Convert a Mini DV NTSC to Beta SP PAL

November 4, 2005

My: "How Things are Made: A Wooden Bucket - the White Cooper's Craft in 1850" (23 min) and "Meditations on Water"( 6 minutes) both originated in 16mm negative, telecine and edit in mini dv NTSC progressiv scan, got selected for the FITB (International Festival for Children and Youth TV in Barcelona) They require a Beta SP PAL tape. Never done that in my young filmmaking life.

What do I have to know about color bars and control of the result ?

Know of anyboby who does this in NYC?

Do you suggest to insist on viewing the result or is there nothing that can go wrong?

Thanks for your help

Phil Connolly · November 7, 2005

My: "How Things are Made: A Wooden Bucket - the White Cooper's Craft in 1850" (23 min) and "Meditations on Water"( 6 minutes) both originated in 16mm negative, telecine and edit in mini dv NTSC progressiv scan, got selected for the FITB (International Festival for Children and Youth TV in Barcelona) They require a Beta SP PAL tape. Never done that in my young filmmaking life.

What do I have to know about color bars and control of the result ?

Know of anyboby who does this in NYC?

Do you suggest to insist on viewing the result or is there nothing that can go wrong?

Thanks for your help

Hi Gregor

I'm not based in NYC so I can't recommend a facility.

Personally I would try and view the PAL copy or ask if you can watch the output of the standards converter as the dub is made. There are standards conversions and there are standards conversions, some are horrible and some can look pritty good - depending on the hardware.

I would look for a facilty that has a Snell and Willcox, Alchamist standards converter - properply setup this will do a decent job. Look out for smearing, motion Judder and sat up blacks.

Stephen Williams · November 7, 2005

My: "How Things are Made: A Wooden Bucket - the White Cooper's Craft in 1850" (23 min) and "Meditations on Water"( 6 minutes) both originated in 16mm negative, telecine and edit in mini dv NTSC progressiv scan, got selected for the FITB (International Festival for Children and Youth TV in Barcelona) They require a Beta SP PAL tape. Never done that in my young filmmaking life.

What do I have to know about color bars and control of the result ?

Know of anyboby who does this in NYC?

Do you suggest to insist on viewing the result or is there nothing that can go wrong?

Thanks for your help

Hi,

Get a price and compare with making a new PAL telecine transfer, it will look much better. DuArt has made me PAL telecine in the past and was good value. A good Standards conversion is expensive!

Stephen

Michael Collier · November 7, 2005

If you are proficient with digital video editting it shouldnt be a problem. I have gotten pretty good results from After Effects. All you do is import the video into the timeline and when you are outputting set the frame rate to 25fps and compress it to DV pal. Then take that file and find someone who does DV to beta transfers. At least you wont have to worry about their conversion.

Just make sure you click the blend frame mode so instead of dropping frames it interpolates the frames.

Keep in mind that you will have a little motion degredation just because you are dropping 5 frames every second

November 27, 2005

Thanks for all these very useful suggestions, sorry for the late reaction on my part. We ended up asking 4 different places for a quote and nobody was really able to tell us about the hardware that was going to be used. These places seemed to be very much like counter stores where you are not able to go where the production goes on. However the cheapest deal was $100 including the media for the 30 minutes material and I got the explanation it was to be done through analogue and had the opportunity to spot-check the footage.

Looked good, played well in Barcelona. However if I was going top be paid for that I would do a new telecine for broadcast in pal.

Let me know If you wanted to know about the different quotes and companies. I'm afraid I do not find the paper right now in the mess that is typical after returning from a journey. But I will if some one of you finds this useful.