Properly Converting 23.98 to 29.97...PLEASE HELP!

Set up a custom Compressor preset for progressive mpeg2 at 23.98 for DVD -

Some advantages:

20% fewer frames to encode means 20% lighter compression with the sam average bit rate and file size.

You don't need to convert your sequences beforehand

The resulting DVD will be compatible with progressive playback, and the player will add pulldown for interlaced playback.

Kristin,
The process that you want is adding in a 3:2 pulldown. If you just drop in the 23.98 footage into the 29.97 sequence, FinalCut will just duplicate frames and not properly combine them. Unfortunately, there are only 2 ways of adding in the pulldown that I know of. One is to use After Effects. The price tag is pretty hefty, though, and if that is all you are going to use it for, not really worth it. The other way is to set up a 23.98 sequence, but your 23.98 footage in it and lay it off to a tape that's formatted at 29.97. FinalCut will properly add in the pulldown when playing it out. (Go to System Settings - Playback Control and make sure the pulldown pattern is set to 2:3:2:3.
Capture the material back in at 29.97 and you are good to go.

Good luck.

Leigh

Leigh, I'm not sure what you mean by "properly combine them" because it was my understanding that pulldown was the process of duplicating the appropriate frames.

Kristin, this can be done through your Cinema Tools program that shipped with FCP. I seem to remember it taking a little bit of time initially, but being able to do a batch of files at a time.

If you want to add the 3:2 properly, do not use Cinema Tools. Properly added, the 3:2 process for some of the frames takes a field from one frame and a field from another frame to make a completely new frame. It is not, definitely not, a process of just duplicating frames. From what I know, Conform in Cinema Tools simply speeds up (or slows down) the footage.

Leigh

if you output to tape and recapture using FW both ways, or some other digital connection, there should be no generation loss.

For After Effects, put your footage into a 23.98 comp. When you make the movie, under Render settings, change Field Render to Lower Field First then change the Pulldown to WSSWW. This will change the footage to 29.97. I'm not too sure about any quality loss if you go to tape. You might want to do a test. Using AE, depending on your footage, it could take some time to render.

Leigh