I shot a music video this past week with the DVX100A in regular 24p mode not 24p advanced. I've been looking around the web for some answers to some questions I have about editing in 24p.

In FCP I can capture 24p footage at 29.97 or 23.98. It's my understanding that if you're going back out to video for output it doesn't matter if you capture the footage at 29.97 or 23.98...right?

Technically the miniDV tape inside the camera is running at 29.97. So I can just capture and edit the footage at 29.97 because it's going back out to video or being outputted at 29.97.

The only advantage I would have at capturing and editing in 23.98 is to save hard drive space right? Since I'm not outputting the footage to film I don't need to edit the footage at 24fps or 23.98? Or am I totally wrong on this assumption?

I found another thread that touched on the subject but doesn't really answer my question about editing 24p footage.

http://www.indietalk.com/showthread.php?t=5324

If this has been answered elsewhere I apologize. I did try looking thru old posts for some answers.

Any help would be appreciated.

Rick

Ah yay. No you can't capture at 23.98, the dv is always 29.97, the only difference between 24P and the regular interlaced video we're all used to is the pulldown pattern. 24P and 60i record the same number of fields (in dv at least) Regular dv captures video with a pulldown of 3:2 (AA:AB:BC:CC:DD), 24P is 2:3:3:2 (AA:BB:BC:CC:DD), same exact number of fields, so in order to edit 23.98, you would need to capture everything at 29.97, each clip must start the timecode ending in a 5 or a 0 to make it work, you will need cinetools to convert all your 29 footage into 23.98, and then you're good to go. Just be sure you do capture at 29.97 initially, 24P still uses the 29.97 timecode. Let me know if you have more specific questions!

directorlca,

Thanks for the reply! You're explanation helps out a lot. I do have a couple of quick questions though.

If I'm outputting to video do I need to edit at 23.98 at all? I wonder what advantage would I gain by going the extra step of converting 29.97 footage to 23.98 that's going to output to 29.97 anyway?

Do you think it's worth the extra step? Just curious.

Thanks again,
Rick

If you will be going to DVD with it, yeah it's worth it. If it's just going to DV, it would be a hastle. 23.98 is a supported framerate in both NTSC and PAL standards, which is awesome. but when you compress to MPEG2 just make sure it's set for 24P. If you use Compressor and use one of the built in presets, it should automatically detect 24P and compress it correctly.

Editing in true 24p has the advantage of editing with full frames.

If outputting to DVD you can make a 24p DVD which can be read by the DVD player. This will save a decent amount of space on your disc letting you put more data or better compression thereon.

If you shot in 24pn (as opposed to 24pa) then I'd say just edit it as interlaced footage.

Thanks for the heads up. I couldn't find this information online. It's good to know there are kind knowledgeable people here.

Rick

Oh, forgot to mention:

Check out http://adamwilt.com/24p/

That should answer all your questions and then some :)

I have a related question.

I plan on having some S8 'cined shortly... will that need to be edited in the same way, using those funky pulldown settings?

Depends on how it's 'cined I suppose :D.

I honestly am not overly familiar with the process used. If they scan each individual frame and output it as a movie file then no. More likely though the recording will just be done with a video camera. If they use an interlaced camera you will want to edit in a normal timeline. If they use a progressive camera you may be able to extract 24 original frames from the movie sequence. Definitely ask first.

I have a question about CineTools. Cinetools has a nice feature which automatically detects 24p footage shot on cameras such as DVX and can process it accordingly with no need for additional user input. Now, lets say you have DVX footage (shot normal 24p) which was captured and edited at regular 29.97. The final video was exported at 29.97 to a new file, which Cinetools no longer detects as 'DVX 24p' footage and cannot process it automatically. What settings should you give Cinetools to process this properly?