PAL to NTSC conversion, last try
 

I've tried several ways of converting PAL to NTSC and as yet haven't found a suitable solution, and was wondering if anyone can offer me advice on the problems I have experienced.

I tried the SLOW-PAL method mentioned here Macworld | Send video abroad but I found it turned all my graphics and stills to pixelated messes. Can anyone explain why?

I tried the trad method mentioned in the link above, same problem, graphics and stills came out pixelated (and it was going to take 18 hrs!)

I tried using JES deinterlacer, but found after running the converted movie through compressor, any shots with movement had this jagged appearance. It appears that every 5 frames, there are 2 frames of footage that appears interlaced, this giving the jagged appearance on dvd.
Can anyone suggest how to get rid of this?

I have given this a good go, I have mastered 18 test dvd's and have been on the case full time for nearly a week. I'm beat!

Surely I can convert PAL to NTSC on a mac using FCP studio.

Options
 

According to many (including me), the best software is Atlantis from DVFilm, works both on the MAC and on PC.

Second is Procoder from Canopus or Carbon Coder from Rhozet, basically the same software; PC only.

Similar results may be achieved when passing the video through several pieces of software, but this may prove very time consuming. Basically you have two main issues, frame rate, and frame size (color space may be an issue depending on your content). The best frame resizing software I found is VirtualDub, while After Effects handles frame rate changes fairly well - but as I said, this method will give you lots of headaches.

Atlantis is only $200, Procoder about twice as much (but can do a LOT more). So if you are after quality, pay up and go.

Hi Mark...............
 

From one Taswegian to another............

You could always ask the qestion:

"If just about any PAL DVD player on the planet can play NTSC material, can NTSC equipment do the reverse?"

If so, is there any point in attempting the conversion?

I don't know, as I don't live in NTSC territory, but maybe a valid train of thought.

Anyone got an answer?

As to your efforts, well, a quick type into the Google box at the bottom of the page for "PAL to NTSC" got a lot of hits, maybe the answer lies there if you really do need to do this.


CS

Sorry, the answer is no. NTSC equipment doesn't show anything with PAL material.

A DVD player in a computer, however, isn't really NTSC or PAL, though most (all) player software checks for a region flag. If *we* are burning a DVD, it will almost always be region-less.

An NTSC-country PC/Mac is fine for play of regionless PAL DVD, but an NTSC set-top DVD player and TV won't do it at all.

Bugger....................
 

Well, it was worth a try!


CS

I use nero vision. Works fine i just dont know if they work on Mac.

I have found a solution as to how to convert PAL to NTSC without motion artifacts, artifacts in still images and pulsing in high noise or low action shots.



Export movie directly from FCP to compressor



Choose Advanced Format Conversion - DV NTSC



Go to the inspector window, and in the encoder pane, click on video settings and change scan mode to - Progressive ( this gets rid of motion artifacts)



Go to Frame Control Pane and set Frame controls to on. Using the Standard default settings will lead to fast processing time, changing settings to better or best will lead to a long, long wait (83 hrs for best setting on my macbook pro)



When the processing is complete, put your NTSC movie back in compressor, choose the 90 minute best quality dvd setting, change gop setting from 15 to 7 ( this stops any pulsing of image in certain shots) I also add a noise reduction filter and the sharpen edges filter ( I set it to about 20, as I found the NTSC conversion lead to a softening of image across the project)

Compressor will take a PAL timeline and output an NTSC .m2v file, but.... if you're on a Mac and you want a better result, use Natress Standards Conversion - an FCP Plug in. (Read the reviews!)

I once compared Compressor and Natress, and Natress was undoubtedly better.

I have THREE set-top players in my house, they ALL play PAL DVDs just fine on my NTSC television sets - I am originally from Europe and bring/get a fair number of disks every year.

You won't find this in the docs coming with the players though, it's an undocumented feature on SOME units. Can't say any player will play them, but some will play PAL material.