Is it Magic Bullet? Is it Vegas? Is it DVFilmmaker? This topic has been brought up before but what is the definitive answer by those who have used all of the different 24p conversion programs. Which one looks the closest to a true 24p camera?

I've tried all except Magic Bullet and I love DVFilm Maker a lot. The conversion is fast and you hardly lose any resolution. That, and it's not even expensive! You can see an 18-second sample clip here:

http://blog.thelifeguardmovie.com/uploaded_videos/poolshoot1.wmv

And a collage of sample clips from the same movie here:

http://www.frozenphoenixproductions.com/letus/LetustestHD_480p.mov

This is Sony FX1 footage 60i to 24p.

I love DVFilmmaker...and on a PowerMac G5---it positively flies.
[Make sure you get all the free latest updates].

You can download a fully working demo to try out[it just watermarks your footage] but I think you'll be very pleased with the results.

You can also "letterbox" or crop your footage if desired---but if you are processing anamorphic footage--leave setttings off.

My home movies of my nieces have never looked this good :-)

mpeg stream clip, free

I have DVFilmmaker already and it does a great job. I just wanted to know from someone whos used other conversion software as well as Filmmaker.

sony vegas with a supersampling envelope set to 2. it looks MUCH better than w/no envelope. the test on the website above didnt' do this for the vegas runs.

How do you apply a supersampling envelope in Vegas 7?

What is supersampling?

to set the envelope, press ctrl+shift+b to display the video bus track and then right-click the track and insert>envelope>video super-sampling

depends on what platform you have...

Nattress plug in for FCP yields lovely results...

On Avid I have found Speedramp by 3prong to be exceptional.

Both the above do a lovely smart blend to minimize those jagged edges.

Their methodology was to use default settings on all the products. They didn't tweak each one to get the best results possible.

Check out some of my previous posts on the topic (here (http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=36155&highlight=dvfilm+maker+magic+bullet) and here (http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=50373&highlight=dvfilm+maker+magic+bullet)). Magic Bullet produces some great stills, but there other factors to consider. Vegas does a surprisingly good job, but it's a full interpolation, so it may come out very smooth, but a bit soft (and can produce double/triple images if you don't use just the right settings). Maker takes the simplest and fastest approach of all of the products.

James - I also wanted to mention some tools by http://www.revisionfx.com/.

Twixtor and FieldsKit for After Effects are both excellent. I have done many 60i to 24p conversion with them.

I have a sample here:

http://70.147.193.182:81/mwtest/

The file is "MicrowaxAdapter_shot_02_24p_720x480.avi"

This was from back when I was experimenting with 35mm microwax adapters, so the 720x480 footage had to be uncompressed, per the requirements of other adapter builders. :) It's a LARGE file on a slow DSL upstream, so it may take a bit to download.

Shot on a Canon GL2 in frame mode and converted with Twixtor to 24p.