converting 29fps to 24p at DVinfo.net

Jonathan Grant · October 12th, 2006, 08:19 PM

We need a 20 minute avi converted from 29fps to 24p. It's a documentary about these people making a short film. We filmed in 24p but their short film is in 29fps. So to put their short film into our documentary we need a high quality conversion. Adobe Premiere Pro's conversion stunk and it looked terrible. I realize it won't be perfect, but it needs to be decent. Does anyone know any video production house or someone that has the equipment to do that? Adobe's tech support said there is equipment that will do it professionally but it's 100s of thousands of dollars.

Any help would be appreciated.

Nate Weaver · October 12th, 2006, 09:23 PM

Since you're probably going to have to deliver whatever your end result is in 29.97, you might be better off adding pulldown to bring your 24p project up to 29.97 instead.

Here's the scenarios:

1-They shot 24p, but posted in 29.97: If this is the case, it may not be possible to convert to 24p without causing lots and lots of cadence problems. Only choice is to add pulldown to make your material match theirs. It will not change the look of your 24p.

2-They shot 29.97 interlaced or 30p: Converting this to match your 24p may significantly alter the look of their film. If they shot 30p, there's not really a good conversion to 24p.

Again, either way, making your stuff conform to 29.97 will not impact the look and will probably be the easiest.

Jonathan Grant · October 13th, 2006, 04:56 AM

Okay, can you tell me more about converting 24p to 29.97? I still want to keep the film look and the vast majority of the film is in 24p. Exactly how should I convert the 24p to 29.97 to have minimal quality loss? What's the best best best way?

It was shot on 29.97 interlaced I believe (sony digital handicam). I have to make this decision in the next couple of days and I need to be sure the final product looks by far the best. The 29.97 parts in the documentary can afford to look less quality than the rest because their short film isn't the best of quality anyway. However, adobe's conversion made it really choppy which is very annoying and makes me sick to watch it. It is a real distraction. It would be fine if it just didn't look quite as good as long as it wasn't distracting or all that noticable.

Graham Hickling · October 13th, 2006, 09:19 AM

Canopus Procoder isn't particularly cheap but does do good conversions - 24->29.97 or visa versa - certainly much better than Premiere Pro. I believe there's a demo, so you can test it out first.

The virtualdub/avisyth combination can do even better conversions - for free using for example the mvbob plugin - but there's a learning curve to using those tools....

October 12th, 2006, 08:19 PM	#1
Jonathan Grant Regular Crew Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: norman, OK Posts: 111	converting 29fps to 24p We need a 20 minute avi converted from 29fps to 24p. It's a documentary about these people making a short film. We filmed in 24p but their short film is in 29fps. So to put their short film into our documentary we need a high quality conversion. Adobe Premiere Pro's conversion stunk and it looked terrible. I realize it won't be perfect, but it needs to be decent. Does anyone know any video production house or someone that has the equipment to do that? Adobe's tech support said there is equipment that will do it professionally but it's 100s of thousands of dollars. Any help would be appreciated.

October 12th, 2006, 09:23 PM	#2
Nate Weaver Wrangler Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Los Angeles, CA Posts: 2,100	Since you're probably going to have to deliver whatever your end result is in 29.97, you might be better off adding pulldown to bring your 24p project up to 29.97 instead. Here's the scenarios: 1-They shot 24p, but posted in 29.97: If this is the case, it may not be possible to convert to 24p without causing lots and lots of cadence problems. Only choice is to add pulldown to make your material match theirs. It will not change the look of your 24p. 2-They shot 29.97 interlaced or 30p: Converting this to match your 24p may significantly alter the look of their film. If they shot 30p, there's not really a good conversion to 24p. Again, either way, making your stuff conform to 29.97 will not impact the look and will probably be the easiest. __________________ My Work: nateweaver.net

October 13th, 2006, 04:56 AM	#3
Jonathan Grant Regular Crew Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: norman, OK Posts: 111	Okay, can you tell me more about converting 24p to 29.97? I still want to keep the film look and the vast majority of the film is in 24p. Exactly how should I convert the 24p to 29.97 to have minimal quality loss? What's the best best best way? It was shot on 29.97 interlaced I believe (sony digital handicam). I have to make this decision in the next couple of days and I need to be sure the final product looks by far the best. The 29.97 parts in the documentary can afford to look less quality than the rest because their short film isn't the best of quality anyway. However, adobe's conversion made it really choppy which is very annoying and makes me sick to watch it. It is a real distraction. It would be fine if it just didn't look quite as good as long as it wasn't distracting or all that noticable.

October 13th, 2006, 09:19 AM	#4
Graham Hickling Trustee Join Date: May 2004 Location: Knoxville, Tennessee Posts: 1,669	Canopus Procoder isn't particularly cheap but does do good conversions - 24->29.97 or visa versa - certainly much better than Premiere Pro. I believe there's a demo, so you can test it out first. The virtualdub/avisyth combination can do even better conversions - for free using for example the mvbob plugin - but there's a learning curve to using those tools....