Simple frame rate issue

[greglawrence]

My rig is set up for audio only work and I'm frankly pretty ignorant on the video side of things as of yet.

I recently recorded a stage musical over two nights. Initially the idea was primarily to capture the songs but the second night they filmed it so we're going to try to do a DVD of the whole show.

The video editor sent me a .mov version which he says is at 29.97 fps. He converted it from .avi. I adjusted the fps setting in my session and imported the movie. But on the movie track it says 30 fps and the movie (and audio the camera captured) is playing at a quicker pace then my audio.

Is this likely a problem on my end (not importing with the right frame rate somehow) or is it possibly a frame rate problem that occurred during conversion from avi. to .mov?

I only have the free version of Quicktime (version 6) and I don't think I can even get the pro version now without upgrading to Pro Tools version 7/Quicktime 7, which isn't going to happen.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

[Borg]

....but the second night they filmed it so we're going to try to do a DVD of the whole show.

was it actually "filmed", or was it a video shoot??

[greglawrence]

was it actually "filmed", or was it a video shoot??

Indeed, 'filmed' is the wrong term - it was a digital video camera.

Does no one have any thoughts? If it's saying 27.97 fps in the Session Setup Window but 30 fps on the actual track, somethings got mixed up somewhere right?

[Eric L]

It sounds like the video editor made a mistake and converted the 29.97 to 30 during the conversion. But just to make sure...

Check your video pull down/up option in the session setup window to ensure that neither is selected. This would mess things up.

If neither is selected, and the video is running too fast, set it to Video pulldown .01%, which will slow the video by .01% (which is the difference between 30 and 29.97)

This should get your video to run at the same speed as a proper 29.97 copy of the show.

However... your recordings are not the master sync source, the master video tape will be. So you must confirm where the problem is and insist that the video guys make sure that the video source being used to make the final dvd or tape runs at the proper 29.97 speed. This will take a considerable amount of politickin'. Good luck and tread lightly with a big stick.

[greglawrence]

Hey Eric,

Thanks for the reply! I got it late afternoon on friday just before leaving for the weekend but I did have enough time to give your suggestion a shot, but with no luck.

adjusting the video and audio pulldown didn't alter the video or audio in my session at all. I even tried starting a new session and adjusting all the settings prior to importing the movie but got the same non existent results with the pulldown option.

I would imagine that Pro Tools would have to re-process a new file once this option is selected, yes? I would like to understand why its not doing that.

I may just need to arrange for a new file to be made.

Thanks for your thoughts - if you have any more feel free...

[Eric L]

adjusting the video and audio pulldown didn't alter the video or audio in my session at all. I even tried starting a new session and adjusting all the settings prior to importing the movie but got the same non existent results with the pulldown option.

Sorry, been busy with work. Are you adjusting both video and audio pulldown at the same time? Don't as you will cancel the intended purpose. Just pull the video down to match the speed of the audio you have recorded. Leave the audio alone. If you place a marker at the head and tail of the video region, you should notice the video region changes length when pull ups/down are applied to the video. It should get longer as you apply the video pulldown.

I would imagine that Pro Tools would have to re-process a new file once this option is selected, yes?

No, it just changes the QT engine playback rate for the file.


Like I said, before, this is just to determine where the mistake is. You will still need a correctly made video reference.

Good luck.