Camera frame rates VS. Project frame rates + Deliverable Framerates
 

A story followed by some questions:

A fellow filmmaker was complaining the other day about some DVDs he got back from the replicator. He said that they didn't look very good, and that their reasoning was that he had shot 24p (DVX100) and imported the footage into a 30i timeline (using Avid). I don't know if what the replicator is saying is true, but I asked the filmmaker why he didn't use a 24p timeline. He responded by saying that 24p timelines are for if you are going back to film. I didn't press the issue, but think that this is incorrect.

After this I had a conversation with another friend and we discussed how the DVX treats footage in the timeline, but realized we didn't know exactly how all these processes work.

So, questions:

1) Does the DVX-100 actually do 24 progressive frames, or is it 30 that gets pulled down in post?

2) I think he should have used the 24p project and done his pull-down when he was done (if he desired to go to 30). His claim of 24p projects only being used for going back to film is false. The DVX was heralded because of it's ability to shoot the same frame rate as the films we are used to seeing in the cinemas.

3) In the end, if you are delivering on DVD does the frame rate end up being pulled down to 30i? If so, do converters do this while the DVD is encoding or is it done when you create the .avi (or whatever) file that you are submitting to the burning program.


I'm sure there is more, and I'm making this more complicated than it should be, but this is it for now.