Misinterpreting video frame rate

[Bailey Tom Bailey]

I'm sending my sound designer a reference video for a project that is 23.976 fps but it keeps getting misinterpreted in Pro Tools despite setting the frame rate.

We have tried DNxHD codec and ProRes 422 (as well as h264, dv25 with converted frame rate).

This is what he says happens:

I set timecode rate in Setup to 23.976 but the framerate on the timeline shows in red when they aren't matching.
ProTools thinks video is 23.95fps. Then when I change the timecode setup to another fps (for example 24fps) then ProTools decides the video is now 23.98fps!
This has been the same with every video tried. Its getting confused with the file even though the video shows as 23.976fps in Quicktime player.

The setting in ProTools is the Timecode Rate (shown in screenshots in Setup Menu) which sets the audio timeline to a specific framerate. When framerate is shown in red on the main timeline (in the screenshot as well) ProTools thinks the timecode rate selected in the setup menu doesn't match the framerate of the video. It turns white when you chose the correct timecode normally but in this instance its doing something weird and cannot match them up even though we can see the video is at 23.976

[IMG][/IMG]

[IMG][/IMG]

When he send a wav back to me the audio is progressively drifting.

Any suggestions as to what we can try?

Thanks you!

[john1192]

is everything in Sync if you make pro tools 29.97 NDF ?? just an idea since 23.976 and 29.97 NDF are related .. just an idea to see if things still Drift ..

also: if you have not posted this over at GS you should there is a guy there (i know personally) in the Post Production section that has helped me in the past .. he really knows this stuff ..

cheers john

[EdwardG]

Same happened to me the other day when composing for a documentary, didn't found a workaround for that and didn't use it in the end cause I had a deadline and thank good the documentary wasn't that long and I got to write all the music for it without needing time code or anything...

Let see what avid says about that...

last version protools here.

Originally Posted by Bailey Tom Bailey

I'm sending my sound designer a reference video for a project that is 23.976 fps but it keeps getting misinterpreted in Pro Tools despite setting the frame rate.

We have tried DNxHD codec and ProRes 422 (as well as h264, dv25 with converted frame rate).

This is what he says happens:

I set timecode rate in Setup to 23.976 but the framerate on the timeline shows in red when they aren't matching.
ProTools thinks video is 23.95fps. Then when I change the timecode setup to another fps (for example 24fps) then ProTools decides the video is now 23.98fps!
This has been the same with every video tried. Its getting confused with the file even though the video shows as 23.976fps in Quicktime player.

The setting in ProTools is the Timecode Rate (shown in screenshots in Setup Menu) which sets the audio timeline to a specific framerate. When framerate is shown in red on the main timeline (in the screenshot as well) ProTools thinks the timecode rate selected in the setup menu doesn't match the framerate of the video. It turns white when you chose the correct timecode normally but in this instance its doing something weird and cannot match them up even though we can see the video is at 23.976

[IMG][/IMG]

[IMG][/IMG]

When he send a wav back to me the audio is progressively drifting.

Any suggestions as to what we can try?

Thanks you!

[Bailey Tom Bailey]

Hi,

Thanks for the responses.

'GS' means Getting Started right?

Will switching to 29.97 not change the length of the video?

[john1192]

GS means gear slutz .. and no 29.97 will not change the length of video .. all the seconds will line up fine .. when you scroll through frames on the other hand, not so much .. but that is the good thing about those two rates .. the Seconds match ..

Originally Posted by Bailey Tom Bailey

Hi,

Thanks for the responses.

'GS' means Getting Started right?

Will switching to 29.97 not change the length of the video?

[Chief Technician]

Originally Posted by john1192

the Seconds match ..

The seconds will always match. A second is a second, regardless of the frame rate.

[geraldtrepy]

I came across a similar issue. Here is what I did.
In the session setup window, the timecode settings may have the Video Rate set to 0.1% down which makes Pro Tools think the picture’s fps is 23.95fps.
In that case, you have to set it to “none” as the picture is at 23.976fps and it seems you don’t need to pull down the picture according to the audio.
The fps rate shown on the the video track will switch back to 23.98fps with the characters in white. You will likely have to re-edit all your elements in your edit according to their proper timecodes as the edit window’s grid is affected by the timecode and the pulling up / down.

Hope that helps!

[reducedfatoreo]

Originally Posted by geraldtrepy

I came across a similar issue. Here is what I did.
In the session setup window, the timecode settings may have the Video Rate set to 0.1% down which makes Pro Tools think the picture’s fps is 23.95fps.
In that case, you have to set it to “none” as the picture is at 23.976fps and it seems you don’t need to pull down the picture according to the audio.
The fps rate shown on the the video track will switch back to 23.98fps with the characters in white. You will likely have to re-edit all your elements in your edit according to their proper timecodes as the edit window’s grid is affected by the timecode and the pulling up / down.

Hope that helps!

I know this is a zombie thread, but this is exactly my solution as well, and as this is the top Google result when searching "23.952 Pro Tools Video" I figured I'd confirm. It's coming up quite often when importing 23.98 videos into PT 2020.5.0, enough that I have to cmd-2 almost every time I'm starting a new session.