workaround/workflow conversion for 24f/FCE? at DVinfo.net

Cynthia Granville · June 23rd, 2009, 02:00 AM

hello all,
i have an XHA1 and both imovie and FCE3.5 on my imac...unfortunately did not realize when i put together my setup the problem with 24f, which i began shooting a project with at my boss' request (shooting some b roll/making of footage on a feature film set). discovered the out-of-sync audio when i attempted capture. i have been researching various potential conversions for workarounds and still need a clear workflow guide.

i have downloaded the trial of HDVxDV recommended on a forum and indeed i can capture with this program apparently in sync. but now what should i do with the m2t files? i tried importing one to imovie in various compression types--the program converts to quicktime with various compression options including none, AIC, 8 and 10 bit, etc--and it appears in sync in imovie (which is calling this a HD-1080i-25 project), but there is not a lot of dialogue on this clip and there may be a problem i am not seeing. do i need to convert the m2t to something in mpeg streamclip or some other program besides HDVxDV, and if so what? if not, what settings should i use in HDVxDV? besides compression, there is a place to input frames per second rate, keyframe every x frames. will the same settings get me an exported file that would work for editing in both imovie and FCE, or are there different optimal settings for each?

i have read the sticky and spent a lot of time looking thru this and other forums, but i have found conflicting information some of which is not up to date in listing programs, and i am still looking for something straightforward. thank you!

Cynthia Granville · June 26th, 2009, 10:14 PM

hi all,
no one responded to my previous post, so i thought i'd let you know what i've found in case anyone else also has 24f footage they've been wondering what to do with in fce. i have been able to capture the files nicely using hdvxdv...i investigated using JES for conversion into fce friendly form, but the very kind and responsive developer there suggested i change the codec first with streamclip, and as of now i have used it to convert framerate as well. i have now converted two clips from my m2t files created by hdvxdv into quicktime files with aic at 29.97fps for fce...i have yet to try with very long clips, but for the relatively short but dialogue-intensive clips i converted, everything looks good when checking them by playing back in the quicktime player and also worked great in fce...no problems importing, and everything looks smooth and in sync both in preview and after rendering.
by the way, i was originally planning to convert to 25fps since this would only involve one blended frame, and thus i thought better quality, but having read that 24f is embedded in a 29.97 stream i thought this might work well, and so far so good. i will probably try going to 25 at some point and see if i can tell differences in quality.
i would be curious as to what the quality would look like if attempting to go back to 24, but of course i don't really have a way to check that out! since i am really just looking for something which will allow me to include these clips on a reel, and do a rough edit...were i to be polishing a serious project i would simply use this as a guide and go to fcp for my final version...i think i'm good.
i would appreciate it if anyone sees something wrong with this procedure, with nasty surprises awaiting me down the road somewhere due to something i've overlooked, please give a shout (tim dashwood?)

June 23rd, 2009, 02:00 AM	#1
Cynthia Granville Regular Crew Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: Weehawken NJ Posts: 51	workaround/workflow conversion for 24f/FCE? hello all, i have an XHA1 and both imovie and FCE3.5 on my imac...unfortunately did not realize when i put together my setup the problem with 24f, which i began shooting a project with at my boss' request (shooting some b roll/making of footage on a feature film set). discovered the out-of-sync audio when i attempted capture. i have been researching various potential conversions for workarounds and still need a clear workflow guide. i have downloaded the trial of HDVxDV recommended on a forum and indeed i can capture with this program apparently in sync. but now what should i do with the m2t files? i tried importing one to imovie in various compression types--the program converts to quicktime with various compression options including none, AIC, 8 and 10 bit, etc--and it appears in sync in imovie (which is calling this a HD-1080i-25 project), but there is not a lot of dialogue on this clip and there may be a problem i am not seeing. do i need to convert the m2t to something in mpeg streamclip or some other program besides HDVxDV, and if so what? if not, what settings should i use in HDVxDV? besides compression, there is a place to input frames per second rate, keyframe every x frames. will the same settings get me an exported file that would work for editing in both imovie and FCE, or are there different optimal settings for each? i have read the sticky and spent a lot of time looking thru this and other forums, but i have found conflicting information some of which is not up to date in listing programs, and i am still looking for something straightforward. thank you!

June 26th, 2009, 10:14 PM	#2
Cynthia Granville Regular Crew Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: Weehawken NJ Posts: 51	my workflow for 24f into fce for edit hi all, no one responded to my previous post, so i thought i'd let you know what i've found in case anyone else also has 24f footage they've been wondering what to do with in fce. i have been able to capture the files nicely using hdvxdv...i investigated using JES for conversion into fce friendly form, but the very kind and responsive developer there suggested i change the codec first with streamclip, and as of now i have used it to convert framerate as well. i have now converted two clips from my m2t files created by hdvxdv into quicktime files with aic at 29.97fps for fce...i have yet to try with very long clips, but for the relatively short but dialogue-intensive clips i converted, everything looks good when checking them by playing back in the quicktime player and also worked great in fce...no problems importing, and everything looks smooth and in sync both in preview and after rendering. by the way, i was originally planning to convert to 25fps since this would only involve one blended frame, and thus i thought better quality, but having read that 24f is embedded in a 29.97 stream i thought this might work well, and so far so good. i will probably try going to 25 at some point and see if i can tell differences in quality. i would be curious as to what the quality would look like if attempting to go back to 24, but of course i don't really have a way to check that out! since i am really just looking for something which will allow me to include these clips on a reel, and do a rough edit...were i to be polishing a serious project i would simply use this as a guide and go to fcp for my final version...i think i'm good. i would appreciate it if anyone sees something wrong with this procedure, with nasty surprises awaiting me down the road somewhere due to something i've overlooked, please give a shout (tim dashwood?)