Any (dis)advantage to either 2:3 or 2:3:3:2 pulldown on XLH1s?

[Chris Keth]

I'm shooting a short for free and will be handed an XLH1s. I have no other choice here because we're getting this one for free. I notice you can do the 24F mode with your choice of pulldown, either 2:3 or 2:3:3:2.

 

Is there any advantage or disadvantage to either of these or are they just a different way of getting there? The question may be solved by post. I'm waiting to find out if both are even supported by FCP, but I'd like to know anyway.

[Chris Bowman]

I'm shooting a short for free and will be handed an XLH1s. I have no other choice here because we're getting this one for free. I notice you can do the 24F mode with your choice of pulldown, either 2:3 or 2:3:3:2.

 

Is there any advantage or disadvantage to either of these or are they just a different way of getting there? The question may be solved by post. I'm waiting to find out if both are even supported by FCP, but I'd like to know anyway.

 

If I recall correctly, that option is only available when shooting in SD 24f DV mode, NOT HDV mode. HDV 24f mode on the XL-H1 records at 24fps and uses 20% less compression than 30f/60i modes. I believe that all of the NLEs now support this Canon codec, so you shouldn't have much of a problem cutting.

 

The reason you are given this option in DV mode is that the DV specification only allows 60i encoding, the camera must conform its 24fps from the CCDs to the 60i of the tape. It records progressive scan by recording 2 fields (every other line of a the picture) from the same frame, rather than recording each field from a separate image as in interlace.

 

2:3:3:2 (also called Advanced profile 24P) is the superior choice if you ever want the footage actually displayed at 24fps (filmout/blu-ray/web distro/etc). This is because, in the conforming of any 24 fps footage to 60i, there must be repeats of half frames. 2:3:3:2 puts 2 half repeats right next to each other (the 3:3 part) where any half decent NLE will throw them out to achieve true 24 fps.

 

The 3 fields are often referred to as "dirty frames" because they have a field from 2 different fields. This is undesirable in true 24fps material because it means that there are actually interlaced frames mixed in. It is acceptable in interlaced outputs. 2:3:3:2 throws away all of the dirty frames in post for true 24P, but looks strange before post processing.

 

2:3 pulldown is appropriate when the final product is going to be exclusively interlaced. 2:3 is the method all of the big studios use when converting 24 fps material to 60Hz interlaced. The actual interleave looks like this

 

2:3:2:3:2:3