need help converting 720 29.97 to 720 23.98... please!!!!

Final Cut Pro should not be used to modify frame rates. Final Cut forces your frame rate change by dropping every fifth frame, with no regard for quality.

Compressor is better designed for this type of modification. Copy an appropriate preset (i.e. Apple Pro Res at your preferred resolution). Double-click the new preset to open in Inspector, change your frame rate in the Encoder menu, click on the Frame Controls button, change your Rate conversion to Best.

Review the manual for these and other settings.

Could take a while for anyone with some Avid experience to chime in but you have to explain these "frame issues" of yours in terms we can understand. You're throwing away 6 frames out of every second so, yes, I'd expect some artifacts to become visible especially if you have lateral motion that was nice and smooth at 30fps.

And we can't tell how much experience or knowledge you possess from your little post. We assume first posters are, umm, generally clueless. And welcome to the family. And what's an "avid?" (rhetorical)

bogiesan

Here's what you want to do: ask your editor for step by step instructions or ask your editor to export a 24fps version from his machine. Then all you will need to do is transcode to the new codec as an export or a Compressor run.

Video is hard. But good sound is much harder so we know you've got the chops. Given a few days of trial and error and slogging through your Avid and FCP manuals you can figure this out.

bogiesan

Gee, did you read MY post?

I'm no AVID expert but, exporting a 30fps sequence from MC5 @ 24fps is likely to force the same problem that FCP produces.

Using Compressor for both the frame rate change and codec switch is your best bet.

David Kuhnen wrote:
Gee, did you read MY post?
I'm no AVID expert but, exporting a 30fps sequence from MC5 @ 24fps is likely to force the same problem that FCP produces.
Using Compressor for both the frame rate change and codec switch is your best bet.

Not yet because I'm not in a threaded view, I'm just working with empty reply windows, but, hey, just a second, why, yes, THERE it is! You actually posted before I did, congratulations.
While exporting out of Avid at 24 will create similar issues, the original goofball who wants this done will be in charge of and therefore responsible for the squ-oosh.

bogiesan

Bogiesan, I wasn't responding to your comments. It appeared (to me anyways) that the OP was responding only to your comments as if He hadn't read or considered what I offered.

If you're going from 30 fps to 24 fps, that's kinda like stuffing 10lbs of sh*t into a 5lb bag.

Okay - 30lbs of it into a 24lb bag. It ain't all gonna fit. Some frames will be mushed together. What is the goal here? It'll play at 24fps with artifacts. If this isn't your visual master, what difference does it make?

Patrick

I'm guessing you adjusted the frame rate in the wrong area.

Under the Encoder section > Video Settings, set your frame rate to Custom: 23.976
Under the Frame Controls section, turn Frame Controls On (cog button) > Retiming Control, set your Rate Conversion to Best, Set Duration to 100% of source.

Again, review the manual for specifics on these settings.

Nope. If Rate Conversion is set to Best you've maxed out Compressors ability to perform an extremely difficult task.

Your next step up is a 'hardware' conversion from a facility that owns a Snell & Wilcox converter, have your credit card ready.

Just a thought. You could conform (specific type of slo-mo) the problem scenes to 24fps and replace (edit) them into the Compressor converted file. That is, if you can tolerate the 20% speed reduction.

I'm not going to read through all the responces because I'm lazy.

Whoever was editing your project with 23.976 footy in a 29.970 timeline made a big mistake, it is that person's fault you're in the situation you're in now.

While 24p footy (please understand that I mean 23.976p for short), it will look ok in a 30p timeline. But when editing, and hope to export a 24p, your frame mapping will not match on every shot, hence the skipped frames you see in the 24p file rendered FROM a 30p sequence.

SOLUTION, stay in 30p, when displayed on any plasma TV, you cannot tell the difference between a native 24p file vs a 24p file image in a 30p timeline (unless the TV has that dumb 'smooth 120hrz warping' on).

NOTE "DNX145" is either 1080 60i or 1080 30p or 720 60p. The number is the mbps, sort of like ProRes HQ, normal, and Proxy. If you were given the proper format to begin with, it would be either [at 1280x720 23.976p] DNx60 or DNx90, 90 being either 8-bit or 10-bit, DNx60 is sufficient.

If you stay in the 720p30 timeline, the format you should have reiceved is a DNx75.

I went from Avid 2.8 to Avid 5.0, I know in Avid 5.0 you can try and modify the timeline by starting a new project in the 720p23.976p timeline and just open that sequence without a problem. THIS WILL ONLY WORK if the person that digitized your footage was digitized at native 23.976p. If it was digitized at 29.970p, you're SOL.

I guess the dumb final question is, is your footage REALLY 24p? Or are you trying to ghetto 24p by skipping frames?