NTSC to PAL for Dummies (OK a Dummy)

kkolbo wrote on 5/27/2002, 9:10 AM

The goal is to make a PAL version, (DVD) from my NTSC source using VV3.

Assumptions:

It does not require a PHD.

VV can render it to PAL if I set it up right.

I assume that my NTSC footage would have black bars top and bottom fot eh difference in resolution rather than be stretched.

I assumed that if I unchecked stretch to fit and I unchecked Stretch video to fill frame and set the render to PAL DV that I would get a letterboxed PAL legal version of my NTSC source. Unfortunately I am missing something becuase what I get is a stretched version of my video. I tried changing the project settings as well.

OK folks, what have I missed or in other words, How do I do this? Should my picture actually be stretched to look right on a Pal TV?

K

Comments

DataMeister wrote on 5/27/2002, 3:07 PM

Are you saying you get a stretched video on a PAL television or on your computer monitor?

JBJones

kkolbo wrote on 5/30/2002, 3:24 PM

On my monitor which leads me to believe that it will look fine on a PAL TV. Am I right?

SonyDennis wrote on 5/31/2002, 10:13 PM

You shouldn't be getting black bars. PAL and NTSC have different pixel aspect ratios because they have a different number of lines, yet still 720 pixels. I just verified this with a test render. Are you leaving your project in PAL format and rendering to NTSC, or are you trying to change the project format before rendering?

Make sure to turn on the "resample" switch for your video events (select all, right-click, switches, resample=checked). This will improve the motion quality for the transcode.

///d@

kkolbo wrote on 6/1/2002, 10:12 AM

I am only equipped to shoot NTSC and my client needs the final DVD product as PAL for distribution overseas. I was under the impression (mistakenly) that I would have bars instead of a stretch. I see now with testing that it will appear stretched on my computer eventhough it will look correct when the DVD is played back on a PAL DVD through a PAL TV. That has got to be annoying to folks working on PAL with a computer system. I have grown accustom to the slight strecth we get horizontally when working on NTSC on a computer other than MAC, but the stretch is really quite pronounced with PAL.

k

SonyDennis wrote on 6/1/2002, 5:08 PM

kkolbo:

Right click on the Video Preview window and select "Display Square Pixels" and you won't have to worry about the stretch for PAL or NTSC <g>. This will give you correct aspect ratio frames on the PC monitor. It's somewhat useful for NTSC, more useful for PAL, and really necessary when working with Widescreen (16:9) versions.

///d@