User Manual

Transferring Film to Tape

1506

You have the option of playing back the footage at 24 fps or 25 fps. If you select 24 fps, the

system slows both the picture and the sound by 4.1 percent for playback. This approach lets you

edit at the original film rate, but the slowdown creates a limitation for audio. Because you

capture the audio at a rate faster than playback, some audio samples are duplicated during

playback, and sound quality is compromised.

Select the Edit Play Rate option in the Film and 24p Settings dialog box. For more information,

see “Film and 24P Settings” on page 1406 and “Filtering the Settings List” on page 1340.

If you select 25 fps, there is a different limitation with audio. Because you are playing back at the

sped-up rate (4.1 percent), the audio pitch rises slightly. This is usually acceptable for broadcast,

so PAL Method 1 is primarily used for PAL television broadcast.

PAL Method 2

With PAL Method 2, you capture sound and picture separately using the same telecine process

for picture (create a video frame of two fields for each film frame, speed up rate by 4.1 percent).

The difference is that you do not synchronize sound as part of the telecine process.

Some PAL film-to-tape transfers use pulldown. This method is not currently supported in Avid

editing applications.

Here’s an example where you have your picture-only videotapes (at the rate of 25 fps) and your

source recording tapes. To capture at 24 fps, you need to follow a two-step process:

1. Capture the picture to create 24p media.

2. Capture the sound at the film rate of 24 fps.

When you created the project, you set the Audio Transfer rate as Film Rate (100%) in the New

Project dialog box. For more information, see “Audio Transfer Options for 24p PAL Projects”

on page 1506.

In most cases, you will choose to edit at 24 fps. The sound maintains source quality (44.1 kHz

and 48 kHz) and plays in sync with 24-fps video.

Audio Transfer Options for 24p PAL Projects

When you create a 24p PAL project, you must specify the appropriate audio transfer rate for the

project. (This is not necessary for a 25p PAL project because there is no film speedup during the

transfer.) The New Project dialog box provides Audio Transfer options that lets you select either

Film Rate or Video Rate. This value is project specific and should not be changed after you

create the project unless you have a specific element that you need to transfer at a different rate.

The Audio Transfer options are also located in the Film and 24p Settings dialog box and can be

changed after the project is created. See “Film and 24P Settings” on page 1406.