GoPro – NTSC vs PAL

Hi all,

Bit of a vid-tech amateur.

From what I have just read, NTSC vs PAL is a fairly moot point unless you want to replay on a TV (which I don’t). However, I read that you can’t mix footage, is that true? I think most of my GoPro stuff was shut in PAL but I just shot some stuff on my new 3 in NTSC.

(Is there an easy way to find out what a clip was shot in?)

Ta, Duane.

Its just frame rates, PAL will be at 25/50fps and NTSC will be at 30/60fps. This means yes, mixing footage is never a great idea. I normally edit in 24 fps, so shoot at either 24 or 48 (48 means you can just drop every other frame). Most people shoot in NTSC because it allows you the maximum frame rate of 60 fps.

It all depends what you are doing with the footage. If you are editing it than it is always best to keep the same format.
Most modern TV’s and monitors will play back all formats but if you are making a dvd for your mum to watch on her square telly then I would stick with PAL assuming you are in the UK.
It is not just frame rates when it comes to TV as resolutions are different NTSC is 720 x 480 where PAL is 768 x 576. There are also audio and colour coding differences.
Loads of geeky info here:
NTSC v PAL

It’s hd, so I think the resolution is the same, it’s just frame rates. PAL is 25, ntsc is 29.97 or something, or 30 on some devices.

I think, but I’m not sure, that hd also has the same colour space for Pal and ntsc – previously colour used to be different.

If it’s going on the internet, no reason not to use 30 / 60 fps, not than anyone can tell unless you’re doing slow motion effects on it. Only thing you probably don’t want to do is mix frame rates between diffent clips in one film, as you’ll then be doing some kind of pulldown thing, which again probably no one will notice, but it is a dirty hack (albeit I assume one used any time an old film is shown on tv)

Thanks guys.

So if I set the GoPro to shoot at 30fps in PAL it will actually only shoot 25?

On another different but related topic..

I have footage from a holiday, some from a GoPro (30fps), and some from a compact camera (24fps). I converted a clip from each camera in Cineform, and the 24fps clip I did twice, once converted still to 24fps, an the other to 30fps.

I then imported all 3 converted clips to my editing software (using Serif Movieplus 6 at the moment) without any problems. There appears to be no difference between the two compact cam clips, even though they are at different frame rates. I half expected the clip converted to 30fps to be shorter, but it;s the same duration.

What actually happened when I converted them, and should I leave them at 24fps, or change them to 30fps to match the GoPro clips?

Ta, Duane.