does the act of digitizing video in FCP and turning video/audio into ones and zeros, make the format its shot on invalid?
lonmg way to ask how to convert PAL to Ntsc.

Borrowed a camera from a brit. he didnt think to tell me and I didnt think to ask.

A computer simply copies the digital information it receives. In
this case your capture will result in a PAL stream, not NTSC

10-4
any plug in that will do this?

To the best of my knowledge ANY NLE will be able to convert
from PAL to NTSC or the other way around. Simply set the project
to NTSC in your case and load the PAL footage. Then export as
NTSC as well.

The question is will it be good enough. Usually the conversion
from PAL to NTSC is easier than the other way around. Test it
to see if it works for you. Otherwise you might want to look at
some more didicated applications for that work. I have no
experience with any applications like that, so I hope someone
else can tune in for that.

If it's for a client, Gary, the conversions usually aren't good enough with the manner of conversions that Rob details. You'll need to contact a post house and have it done professionally. If it's just for a friend or family member, the quality may be good enough and the quality is sufficient for entertainment.

Anybody,

Although I'm producing video in a NTSC country, (USA)
I'm thinking that I should get a PAL XL2 instead of a NTSC XL2
because of superior image quality due to higher pixel count, and just convert to NTSC in post production.
Would the conversion process cancel out the benefits?
I've heard that some use PAL in this country for aquisition.
Does this make practical sense? Is there that much difference in quality?

Michael Hamilton

Personally I would stick with the camera for your country. Yes,
the PAL version has more pixels, but that's the only benefit. The
NTSC model has 24p which the PAL model doesn't have. So
how serious are you for printing your movie(s) to film? Because
then it might do you some good, but I don't really know of much
people here who go to film and get it projected somewhere. So
I very highly doubt this will be the way to go for you.