How do I need to change my workflow and FCP configuration to work with 24p DV footage?

October 1, 2006 4:49 PM

DV / Final Cut Pro question: We just upgraded cameras to a Panasonic DVX100B, largely for the ability to shoot in 24P. However, imported footage still appears interlaced in FCP, and it's unclear to me what our new configuration should be. How will we need to change our workflow in order to edit in 24P? (More specific inside.) On an unrelated note, we just imported a tape which appears to be corrupted. Can it be salvaged? (More details inside.)

Regarding the progressive setup, I basically just need some stronger working knowledge about what we can and can't do working with 24P footage. Some specifics:

1) Do we need separate capture settings? "DV NTSC - 24" is a sequence preset, but not a capture preset -- there is, however, a capture setting called "DV NTSC 48 kHz Advanced (2:3:3:2) Pulldown Removal". Is this what we need to use?

2) Can we capture the 24p footage on a different DV camera that does not have a 24p mode?

The confusing part: We did two projects shot in 24p before realizing that we couldn't use the default DV settings anymore. The footage so imported looks fine, but it's interlaced. (In addition to using the default, interlaced 29.97 sequence setting, at least some of the footage was also captured on a non-24p camera.) The part I don't understand is why it doesn't look worse -- since 24p footage has a different timebase, I can't imagine it being displayed sensibly in a 29.97-timebase sequence. Or is Panasonic's 24p method backwards-compatible enough that it cleanly displays as interlaced 29.97 footage when captured as such? (Of course, it's possible that the footage from these projects has problems that we haven't noticed -- we publish directly to the internet, so we don't pay as close attention to footage quality as broadcast folks do.)

As for the corrupted video: The video on the first two shots is divided into 6 or 8 horizontal bars, half of which contain no video signal. FCP crashes upon trying to import. I am pretty much resigned that it was a tape-writing error that's unrecoverable, but figured I'd ask -- is there any chance to salvage this footage? It was on a clean tape, the corruption ends precisely when the last corrupted shot ends, and it displays as such in two different cameras, both of which have had their heads cleaned recently.

posted by tweebiscuit to computers & internet (6 comments total)

Also, a heads-up about any other 24p vs. 29.97 pitfalls would be helpful. For instance, if I need to mix interlaced and deinterlaced footage, what's the best method? Is it unsafe to copy-paste a frame-rate neutral clip (like a text generator or an image) from a 29.97 sequence to a 24p sequence? Etc.

Thanks!
posted by tweebiscuit at 5:04 PM on October 1, 2006

Wow. Ok, I did some more reading, and now my head is swimming -- I wasn't even taking the difference between 24P and 24PA into account.

So I'll put my question a different way: Considering that we have a nearly-Internet-only workflow, what's the best combination of format, capture, and sequence settings to allow us to edit in 24p with as little trouble as possible? And will said settings require us to run the final output through Cinema Tools or etc. if we then wish to, say, burn to a DVD? (Again, we don't make anything for broadcast.)
posted by tweebiscuit at 5:25 PM on October 1, 2006

I've found this article to be very helpful in this regard.
posted by visual mechanic at 5:27 PM on October 1, 2006

Wow, VM, that was extremely helpful! However, I'm still a bit confused. The footage we shot was in 24P normal, but FCP still lists its framerate as 29.97. According to the Ken Stone article that should make sense (since the 24p footage is embedded in the 29.97 framerate, right?) But when I look at the footage in FCP, it appears interlaced (i.e., I see jagged fields in certain frames). I tried sticking the footage in a 24p sequence, but the interlacing is worse, and oddly enough FCP does not list pulldown settings in the playback options menu. Seems like I'm still missing something here -- according to that article, we should be able to shoot on normal 24p, import into a normal (29.97) sequence, and not see any interlacing, right?
posted by tweebiscuit at 6:09 PM on October 1, 2006

All footage on the camera is stored at 29.97. The Panasonic format flags redundant frames that can be removed in FCP.

I believe the project should be 23.98 when used.

Process:
Shoot 24p Advanced on the DVX100b
Capture using the FCP Easy Setup 23.98 Advanced pulldown.
Edit.
Send to compressor for DVD + QT7 Authoring.
posted by filmgeek at 11:02 PM on October 1, 2006

Oh, the existing material, has pulldown added.

If you could see both fields in fcp, (you can't) you'd see the combing/interlace artifacts on frames 3+4 (BC, CD frames)
posted by filmgeek at 11:04 PM on October 1, 2006