Hello I received pal files today from a client and I have never worked with pal before and was wondering what the work flow is for importing and working with pal files in avid express pro 5.8.
The codecs of the pal files are DV-Pal .mov 720x576 and Dvcpro50-Pal .mov 720-576.
After i am done editing this project the client wants the final project in NTSC.
Can I just import these files into avid or should I convert then with sorenson squeeze or compressor then import. I was thinking of also using after effects then bring then into avid.
So if some one could point me in the right direction it would be muchly appreciated.
Thanks

 I just did exactly this with After Effects - relatively easy, but be prepared for some long renders and exports if you do it at highest quality. But the results were excellent, worth the wait.

Hi,

bdazzler:

Can I just import these files into avid...?

No, you can't, as Xpress Pro isn't a standards converter.  As Larry suggests, After Effects does a pretty good job.

good luck,
Carl

Cool thanks for the reply. However I am curious on the steps you used to do this in after effects. I was looking on vidoecopilot.com and andrew kramer has a fram rate converter and it seems like a good solution. But would love to know the steps you did to convert to NTSC in after effects.

Thanks :)

With HDV and HD projects that have the same frame size for both PAL and NTSC it is relatively easy to import a PAL file into an NTSC project using a Console command "IgnoreQTRate true". Then apply a motion effect to speed correct the video.

Details of the method are on 24P.com.

Gives great results. Using timewarp and Fluid Film makes it a very slow render. Using Blended VTR gives me a very satisfactory result with an acceptable render time.

 Here's how to convert PAL to NTSC in After Effects:

Create a new project. Import the PAL quicktime. In the project window, highlight the movie and hit CTRL F. In the interpret footage window, "Conform the frame rate" to 29.97. Change the "Pixel Aspect Ratio" to D1/DV NTSC (0.9). Hit OK. Drop the movie into a new composition (drag the movie in the project window onto the small film frame icon at the bottom of the project window).

Under "Composition" in the pull down menu, select "composition settings". Change the aspect ratio "height" to 486. This will crop the 720x576 frame to 720x486. Hit OK. An alternate is to change the position of the shot using the scale and position properties. Render out the movie. You should render it out "Lower Field First" and import it into Avid at Lower Field First.

Cool thanks for your help it worked prefectley. Now I only have 22 more clips to go all averaging 2 mins and over. Going to be a long night.

Thanks

Peace

 You're quite welcome. Time to fire up the coffee pot!

bdazzler:

Going to be a long night.

 Or, add all the clips to the render queue in After Effects and launch.

Lol I funny you suggested render queue because it is running while I read your suggestion. I am however wondering though about andrewaction suggestion because I did not know that I could import these Pal files into avid with out converting to NTSC. This might actually be the better route because it is all green screen footage that I will have to bring back into after effects after i do the rough cut. So i guess the question would be can I bring Pal footage into avid and edit it with pal settings in avid then export the rought cut out of avid as Pal then bring the rough cut into after effects and then do the conversion. If so how do i change the setting in avid to Pal all i can find is NTSC settings.

Thanks

If you need to do green screen, by all means, edit your PAL footage in a PAL project. Then do the conversion to NTSC when your product is finished.

Thanks that is what I thought, guess I should have thought of that before i started to do the conversion in after effects. These Pal thing got my brain all screwed up. But it is working now :)..........

Thanks to everyone for there help!!!!!!!!!!!

Quick question do you think we will at some point live in a world with just one standard formate? and if so who will win NTSC or PAL or niether and a new formate will be king........

Peace

"Quick question do you think we will at some point live in a world with just one standard formate? and if so who will win NTSC or PAL or niether and a new formate will be king........"

Given that the world completely missed the opportunity to unify the system when adopting HD and instead introduced dozens of HD standards and frame rates I would say NO standard will dominate.

 I'm afraid Andrew is probably right, but in my opinion, the best candidate for a universal world wide digital video standard is MXF.