Nattress 60i -> 24p -> 24p DVD process?

[Patrick Jenkins]

Playing around with the Nattress demo - slick stuff but I'm having a bit of trouble interpreting the manual. I'm trying to figure out a process to make a 60i->24p DVD to see how it looks when played back from a progressive scan DVD player.

Does anyone have a step by step workflow for this? Assume I want to end up with a 24p file for 24p mpeg2<>DVD encoding.

1. When starting with 60i material, do I want a 23.98 or 29.97 timebase for the FCP sequence?
2. Assuming a 60i->24p conversion, what format should I use when exporting to get straight progressive frames (obviously not DV - YUV uncompressed? animation?)? No fields, no pulldown, etc (is this possible?). Disk space isn't an issue.

-seperate question-
3. If I'm not exporting to a progressive format for one reason or another, but rather a fields format (for example sake, lets say DV - end result is a 60i file with 24p motion feel), what export template should I be using? 29.97? 23.98 (w/ all the generated pulldown, etc)?
-/seperate question

If I can get a 24p file I can DVD it easily enough - no worries there.

A lot of this stuff may be obvious after having worked with it, but it's not really intuitive. I've read the PDF manual and there's a lot of detail about how the plugin works, how the techniques are devised, what the options are, etc - but nothing really says how you should be using it nor is there even a rough tutorial guideline on how to get started with it. The experiments I've tried end up clearly wrong (stuttering frames, roughly 6 saved images? for every second of video, etc).

Any suggestions are appreciated!

[Patrick Jenkins]

*bump*

Anyone?

[Meryem Ersoz]

have you considered directing these questions to graeme nattress? on his website, he really seems to encourage direct inquiries regarding their use. i just purchased these filters recently and have only begun to use them in the most elementary way and probably have some similar questions, although until i get my most recent project more close to completion and more prepared to add these filters and render, i won't know exactly what questions i have.

for my initial test, i used 60i in a 29.97 timeline in FCP, added the 24p filter, and it looked pretty good....probably there are ways to enhance it, but it's a starting point. i wish i could be more help--and wish someone more experienced with using these filters would chime in with an answer!

any hints on maximizing their use?

[Graeme Nattress]

http://www.nattress.com/standardsConversionMovie.htm

Watch the NTSC to 24p movie.

You need to be in a 23.98fps timeline as that's what you're converting to. Set codec to 8bit uncompressed 4:2:2, turn on the "source is DV" option in V2.5.

Well, you can use the converter again to add 3:2 pulldown using the "24p to NTSC" option, or just use Film Effects which is designed for that workflow.

Email me if you get stuck!

Graeme

[Doug Fearman]

Hi Graeme,
Will converting the footage from 60i to 24p (using your conversion software) result in a better looking DVD? BTW: Your film look filters work great.
doug

[Graeme Nattress]

Thanks Doug! The conversion uses exactly the same algorithm as Film Effects, but does not add back in the 3:2 pulldown, and hence leaves you with 24p footage for use in a 24p timeline. Because you can make a 24p DVD from a 24p movie, you can get a better quality DVD as less frames per second are compressed for it.

Graeme

[Patrick Jenkins]

Thanks Graeme!

[Patrick Jenkins]

Hrm.. ok I've been doing a lot of playing around with the filters - very nice btw! && thx for the help! - but I don't think I like 24p all that much. At least, I don't like the look of it when coming from 60i (looks great w/ a DVX or other normal 24p source). I definitely prefer 30p (good compromise between filmic prog feel and avoiding blended out of cadence fields).

I'll do some experiements w/ the filters 30p abilities - the color grading is also very slick so I think I'll look into it for those features alone.

Thanks again!