Re: Best way to convert an authored NTSC DVD to PAL? by Max Kovalsky on May 12, 2009 at 4:10:57 pm
We do dual format projects all the time. We'll typically author NTSC, export the script out of Scenarist, hack the script to make it into PAL and import it into a new PAL project. One you have your PAL scenario, just relink to the PAL assets. This way there's no need to reauthor and re-QC the programming.
Re: Best way to convert an authored NTSC DVD to PAL? by Khashyar Darvich on May 12, 2009 at 7:22:29 pm
Thank you both, Max and Roman, for your advice and thoughts about how to create a PAL Scenarist project from an NTSC version.
Since the motion menus and video transitions were created in After Effects in 30 fps video, what is the easiest to convert those AE menu clips to PAL? Does AE have a fps conversion option? Should our DVD author use compressor? Or, will we need to convert the menu video files to PAL in the same way as our video feature and special features? (I know that the menu buttons will have to be replaced).
Also, since the video clips for the NTSC Scenarist project were already digitized to Quciktime files, is there an easy way to convert them all to PAL? Is there software that can do this, or should I take the clips to a lab like Lightening Media in Los Angeles for the conversion. The most time-consuming way would be to reassemble the clips on a timeline, export them to tape, and have the lab convert the entire tape to PAL, and then redigitize each clip individually in the new PAL format, but that seems like the long way of doing this. Thank you for any suggestions for converting the QT project clips.
Re: Best way to convert an authored NTSC DVD to PAL? by Roman Melekh on May 12, 2009 at 8:45:35 pm
IMHO you can just set composition option to PAL@25, and re-render menus to PAL
Video....you have 23.976+pulldown or native 29.97fps ?
If you have 23.976fps videos, you can speed-up your video and audio without "Lightening Media in Los Angeles"...I know how to do this "hack" on PC/Windows - try to use Canopus ProCoder or Carbon Coder.
Audio - any audio editor, you must to apply "time stretch" filter and speed up to 25 fps (multiply speed to 1.042709)
Re: Best way to convert an authored NTSC DVD to PAL? by Khashyar Darvich on May 12, 2009 at 7:38:04 pm
Hello again,
I just received a message from our DVD author, and he said that he received a recommendation that he could use "visualhub" to convert the menus to PAL.
Re: Best way to convert an authored NTSC DVD to PAL? by eric pautsch on May 15, 2009 at 9:58:10 am
I was going to say that if you already have an NTSC disc, virtually every player in the world with play these. No need to go to PAL. I was in a store in London once and saw close to 50 titles that were NTSC.
Re: Best way to convert an authored NTSC DVD to PAL? by Bouke Vahl on May 16, 2009 at 8:45:07 am
Another vote for 'no need at all to go PAL'.
My last international project was done in NTSC only, while i'm in Pal land, just for the better compatibility.
Do not think that using desktop tools for transcoding will make 29.97 video better looking.
If it was 23.976 or 24 you could speed up to 25, and have a better image, but NTSC interlaced to Pal is very difficult.
There are magic recepies how to do it with Compressor, but in practice, this only works for very short pieces. You get crashes, render time will kill you (think 40 times RT at least) and you need a lot of trial and error to get it right.
If it's not up to you to decide if a pal version is needed or not, and you have a budget, go out to a facility that has a Snell & Wilcox hardware box and let them do the conversion.
Bouke
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