29.97i to 24p using Sony HC-20

[maek]

Hello!

Long time, no post.

I am using a Sony HC-20 camcorder (yes, it dates me). I just recently purchased Sony Vegas Pro 8 and I was wondering how video footage would turn out if I converted the footage from 29.97i to 24p using 2-3 pulldown. Is it going to look choppy?

Unfortunately, the manual doesn't have information as to what the shutter speed is, but I'm assuming that it's 1/60. However, there is an Auto Shutter feature, so I'm assuming that there is some variability built-in depending on lighting conditions.

Should I stick with 29.97 or convert it to 24p?

Thanks!

[jagabo]

Unless your camcorder has a 24p mode, or you're using passthrough to capture film sources (eg, recording movies off broadcast TV), you will get jerky results converting to 24p.

Normal camcorder video is 59.94 fields per second (pairs of fields are packaged together into 29.97 fps frames). Every field is taken at a different point in time. You can not inverse telecine back to 24p film frames because there are no film frames to go back to.

[maek]

I was afraid of that.

Getting a HDV camcorder is definitely on my list of things to get, but you know the saying...all good things....

Thanks for the quick reply!