Panasonic TM300 --> VegasPro workflow

aldred wrote on 4/2/2009, 6:25 AM

I just got a new Panasonic TM300 and I'm trying to figure out a system for quality/frame rate and Vegas projects. There are thee 60i fullHD quality settings on the camera - HX, HG and HA in order of increasing quality. There's also a 'digital cinema' mode that does 24p in HG and HA modes. I think I'll be mostly sticking with HG 60i, but occasionally using the cinema mode too. So I'll have mixed 60i and 24p footage to work with.

My questions are ....
1. Would I be better off working with a 24p or 60i project? What are the advantages and disadvantages of both?
2. If I choose to work with a 24p project, will my 60i footage be automatically adjusted? I read about right clicking the footage and configuring pulldown, but the option is not available for the mts files from the camera.
3. If I choose to work in 60i, how should I deal with the 24p footage? Will it be automatically adjusted? ('Allow pulldown removal when opening 24p DV' is checked in options)
4. How about output? 24p or 60i?
5. Any useful links I can looks at?

I'm a complete beginner at this. Any help welcome.
Thanks
Mark

Comments

Brad C. wrote on 4/2/2009, 2:26 PM

Sorry, I don't have the answer to your question, but you can use this as a bump to get someone's attention.

How do you like your TM300? Where did you get it from?

It still blows me away how Panasonic can make really good prosumer/pro gear and fail time after time on their consumer end. I was hoping that the 300 series would make up for it.

-Brad

aldred wrote on 4/2/2009, 9:58 PM

Thanks Brad.
The TM300 is great. Although this is my first non-tape camera so I expect I'm pretty easily pleased. I've still haven't tested it out fully, but the only thing that bothers me so far is the whites getting blown out in regular lighting. There's a contrast option that's meant to balance the brightness out, but it doesn't seem to do much good.

Is the TM300 not out where you are yet? I'm in Japan and it's been on sale for a while. Most of the complaints about the older models were apparently to do with colour, but as far as I've read the TM300 seems to have fixed that. It's been knocked off the best-selling top spot (Sony HDR-XR500V is currently top) but is sitting at the top of the 'satisfaction' ratings on Japan's biggest general electronics site.

Mark

kairosmatt wrote on 4/3/2009, 1:23 PM

Hi Aldred,
1. What is your final destination? If its web, I would recommend staying in 24p because its progressive.
2. I believe that all adjustments will be handled at the final render, to whatever your final output is. Pulldown is not an option for those files because it is something that is recorded by cameras that want to embed 24p in a 60i stream (your camera doesn't do that).
3. Again, final render will deal with any conversion.
4. This one is up to you. If its web, 24p. If its TV, 60i. If its DVD, you can go either way. Which "look" do you prefer. I prefer the 24p 'cinematic' look, but most others here prefer the 60i look because its less jerky.
5. I would search the forum using keywords "blend" and "interpolate." These are de-interlacing methods that Vegas sets in project properties, and they will affect your final output.

I'm no expert on all the pitfalls of framerates, but I would recommend picking one and sticking to it when you shoot. That avoids the pitfalls altogether.

If your not careful in your project when mixing different framerates, the final output might have small glitches where edit points don't match the project frame rates. (Also make sure quantize to frames is turned on. This will help.)

Also, there is a noticeable difference between the same video shot in 24 and 60i. I didn't believe this myself, but doing several projects that mixed framerates, it definitely will break the flow when you get to a clip that suddenly was shot in a different rate.

Hope that helps,
kairosmatt

aldred wrote on 4/13/2009, 9:58 PM

Thanks kairosmatt. I'm sorry for the delay in posting a reply - the little reason for trying to sort out a workflow was born early!

Final destination will be PC and DVD, not web. I much preferred the cinematic look on my old Panasonic tape camera, but I still haven't had a chance to give the TM300 a good testing. I think I'm leaning towards 60i so I can take advantage of all the quality modes. But I will test out cinematic first. So whatever footage I import into Vegas, as long as the properties are set correctly, it will display correctly on the timeline and at render according to the project settings?

Thanks for your advice. It's very helpful.
Mark