quick help needed! changing NTSC/PAL timeline settings

[David J. Payne]

Hi,

I have just imported some pal video and spent an hour or so cutting it up ready to edit, i wondered why I was being asked to render the clips without applying any effects but I now know it is because I accidentally chose NTSC timeline instead of PAL.

I have a 35 min timeline with lots of PAL footage chopped up and positioned, could anyone tell me the best way of putting these same clips into a PAL timeline without having to restart the editing process.

Can i continue editing in NTSC and just change the properties and aspect ratio to PAL ones when I export?

A fast response would be VERY much appreciated on this one!

Many thanks

[Colin Pearce]

Do not waste your time going any further. Premiere is not good at converting frame rates. Then you'd be converting again (back to PAL).

We use CS3. I suggest you try to create a PAL project, then File - Import selecting the bad project. Not sure it will work, but you'll have a very sub-standard video if you continue in NTSC and convert back to PAL.

Otherwise it's only an hour you've lost, and you'll probably remember a lot of what you did. I think most of us have lost many hours' work for one reason or other.

[David J. Payne]

damn.. I finished editing in NTSC and exported to PAL.

To be honest just using media player on my pc it seems just as good as a 100% PAL project. When i burn the disc and watch on a TV I will post my thoughts on the quality.. either way.. too late to go back and re do it all now!

Thanks for your reply.

David

[Ervin Farkas]

I had a similar situation a couple of weeks ago - the person who recorded the video off of the video switcher (a multicam TV production), and did some basic cutting, brought me the video for further a/v editing, adding titles and credits, lower thirds, station logo, etc. The footage looked fine in my NTSC Premiere Pro project, but choppy on DVD.

For the life of me I could not put my finger on the issue... until a closer look at the properties revealed that when exporting, he accidentally chose the 24P setting, so he brought me 24P footage in a 60i envelope.

I suspect your situation is not much different - he had to export with correct settings and all is well now. You will probably have to redo the whole thing as well.

[Douglas Turner]

David - don't give up!

Create a new PAL project, import your original NTSC project (right click in the Project window, Import) and it'll create a new Bin named after your original NTSC project (so open up this bin and double-click on your main sequence)...

All your edit decisions will be there, unchanged and your footage will still be in PAL format, and you can easily render out without having to make any changes.

[David J. Payne]

Originally Posted by Ervin Farkas

he had to export with correct settings and all is well now. You will probably have to redo the whole thing as well.

Ervin, so did you/he have to re do all of your editing? Or simply change the properties when you exported back to PAL?

Originally Posted by Douglas Turner

David - don't give up!

Create a new PAL project, import your original NTSC project (right click in the Project window, Import) and it'll create a new Bin named after your original NTSC project (so open up this bin and double-click on your main sequence)...

All your edit decisions will be there, unchanged and your footage will still be in PAL format, and you can easily render out without having to make any changes..

Douglas, THANKS! you are absolutely right, I am exporting the avi now. Ususlaly I delete the project as soon as I've finished but I kept it whilst holding out hope someone would know what to do.

I am interested whether the outputted AVI from this process would be any different from the outputted AVI from the NTSC project in which I changed the export settings to PAL... I'd have thought they'd export an identical file?

[Ervin Farkas]

Next time I'll reply AFTER finishing my coffee... of course you can import the project into a new one. I think you can even double click on the timeline and it will open up so you can see all the editing you have done in the original project. I totally forgot about that as I'm not using it much.

And no, in our case we didn't have to do the editing again as he missed that setting only in the last step, when exporting the finished edit. All he had to do is export again, with the frame rate set to 29.97 - he brought me the new file, I replaced the original file in my project with this new one and I got the nice, clean, smooth picture. Now we changed our workflow: he brings me the whole PremPro project and I don't have to create a new one, I simply add the titles, credits, logo, lower thirds in this original project - we both have the same PremPro version, perfectly compatible.