NTSC)
by Rattrap
on
Jul 23, 2006 at 10:13:01 pm
What is the simplest way to convert 1080/50i (PAL) footage shot with a Sony HDR-FX1e into either 1080/24p or 1080/60i (both NTSC) without losing vertical resolution? I have After Effects 7 and Vegas 6.
Re: Conversion of HDV 1080/50i footage (PAL to NTSC) by Uli Plank on Jul 26, 2006 at 5:30:04 am
While you didn't answer the second question (about preferred display) I'd de-interlace with a good, adaptive de-interlacer like FieldsKit (from www.revisionfx.com) in After Effects so you get to 25p. Slow it down to 24p (by changing the displayed frame-rate, not by dropping frames) and then introduce 2:3-pulldown. It's gonna look like movies have been screened in the US on TV all the time.
Regards,
Uli
Author of "DVDs gestalten und produzieren", a book on professional DVD-authoring in German.
Re: Conversion of HDV 1080/50i footage (PAL to NTSC) by Uli Plank on Jul 26, 2006 at 5:55:38 am
Sorry, I have to explain the point about the display: there are interlaced and progressive displays. Most HDTV displays are progressive, so they'll need to de-interlace the interlaced footage anyway. The quality of the built-in de-interlacers can be very different, most of them throw away half the vertical resolution and do pretty bad interpolation.
In that case you'd better make your original progressive (with a good software de-interlacer), but not use 2:3 pulldown like I suggested in my other reply. That works best on interlaced displays or the few with really good built-in de-interlacers.
The only other possibility is introducing the extra frames needed for NTSC with vector calculation (aka flow motion). After Effects can do this, but calculation times are very long.
Sometimes I wonder why interlace was introduced to HDTV at all. Most consumers have progressive displays with pretty weak de-interlacers and 720p will look better than 1080i on most of them...
Regards,
Uli
Author of "DVDs gestalten und produzieren", a book on professional DVD-authoring in German.
