Interpreting footage and 3:2

joelaff wrote on 6/17/2004, 7:57 AM
I would very much like to be able to TELL Vegas waht the frame rate and attributes of media are. The info stored in the AVI file is not always correct.

For instance, I have a clip that is actually 30fps (29.97) and has 3:2 in it already. The AVI file thinks it is 24fps. The option to select a frame rate is greyed out in the media properties. WHY? This is really a bad UI decision to not let the user make this choice.

So how do I tell Vegas that this 30fps clip with 3:2 (but marked as 24fpd in the AVI) is what it is?

In After Effects you can force any clip to any frame rate/3:2/interlace settings you choose. In Digital Fusion the settings in the AVI are simply ignored and you can choose to remove 3:@ if you wish.

Is there some way to force this in Vega 5? If not, why not, and can one please be added??

Thanks!

Comments

SonyEPM wrote on 6/17/2004, 8:59 AM
Is this a DV.avi from a Panasonic DVX100 or rendered as such?

If so, you can go into the media pool, select the file(s), right click>file format properties>uncheck Enable 2-3 pulldown removal.

If this is some other type of AVI, what generated it? Would you be willing to ftp it to us?
joelaff wrote on 6/17/2004, 9:15 AM
It is an AVI out of Fusion. I generally do all my work at 24fps. So I have Fusion setup to default to 24 fps.

I brought in a clip that already had 3:2 pulldown into Fusion. I saved it out as an AVI. (I did not remove the pulldown in Fusion, which I could have done easily.)

Anyway, the AVI file is tagged at 24 fps. I can change this with a free utility I found (without re-saving the whole AVI.. just the header). But that leaves me with a 29.97 clip with 3:2 pull down in it, which I cannot remove in Vegas. (The clip is not DV. It was shot on 35mm and telecined.)

It would be nice if Vegas would allow the user to "interpret" or "conform" a clip to any frame rate. It should also allow setting the field order, as well as removing 3:2 from ANY clip, with either an auto(guess) phase setting, or a manual phase setting (for the phase of the 3:2).

If you REALLY wanted to set Vegas apart... have it detect the phase of 3:2 PER SHOT, in a multi-shot clip. A lot of the time editors will edit footage working at 29.97 where the footage already has 3:2 in it. So when the clips get trimmed each shot has a different phase (potentially). This makes it a royal pain fo break out each shot and remove the pulldown.

If you worry you could not accurately detect shot changes then perhaps allow the user to add markers on the first frame of each shot in the trimmer. Then use these markers to go through and detect the phase of the 3:2 for each shot in one fell-swoop. While this is not as cool as a shot-detection system, it is more accurate, and only requires the user to set the markers once.

Of course editors working totally with 24fps footage that has 3:2 in it SHOULD remove the 3:2 from the source to begin with and edit in 24 fp, adding the 3:2 with a uniform phase, at the end. But I doubt that half the editors out there would even understand that sentence, sadly. (Not trying to slam anyone; it is just that 3:2 is largely misunderstood...)

I can send you the clip if you want it. But I think from my description above you should be able to create something similar.
B_JM wrote on 6/17/2004, 11:47 AM
yes -- this is a good idea and right now i also have to externally change frame rates outside vegas and frame serve the results back in ...

another good example is to import film frames -- which are at 24 fps and vegas sometimes calls them 30 or 29.97 .. which isnt true .. or sometimes i have film i import which is 48 fps and vegas calls it 30 i think ..

another case is importing 24fps and i want to tell vegas to treat it as 25fps (or importing 23.976 and tell vegas to treat it as 24) native .. this is far easier than trying to adjust playback rate correctly for conforming purposes ...