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Legend
August 12, 2019
Answered

What are my clip's frame rate? Nothing is matching.

  • August 12, 2019
  • 3 replies
  • 6691 views

Here goes:

My film was shot in 23.976 (24p)

In Windows, when I right click on a clip, go to properties..... it  says: 29.97 frame rate

In Premiere Pro, in the Project window, the frame rate reads: 23.976 fps

In Premiere Pro, in the Sequence, that same clip properties read: 29.97 (24p)

Is this all normal?  Can I export my footage as 23.976 to disc?

Thank you for your advice.

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer Michael Grenadier

Still can't believe with all the experience on this board, nobody knows exactly what this means:

 

FRAME RATE: 29.97 (24p)

 

I've done more testing and am starting to think that because PPro captured the original footage from the camera, the clip is 29.97 but PPro reads it as 23.976 as well as AE.

It's always 29.97 in the timelines, but not in the properties or project panels. IF the clip was a true 29.97, then it would read that everywhere in PPro and there wouldn't be this odd duality in properties.  


If you send a clip in the timeline to ae using "replace with ae comp" and in ae, control click on the clip in the project and choose "interpret footage" will ae guess the correct pulldown cadence and change the "metadata" of the clip to 23.976 fps?  I think what you're seeing is just Premiere and AE automatically doing this.  The original clip is 29.97 fps with the pulldown cadence embedded in the metadata.   If AE does this, I assume you could make a comp from the clip and render it out for a file that actually. is 23.976 fps.  

 

Really the proof is in the pudding.  when you put the clip in a 23.976 timeline (and it plays at the proper speed - I guess a better word would be tempo)  and you step thru the timeline frame by frame, do you see any interlacing artifacts or repeated frames?  if not, Premiere is correctly interpreting the footage and there's no need to worry.  If you like, I can post a frame with interlacing artifacts so you see what they look like. 

 

The fact is, this is old technology which is thankfully no longer relevant in the modern world where cameras actually shoot 23.976 fps progressive.  The reason this workflow was developed was so the material the camera shot was compatible with standard NTSC video but could also be used to work in true progressive 23.976 environments and be used to. create more of a "film" look and be used to author 23.976 dvd's which would allow you to squeeze a few more minutes onto a dvd because the dvd standard and all (theoretically) were able to either play out at 23.976 fps (via component back in the day or HDMI more recently) but could also output 29.97fps video (automatically adding the pulldown) so it could play properly on older television sets with either a rf or standard composite video imputs.

 

That still doesn't answer the 16x9 question in the metadata.  Try this, if you create a 16x9 HD sequence with square pixels and drop one of these clips in to the timeline, does it fill the frame?  If so, it is 16x9 anamorphic not 4x3 pillarboxed.  Again, this would be premiere just trying to handle this issue automatically.  

 

I hope this has been clear.  Points for you for being persistent and trying to understand what's going on.  Back in the day, we didn't have any choice but to either figure it out or live with our mistakes.  Can't tell you how many clients would totally screw stuff up in the old fcp by mixing footage with different pixel aspect ratios which the software would usually adjust correctly, but sometimes.... wouldn't.

3 replies

Stan Jones
Community Expert
Community Expert
June 5, 2020
Letty2019Author
Legend
June 5, 2020

sorry but between the 2, I still don't have a confirmed answer as to the frame rate being listed in PPRo as   29.97 (24p)

 

Not blaming anybody, just can't get an answer, only technical speculation. 

 

I posted in AE forum and the PPRo forum for good reason.  Having different fps reads in each program.

Letty2019Author
Legend
June 6, 2020

Still can't believe with all the experience on this board, nobody knows exactly what this means:

 

FRAME RATE: 29.97 (24p)

 

I've done more testing and am starting to think that because PPro captured the original footage from the camera, the clip is 29.97 but PPro reads it as 23.976 as well as AE.

It's always 29.97 in the timelines, but not in the properties or project panels. IF the clip was a true 29.97, then it would read that everywhere in PPro and there wouldn't be this odd duality in properties.  

Stan Jones
Community Expert
Community Expert
June 3, 2020

Please post your MediaInfo in "Tree" view. It has more info.

 

I can't answer your question, but here is more re 24p Advanced. I never used the 24p/24p Advanced, but it rang a bell. Assuming PR is a "24P Advanced Aware" app, you can just trust it, and AE in the round trip, to get it right. But that seems really risky.

 

http://www.adamwilt.com/24p/#24pRecording

https://cinematography.com/index.php?/topic/22397-24p-vs-24p-advanced/

 

What do you mean "exporting to disk"? Bluray or just an export to hard drive?

 

Stan

Letty2019Author
Legend
June 3, 2020

here's the tree....

 

 

I'm hoping it's a container or ?  caz the aspect ratio says 16:9   when I know it's  4:3.

 

'to disc'   the final goal is to burn it on bluray.  which I've done some tests and looks decent, although most editors say to use regular dvd.

 

Thanks for any advice you have 🙂

Legend
June 3, 2020

you're probably ok, but I think it's a good idea to confirm this.  Unfortunately I haven't had enough coffee yet to explain all the issues with interlacing vs progressive video, but for the best possible quality particularly if your end product is going to be played on a monitor that is not capable of displaying individual fields, you will do better with a progressive file (23.976 progressive) rather than a file with pulldown (29.97 interlaced).   I'm going thru this right now, preparing a series of films for internet streaming.  Unfortunately, the way most of the films were transferred to tape and then digitized does not make it possible to easily remove the pulldown (if at all).  In the one case so far, where I could easily remove the pulldown, the look was much better.  

 

very strange that it's reporting 16x9.  are you sure that they are 4x3 full frame and not letterboxed.  DV can be "anamorphic" which means the individual pixels (pixel aspect ratio) are squeezed so when displayed properly, they are full 16x9 but if the hardware (both playback unit and display) and software are not set up properly, they will display as 4x3 with a black bar at the top and bottom.

 

So if the media info tree is correct, the material was shot 24p advanced and 16x9 anamorphic and Premiere is handling everything just fine.  

 

I'm so glad I don't have to deal with this craziness anymore.  It took me years to figure it out and I've spent years trying to forget all about it.

 

Also, since your source file is standard def, a standard def dvd is probably a better choice than a blue ray which is HD.  You can upscale it to HD in Premiere, but you may not get the best results.  There are hardware solutions to uprez which will give you somewhat better results but they're gonna cost you.  

 

How much any of this matters is debatable.  Particularly with source material that's not the greatest to begin with, I get obsessive about maintaining the quality.  And of course, getting the material as sharp as possible sometimes makes some of these issues more noticable.  

Inspiring
August 12, 2019

Premiere Pro is pretty frame rate/codec agnostic now, so it doesn't really worry about the framerate as such.

The best match between sequence and footage can be found by creating a new sequence by dragging one of the clips to the 'new sequence' icon at the bottom of the project window, and letting Premiere decide on the best settings.

Letty2019Author
Legend
August 12, 2019

I dragged a clip, onto the 'new item' icon... and it created a new sequence with my clip in it.

I checked the Sequence Settings and it says 23.976     So am I good to go and my frame rates are all 23.976?

….and I can export to dvd as a 23.976 rate?

Ann Bens
Community Expert
Community Expert
August 12, 2019

Just pick the export preset and you will be fine.