Need Help with converting XH-A1 HDV to PAL
 

I have a job lined up in 1 week to shoot some footage for a corporate video. I will be shooting a manufacturing process. I will be shooting on my XH-A1. The final footage will be converted to PAL for a European commercial.

I am assuming the best way to go about this is to shoot it in HDV. I am not sure if it is better to shoot it in 60i or 30F. After that what is the best way to convert and retain as much quality as possible?

They are shooting the rest of the commercial on BetaCam SP in the PAL format.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

Joe

I have done the reverse, shot footage in PAL country and delivered to NTSC country.

Working in Final Cut Pro, I simply exported and delivered my footage as QuickTime files, and that seemed to work well.

Hope this helps.

Ollie

Thank you Oliver for your response.

What quicktime codec would you use? H.264?

Also, is it better to shoot in 60i or 30f?

Thanks again.

Joe

You might consider shooting in 24p and speeding up 4% to 25p. The exact frames you shoot will be the same as then used in the PAL compatible version.

Someone else has to tell you how to do this with your software.

I do not believe 30p to PAL (25 fames) is what you want.

60i can be converted to PAL with differing results depending on your converter.

You could also send you camera to the service center and get the PAL upgrade and just shoot in PAL.

Indeed, I used h.264 but maybe if your customer uses FCP you can use Apple Pro Res as well? I don't know what would be best to shoot in but my footage was 50i.

Cheers,
Ollie

Thank you.

If I wanted to grab individual frames from a 60i shoot, could I. Is it just a matter of de-interlacing the frame to get clarity?

yes, that's what I would do.

Ollie

If it works for you to shoot at 1/120 shutter speed, you will get better still frames.

I shot with an NTSC camera in Europe and used 1/100 so I would getting problems from the old flourescent lights. As a side benefit the still frames came out looking sharper than usual because their was less movement within a single field, and less again when combining two fields in the deinterlace.