DV PAL to NTSC?

[emde]

I am new to the PAL/NTSC conversion world. I have some mini dv footage that is PAL and I want to author it to an NTSC DVD. What are the best methods for converting? I currently have Premier Pro and After Effects.

Thanks![/quote]

[bugster]

There are methods for converting it whilst still in DV avi format, but as your destination is NTSC DVD I suggest the following.

'capture' the DV avi as a type 2 file using DVIO or WinDV. OPen this in Premiere and edit. Save as DV from Premiere.

Install the Panasonic DV codec (found in the tools section) and then open your avi in virtualdub. Extract the audio using audio-direct stream copy, file-save wav. Change the frame rate of the video to 23.976fps from the video menu, then set audio-> No Audio, video->direct stream copy, File->save avi.

You should now have 2 files, a video file at 23.976fps and an audio file at 25fps.

Use BeSweet to convert the audio to Ac3 or Mp2 and use the preset for 25fps PAL to 23.976fps NTSC at the same time.

Load your 23.976fps silent avi in your favourite mpeg encoder and encode to mpeg-2 ensuring you set 3:2 pulldown and interlaced bottom field first.

Now use the mpeg2 video file (.m2v probably) and the audio file output from besweet to author your DVD. Don't forget to use an RW or test play on the PC before committing to burning.

[emde]

WOW! Thanks for the info, I will try this.

A couple of questions...

1) You say "but as your destination is NTSC DVD I suggest the following. ". If I only wanted NTSC AVI what would I do differently?

2) Do I need to capture in DVIO/WinDV? Would this not work if I captured in Premier?

Thanks again!

[bugster]

1) You say "but as your destination is NTSC DVD I suggest the following. ". If I only wanted NTSC AVI what would I do differently?

2) Do I need to capture in DVIO/WinDV? Would this not work if I captured in Premier?

Thanks again!

1) There are programs that convert PAL DV to NTSC DV. The problem is DV does not support pulldown so NTSC DV is 29.976fps. Therefore the converter has to generate extra frames to produce smooth playback at this speed. The movie length and speed does not change as it does with the method I described but you often end up with a certain amount of quality loss. The method I described will change the length and speed of the movie slightly, but not enough for the average person to notice, with minimal quality loss (the only quality loss comes from resizing 720*576 to 720*480, and encoding to mpeg of course).

2) You need to capture as DV type 2. DVIO and WinDV will do this. I don't know if Premiere will allow you to capture in this format, if it does, fine. I do know it will happily edit DV type 2. You need type 2 as virtualdub works better with this than type 1.

Hope this helps.