NTSC to PAL renders very slow

Frank Z wrote on 11/4/2007, 5:38 AM

So I am rendering NTSC footage to PAL MPEG2 and it's Reeeeeally slow. I'm just curious why. I knew that it was possible that it would slow things down but I didn't really expect a factor of 4 times a straight MPEG2 render.

Also, I'm reading that NTSC to PAL generally isn't necessary for DVD. Is this true?

Comments

smashguy37 wrote on 11/4/2007, 6:11 AM

If it's going to be watched on a PAL system, then the DVD needs to be PAL.

dcrandall wrote on 11/4/2007, 6:18 AM

Almost all DVD players and TV's in "PAL countries" will also play NTSC DVD's. I've sent quite a few NTSC formatted DVD's to Europe and have never had someone tell me that they couldn't be played.

-Dan

smashguy37 wrote on 11/4/2007, 9:38 AM

Sorry to drift off topic a little, but that is interesting as clients where I work can request PAL copies of DVDs, but why can most handle NTSC DVD's?

valvehead wrote on 11/4/2007, 9:59 AM

Render times are slow because Vegas is having interpolate every single frame. If you are encoding to mpeg2 at the same time, it will take even longer. Try rendering NTSC to PAL DV or uncompressed first, then render to MPEG2 separately. It may take less total time.

dcrandall wrote on 11/4/2007, 11:45 AM

"Sorry to drift off topic a little, but that is interesting as clients where I work can request PAL copies of DVDs, but why can most handle NTSC DVD's?"

The USA still dominates the rest of the world when it comes to the shear volume of media content produced. As such, most of the rest of the world has made provisions to be able to watch U.S. made media. (It's simply a matter of consumer demand)

-Dan

Udi wrote on 11/5/2007, 12:24 AM

Long time - due to frame size change and resampling time (30fps to 25fps).
Render in best mode will increase the time a lot - 4 times is reasnable.

Udi

farss wrote on 11/5/2007, 12:31 AM

I really have to disagree with that one!

It's was far cheaper to built a SD NTSC TV thanks to the lower resolution. Once you have met the requirements to build a PAL TV the cost burden of adding NTSC support is very minor.
All that has changed now that all the consummer manufacturing is in Asia. It's just cheaper to cut your inventory costs and make products for the global markets.
As for the USA dominating the amount of media content produced, not by a long margin and what is produced there is done with a global market in mind, still one of the reasons why high value TV series are shot on 35mm. People in PAL countries watching SD TV get to see a higher resolution version than those in NTSC countries, not a NTSC version converted to PAL.

Bob.