User manual

Atomos Samurai. User Manual V1.01 11
What is Pulldown?
Many professional and consumer cameras available today do not send
true 1080p24, 1080p23.98, 1080p25, 1080p29.97 or 1080p30 signals
down their SDI or HDMI outputs.
Instead they send 1080i59.94 in NTSC regions (eg USA, Japan), and
1080i50 in PAL regions (eg Europe)
In order to convert the signal from the internal recording format to
1080i5994 or 1080i50, they use a process called 3:2 or 2:2 pulldown.
Camera Setting Pulldown Samurai Receives
1080p23.98 3:2 1080i59.94
1080p24 3:2 1080i60
1080p25 2:2 1080i50
1080p29.97 2:2 1080i59.94
1080p30 2:2 1080i60
You will, of course, want the Samurai to record eg 1080p24, not 1080i60
to the disk. In many cases, it is not easy for the Samurai to detect the
pulldown operation in the video, so you will have to set the correct mode
in the Samurai as well as setting it on your camera.
With some cameras, the Samurai can detect and remove the pulldown,
in which case the mode you expect (eg 1080p23.98) will display on the
Samurai and you will not have to do anything further.
Atomos is adding auto-detection support for more cameras, please
check for firmware updates regularly at www.atomos.com
1080p23.98 or 1080p24
If you have set 1080p23.98 or 1080p24 in your camera and your samurai
displays 1080i59.94 or 1080i60, then you can easily remove the pulldown
by following these steps:
• Press the
blue arrow next to the video format repeatedly
until you see 1080p23.98 (or 1080p24) displayed. You will see that the
Mon button is dimmed. Your samurai needs to analyse the video for
about 1 second, in order to detect the pulldown sequence and remove it.
• Wave your hand from side-to-side in front of the lens, or wave the
camera from side-to-side. The samurai will detect the pulldown in the
movement, the input
video format will show 1080p24 and the
Mon button will highlight yellow.
3:2 pulldown detection is difficult, if not impossible to detect on
completely still video. This is why you should wave your hand in front
of the lens.
If you lose the input detection – for example you unplug the SDI cable
or go to Playback mode, you will need to wave your hand or the
camera again, when the signal is restored to the Samurai.
1080p25, 1080p29.97 or 1080p30
For these modes, simply press the blue arrow repeatedly until your
1080p desired format is displayed. There is no need to wave your hand
or the camera, as 2:2 pulldown removal does not require moving video.
Your samurai always remembers whether you wanted 3:2 or 2:2
pulldown removal. If you change the format on your camera eg from
1080p24 to 1080i60, you will need set to the samurai input to match
your camera setting again.
8. Pulldown