NTSC Capture to PAL DVD?

evobjorn · Post by **evobjorn** » Thu Sep 27, 2007 1:22 am

Having reinstalled VS10 Plus today, I've realised that my previous installation was NTSC by default and all the avi's I captured are coming up as 29fps. Must have missed this on the previous install.

If I create an mpeg/dvd video file from a project using NTSC Avi's how would the playback be, will I notice the quicker speed - or will the PAL mpeg conversion sort this for me?

Just need to know, otherwise a long night ahead tomorrow recapturing all the footage!

Thanks

sjj1805 · Post by **sjj1805** » Thu Sep 27, 2007 1:32 am

I would be tempted to capture again.
I take it that the videos were shot in PAL (25 fps) so effectively if you keep the existing videos you would be attempting to do the following
a. inserted new frames during the transfer to your PC to bring the original 25 up to almost 30.
b. Remove extra frames to bring it back down to 25 - and it is highly unlikely they will be the same ones that were added at step a.

evobjorn · Post by **evobjorn** » Thu Sep 27, 2007 8:28 am

Yes you are right they were shot in PAL, and after finally managing to produce an MPEG-1 file without errors I've had a look and the quality isn't great, and every couple of seconds the video quality slights 'fizzes' - not sure if this is the removing extra frames, but it does look poor.

So in light of this, I'm going to recapture the footage this evening, before I do so, what would be the best format to capture to playback on a DVD, there is just over 2 hours of footage so needs to fit onto a 4.7gig DVD.

Previously I captured to DV (Avi) 720x480.

Thanks for your help! Sorry for the numerous questions, this is the first DVD video I've attempted

Clevo · Post by **Clevo** » Thu Sep 27, 2007 8:59 am

evobjorn wrote:Yes you are right they were shot in PAL, and after finally managing to produce an MPEG-1 file without errors I've had a look and the quality isn't great, and every couple of seconds the video quality slights 'fizzes' - not sure if this is the removing extra frames, but it does look poor.

So in light of this, I'm going to recapture the footage this evening, before I do so, what would be the best format to capture to playback on a DVD, there is just over 2 hours of footage so needs to fit onto a 4.7gig DVD.

Previously I captured to DV (Avi) 720x480.

Thanks for your help! Sorry for the numerous questions, this is the first DVD video I've attempted

Keep capturing in DV AVI...that's giving you the best quality to work/edit with. If you are making a DVD then your final output would be DVD Mpeg2 format....

But I'm not sure if that adresses your NTSC/PAL issue. What are the properties of the orginal footage?

Post by **Ken Berry** » Thu Sep 27, 2007 12:41 pm

I agree that you should recapture in DV format, but of course using the PAL frame size setting of 720 x 576... For two hours of video, that will require around 26 GB of space, plus roughly that much more for editing purposes, temp files etc. At the end of your editing, you go to Share > Create Video File > DVD which will produce a DVD compliant mpeg-2 file of your project. If the final project is still roughly 2 hours long and you are burning it to a single layer DVD, you will need to use a bitrate setting of 5000 kbps or less, even using one of the more compressed audio formats like Dolby or mpeg layer 2. The quality is only going to be average.

If you are more interested in higher quality output, you would need to consider breaking the project into two halves, and burning each to a separate DVD but using high quality settings of 8000 kbps as the video bitrate.

If hard disc space is a problem, then you could try capturing to mpeg-2 format from the start. But be warned that this is resource intensive, and some computers cannot cope. Moreover, mpeg-2 is not really a format which is well suited to much editing, and a lot of people experience a variety of problems doing some. (It has to be added, though, that some people do this all the time and have no problems at all... You need to experiment and see if you run into problems, and at least be aware of alternatives if you do.)

evobjorn · Post by **evobjorn** » Thu Sep 27, 2007 10:00 pm

am busy capturing now - thing is everytime I select DV under 'Format' it selects Avi instead?? I can't seem to get around this - nothing allows me to just select 'DV'

, and the max frame size I can select is 640x480 under Avi

Post by **Ken Berry** » Thu Sep 27, 2007 10:43 pm

That's not good. What are you capturing *from*? And what devices are involved? I guess I had been assuming you were capturing digital video from a digital video camera -- and if it were a mini DV camera, it would be connected to your computer via Firewire. In that case, you can definitely capture to 'DV'. If it is reverting to AVI, then I now suspect you are capturing probably from an analogue source and probably using some kind of capture device which allows you to capture uncompressed (and huge: 65GB per hour of captured video) AVI, or mpeg-1 and hopefully also mpeg-2 which is DVD compatible.

But even there it sounds as though things are not looking good since 640 x 480 is simply not DVD-compatible.

So please give us some further details as to exactly what you are capturing and what devices are involved.

evobjorn · Post by **evobjorn** » Fri Sep 28, 2007 12:07 am

I am using VS10 to capture, through a USB connection (although my PC is a 4 month old Dell, it has no Firewire

) and am capturing from a Sony DCR-HC14E Mini DV Handycam

And you are correct the filesizes are massive!

Black Lab · Post by **Black Lab** » Fri Sep 28, 2007 1:00 am

You need a firewire card. They are relatively cheap and easy to install.

evobjorn · Post by **evobjorn** » Fri Sep 28, 2007 1:23 am

Okay - will hopefully be able to pick one up tomorrow.

Clevo · Post by **Clevo** » Fri Sep 28, 2007 1:33 am

a 4month old Dell with no firewire? I'd take it back.... Make sure you are not voiding the warranty when opening the case.

skier-hughes · Post by **skier-hughes** » Fri Sep 28, 2007 10:40 am

fewer and fewer pc's are having firewire fitted as standard. I suspect it's the upsurge in hdd/dvd/sd camcorders which don't use it.

Graham

Clevo · Post by **Clevo** » Fri Sep 28, 2007 1:16 pm

skier-hughes wrote:fewer and fewer pc's are having firewire fitted as standard. I suspect it's the upsurge in hdd/dvd/sd camcorders which don't use it.

Graham

All the newest PC motherboards come with at least 2 firewires and 4 USB2 ports and soem plugs to connect more USB ports from the front of the case.

Maybe it's a laptop thing?

evobjorn · Post by **evobjorn** » Sat Sep 29, 2007 4:57 pm

Well my PC definately hasn't got any and its comparitvely new.

Anyway, I've fitted a Firewire - and getting excellent results so far.

Thanks for everyones help!