Re: making PAL copy in DVDSP4

I need to send PAL copies of wed videos to Europe. I've already edited in FCPX, sent to Compressor, and made NTSC copies in DVDSP4. Of course they don't play in Italy or Germany. I tried to just change the format in SP4 to PAL and re-insert the assets, but when I play Simulate I get this message: Illegal angle situation. Only the Main Video Angle will be simulated.

There is, of course, nothing in SP4 Help that helps me understand this.

Do I have to re-compress from the timeline with a different Compressor setting or can I still use the MPEG-2 and Dolby Digital ac.3 I already have? Other assets for the menu are a .jpeg and an aiff audio for music under the menu.

BTW, I don't have a PAL player to check the final result.

I forgot to check the Email reply button for this so please reply here.

What I've done so far is make a new project in the event and change the settings to PAL. Then I copied and pasted the edit into the PAL timeline, let it render then clicked Share DVD. When the background tasks window said it was about 40% done a box came up that said it had failed to burn because of some problem. But the burner tray had never opened. Then the Share was finished and no prompt was apparent, the tray did not open, there was no Save To prompt. And I couldn't find the completed video and audio files anywhere.
I guess I'll try Send to Compressor with the PAL project timeline. Then I guess I'll have PAL assets to feed DVDSP4.
BTW, I played the PAL project timeline and it looks fuzzy/out of focus. Not acceptable.

Please advise where to send the drone strike.

OMG, are you saying it has to be completely re-edited on a PAL timeline?

If I remember correctly, in FCP Classic there was an Edit Decision List (EDL) that would come in handy right about now.
Since FCPX is so much smarter than everyone else, there must be some way to tell it to do this for me without re-cutting shot for shot. The raw footage is, of course, NTSC, or actually AVCHD.

Though I must admit that when I watch Guy Ritchie movies I need to put on the sub-titles because the British never did learn to speak English properly. Same with trying to find a decent Italian sub sandwich in Rome. I'm from Boston where they know how to make a sub.

Curtis,

You don't need to re-edit anything.

Do NOT paste your NTSC edit into a PAL timeline. That's not a good procedure.

1. Just export your NTSC timeline as a ProRes 422 master file in FCP X, then open that master file in Compressor. If you have the latest version of Compressor, you absolutely need to use this. It's much faster than previous versions and its frame rate conversions are excellent.

2. When you have opened the NTSC ProRes 422 master in Compressor, go to the settings window and drag the ProRes > Apple ProRes 422 setting onto the file in the browser. Then click the Video tab.

3. In the Video tab, use exactly the settings you see in the attached picture, then press the Batch button. Let Compressor create the PAL version of your movie. Depending on your computer, this can take some time (3 to 4 x realtime).

The result will be a new ProRes 422 PAL master. We will use this master for DVSP, and not separate m2v and audio files, to prevent audio synch problems due to the frame rate conversion. The PAL ProRes 422 audio will be perfectly in synch.

Create a new DVDSP project, and make sure that in Preferences you have set the Video Standard to PAL.
Import the PAL master in DVDSP, add it to your menu and make sure the video is set to 16:9.
Test your DVDSP project, then Build and Format your PAL DVD.

I just did a test with a short clip, if you use the settings as described you shouldn't notice any difference in quality between the NTSC version and the PAL version. This used to be very different in the "old" days.

Best wishes,

Ronny

Mahalo Ronny, that's perfect. I'm pretty sure I do have the latest Compressor.

Your attached pic is very helpful because choosing settings, especially in Compressor, terrifies me when I know just a little about what they mean.

I'll do this later tonight when the place is cool and quiet.

Curtis

Hey Alexander,

Absolutely not. But it does a really good job without any hassle. And I don't think Curtis will want to spend 2,000$ on a Windows-only plugin just for this job, not counting the steep learning curve required to use it. As the source footage is AVCHD, a hardware encoder won't make much difference either.

The older versions of Compressor already had very advanced algorithms for resizing and frame rate conversions. Unfortunately, choosing these settings also led to exorbitant processing times. The new version uses GPU acceleration. This has drastically decreased the encoding times, even on slower systems. This allows us to use the more advanced settings (even Adaptive Details) without having to wait for days for long files to be encoded.

Of course we could get even better results here if we just would make a ProRes 422 PAL version of the 1080p 29.97 fps master (frame rate conversion without resizing), then bring the PAL 1080p master back in Compressor to create the separate video and audio files for DVDSP. This would allow for much more detailed tweaking of the MPEG encoder settings, resulting in a better master in DVDSP (the DVDSP encoding engine is decent but very old). But this would have made the entire process much more complex to explain, that's why I have suggested to just let DVDSP create the DVD files.

Best wishes,

Ronny

Curtis. Now that you have successfully upset the English and the Italians, myself included. You need to read the book on Television standards. Then you might just get an idea of what you are doing, and have some understanding of the advice you are being given here.

No offense intended, just humor.
I understand I need to have PAL assets. What I need to know is how to generate them from the clips I have.
Do I need to re-edit the movie or can I generate PAL assets from the edit I've already done?
The copy & paste to a PAL timeline worked as far as having all the cuts and dissolves and titles, but it looks fuzzy. Is that because the color correction was done on the NTSC timeline?
An Irishman and an American Indian walk into a bar . . . (that's me, Irish & Indian).

Pal, is different in two ways. PAL - Phase Alternate Line. Which means each line of the two fields are phase reversed, giving greater color fidelity than NTSC. Secondly PAL is used in the majority of the planet which uses the 50hz electrical standard - hence 25fps video. If you are in 60hz land you will have video at 30fps. Your 30fps export needs to be conformed to 25fps inside Compressor before you bring in those assets to DVDSP to make a PAL DVD. Then you have the problem of making a region 3 DVD. Some European DVD players can play NTSC disks but not all.

OK, so I can do this in the Great Compressor, as I suspected.

The German client says their DVD plays fine. My wife speaks fluent German.
I suspect the Italian couple are complaining about the edit itself (one camera shoot), but my Italian is rudimentary at best. My understanding is that if their player is PAL only, they'd be seeing black and white or worse.

My European videographer friends are always telling me that PAL is better color.

Anyway, thanks for your guidance and patience. But, I'm gonna pass on reading the book about TV standards.

Hi Ronny,
So does the latest version of Compressor make a better transcode of standards than say, the Cinema- Craft plugin, or a Teranex standards converter?

Cheers
Alexander