PAL vs. NTSC

Hi,

What poroblems are most likely to happen if I purchase NTSC videocameras in PAL regions such as here in Thailand and Maldives?

Thank you all and any input would be greatly appreciated.

Philip

www.diversthailand.com/

Pattaya, Thailand &

Bodu Hithi, Maldives

That vast majority of TVs in PAL countries are multi-region and will play NTSC material. Some very old ones might not.

If you are making dailies and have some customers from the USA, Japan etc., it will actually save you some work to do everything in NTSC. A lot of DVDs that I own and play on my Thai and UK TVs are NTSC.

With NTSC of course, you have a little less resolution and you also have to consider keeping to NTSC broadcast safe standards (luminance between 16 and 235 on a scale of 0 to 255).

if you want to convert from one to the other - it can be a bit of an arduous process - bar spending a few dollars on a specific app designed for the job....

if using a cheap/budget option then generally you'll have almighty headache - an incorrect conversion of one format to the other will leave you with either one frame in 5 pausing creating a moments delay in the images or the removal of 1 frame in 5 creating a slight jump.... depending on which way you're going... PAL to NTSC / NTSC to PAL...

If you're in a fix, check out http://www.dvfilm.com/atlantis/

or http://www.nattress.com

natress seems a little fiddly and requires a certain convoluted workflow.... Atlantis just needs you to drop your video clip in and away it goes.....

they're pretty nifty, though, and do exactly what they say they will.... but cost - at the end of the day we all know that when we pay peanuts we get monkeys and so it is with format conversion software.... any cheaper ones will end up converting frame-rate and dimensions of the video but - so say the reviews - leave you with stuttering imagery... the more expensive converters will give you a proper "true" conversion (all very scientific, fully explained on their websites)....

good luck with it all

I just got an email from Graeme Nattress regarding his plug in sets which have always been considered some of the highest quality 3rd party plug ins on the market. At any rate, he said that because the plugins run inside FCP or Color, they are somewhat OS independent - and processor independent, so any problems that may occur will be down to how the native app works in the new Leopard OS. If you are not using Leopard right now you shouldn't have difficulties.

Steve B)

Philip

Are you going to buy HD or SD? In HD, the resolution is the same for both systems, it's the fps that is different.

NTSC (29.97 fps) to PAL (25fps) always has more problems than the other way around.

What is your end product? If it is for a production DVD, I suggest 24P DVD in NTSC, most DVD players will do a 2:3 pull for NTSC. Another thing is that NTSC cameras in PAL countries are usually more expensive and PAL cameras are more expensive than the NTSC counterpart due to demand.

Just realize that while the camera does play both systems, it does not downconvert to both color systems on a SD TV. Only some SD DV cameras use to do that. So you can't watch your tape on a SD TV (not that you would if you were shooting HD but sometimes to do a quick check etc).

I've recently been pondering shooting everything at 1080i60 and just slowing it all down 16.7% to 1080i50 for PAL markets. That gives an 83.3% slow-mo, which would be pretty nice, especially for pelagics. Loads of stuff I see on TV is slightly slow-mo.

What do you all think?

I've recently been pondering shooting everything at 1080i60 and just slowing it all down 16.7% to 1080i50 for PAL markets. That gives an 83.3% slow-mo, which would be pretty nice, especially for pelagics. Loads of stuff I see on TV is slightly slow-mo.

 

What do you all think?

not sure about your particular NLE but, Final Cut particularly advises only stepping the speed down in fractional increments - i.e from 100% going slower, one should only try 75%, 50%, 25, 12.5% etc...... they state that the frame blending that goes on will then only have to judge the same "gap" in between frames...

I've totally disobeyed this point in some edits and not noticed a difference - maybe the subjects were never moving fast enough to freak out the frame blending(?).....

Regards slo-mo, in general.... all my shots come out at least 75% with most coming out at 50% - if the subject isn't moving too fast then the frame blending "engine" in the background does a great job of keeping everything smooth, crisp and sharp.... it's a personal preference thing as it really exaggerates the effect of projecting this dreamy, floaty world in which we are diving....

(plus - as a final note - when shooting the Daily Dive DVDs it makes even the most uncoordinated of flappy-armed Open Water diver look kinda more like the James Bond stunt double that they wish to look like in said vids.... )

I was talking about a frame-to-frame slow down from 60i to 50i. No blending or interpolating to be done at all.

It's just that the Z1 can do either, and it would possibly open up the footage to more markets.