DVX100: 24p vs. 24pAdvanced?

vitalforce2 wrote on 4/11/2003, 12:05 PM
I have the Vegas 4.0b update and a Panasonic DVX100 in which I have already shot a half-hour short film in the 24p mode, as opposed to 24p advanced (Shot in January, didn't know SoFo was going to create the update of my dreams). For those not yet familiar, the camera has a dial on the back which switches between 60i, 30 progressive and two 'versions' of 24p. SoFo has said that it's better to shoot and render in 24p Advanced so I wonder what I missed.

Can someone orient me on what is visibly different between shooting-rendering in 24p and shooting-rendering in 24p Advanced? Keeping in mind that the biggest moment the film will have will not be on a TV screen but a full-size theater screen at film festivals--either via a DVD projector or after sending back to BetaSP as some festivals require. There is little likelihood (but some) that the DV original will get transferred to film but I like keeping that door open.

Comments

Stumbly wrote on 4/11/2003, 2:59 PM
The difference is in the way it does the pulldown. Shooting in 24pA might have a slight noticable stutter in the motion, which of course goes away when the 24 frames are extracted. If you shot in 24p normal mode it just gives you a film look, you don't need to edit in 24p environment, just edit in a normal 60i timeline.
Hope this makes sense. Mike
SonyDennis wrote on 4/14/2003, 12:11 AM
Vegas can remove either form of AG-DVX100 pulldown (2-3 "24p" and 2-3-3-2 "24p advanced"). Because the pulldown is removed while reading the file, you can edit in 24p, and render to 24p with either kind of pulldown. Use 2-3-3-2 for clips that you'll be bringing back into Vegas (i.e., prerenders); use 2-3 pulldown for final renders as the motion is smoother.

As far a visual artifacts, under certain circumstances ("no recompress" passthrough rendering, in particular), 2-3 pulldown removal has one more "generation" of DV compression for one out of every 4 frames, but it is otherwise completely usable as a source format in Vegas 4.0b. You can mix it with 24pA clips as you like. It is less efficient to pull frames from, and less efficient to render to, but has smoother motion and should be used for final renders.

///d@
vitalforce2 wrote on 4/14/2003, 1:39 PM
Thanks, SonicDennis. BTW, I tried a straight "60i" render onto videotape, and then two 24p renders, and to my eyes there really is a noticeable step closer to a 'filmic' look in the latter. I have a 25-inch TV that I use for the "general public" test, and it's very unforgiving of any little glitch in the picture quality. I note that once the 24p enhancement is applied, DV still needs tweaking by means of its many great FXs to eke out more of that film look.