Quote: I have a project that requires a frame rate of exactly 30 fps. When I process a film clip through PD13 the end product is 29.97 fps, even though I have the 30 fps option selected.

I have attempted to find the solution in the manual and online. My current understanding is that changing the drop frame timecode setting will get exact whole number frame rates.

Here's an example of what I've tried. A camera put out an exact 58 second video at 30 frames per second. When processed through PD13 with the "Use drop frame timecode" option set for "yes" or "no" I get the same results either way with the output product properties as being 29 fps and a length of 57 seconds.

File sizes are also identical.

Can anyone please tell me what I'm doing wrong, or maybe it's not possible for PD13 to give exact frame rates??

Thanks.

Preferences > General Select 30 FPS (NTSC) and set the use drop frame to NO.

. Carl312: Windows 10 64-bit 8 GB RAM,AMD Phenom II X4 965 3.4 GHz,ATI Radeon HD 5770 1GB,240GB SSD,two 1TB HDs.

Carl, Thank you for your reply and the png file that shows exactly how to set the preferences.

However that is exactly what I have tried. I have had the frame rate set to "30 FPS (NTSC)" and the "Use drop frame timecode:" set to "No".

The properties of the avi file fresh off the camera show it to be 30 fps. After being processed through PD13 it shows 29 fps.

I also get the "Timeline Frame Rate Conflict" message stating what I've added is 30 fps which does not match the General preferences setting of 29.97 fps.

For some reason it is not working for me.

My system is Win7 64 bit. I had the computer built around the specs a CyberLink sales guy said was needed to get optimum performance out of PD13.

Try this: Increase the timeline from 58 sec to 116 sec. Place the cursor near the end of the timeline and hit the end key on the keyboard. Click movie not clip mode. Write down the time and frame readings. Now go to preferences and change the Drop frame to the opposite and click okay. See that the readings below the preview screen has changed. Write it down and compare it to the other number that you wrote down. They should be different. The number of frames is the same but the count is different.

The difference between 29.97 and 30 is greater if your timeline is 1 or 2 hours.

Let us know if this helps. You can always disregard the frame rate conflict message if you want in some cases.

Which output format are you producing to? You can click on the "+" icon to create a copy of that profile, then click on little pencil icon to edit it.

On the video tab, change the frame rate from 29.97 to 30 and save it. Now make sure it's selected under the Custom profiles tab and produce to your custom profile.

You should be set.

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tomasc, needless to say, I'm new to this and I'm lost with your advice. Sorry.

optodata, OK, I understood your advice. I experimented with various output formats and found XAVC S to match what you are discussing as well as put out acceptable quality. I created a custom profile. At the video tab of this custom profile I selected "Frame Rate" of "30". I double checked this setting by going to "Details" for this custom profile and it said the frame rate was 30. Also, under Preferences, the frame rate was set to 30 fps NTSC and the drop frame time code was set to "no".

I ran it and now PD13 says the properties of the new output file is 30 fps.

I ran this file through a program where whole number fps is required in order to break it down into frameshot png files that are consistent with the orginal file and it worked like it should.

Thanks, I'll get back if there is a problem, but I don't think there will be.

What I find confusing is this will not work for avi files, which I guess really does not matter since xavc s is so much better quality. I've had a tech support ticket waiting for a response for a few days now. If they answer maybe I can find out why.

Again, thanks.

I'm glad you found a profile that worked. Congratulations!

You should also be able to create a similar profile using AVC H.264 under the MP4 tab. I mention this because the XAVC S format is fairly new and not all player/programs may play it successfully, and the H.264 option would be a good fallback choice.

Happy editing

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Actually AVC H.264 are the first ones I tried after reading your advice. I'll try to shorten the story, but one of my cameras output file is realy odd. Windows 7 reads it's properties as an avi file. PD13 reads the file as being AVC H.264. The frameshots program will not process it and break it down into individual frame stills, but it will process avi files from other camera brands. Windows and the frameshots say this particular video is exactly 58 seconds and 0 milliseconds long. PD13 says it's 57.28 seconds long. All files from this brand of camera are like this, something about them is non-standard or corrupt.

Now this frameshots program will process this camera brands file if I run it through Movie Maker 2.6 or the newer Windows or PD13 as an avi file, however the framerate is 29.97 which throws the timing off for my project.

What I confirmed last night was that the properties read by PD13 is the correct reading for this file. This camera does output AVC H.264 files. So I had to try something else, and XAVC S worked, it gave me 30 fps and the frameshots program did it's job.

I'm working with wildlife night infrared cameras. Another oddity many of them do when creating a video is to make a frame, repeat this frame 1 or two times, then create a new frame, repeat it, and on and on. In other words, a 30 fps video will only have 10 new frames per second while having 20 repeats. In essence they are only 10 fps videos. The jerkyness of objects motion is sometimes quite obvious. This situation gives me headaches in the timing department.

If you're not bored or LMAO I'll continue. What I'm doing is clocking objects in motion to find their speed. An object passes by two known points on a surveyed plot where I know the exact distance, then I can caclulate it's speed by noting the exact frames it passes by both points and subtract the first frame milliseconds from the second frame and calculate the speed. Now I often use two or more cameras, which means their timeing has got to be syncronized down to the frame. It's an absolute nightmare trying to do this with an oddball 29.97 fps, but can be done, but creates timing errors.

So to boil it all down, what I'm using PD13 to do is to correct the corruptness of a certain brand of camera files so another program will accept it and so I can use those files to time objects in motion.

Later on I will use PD13 to create a documentary of my project.

Again, your advice really saved my day.

Thanks for the update, and I'm happy to have been able to help.

It sounds like you've got a workflow that handles the situation really well, and it's great that PD is able to reliably generate 30fps and make your life (at least a little) easier

YouTube/optodata

DS365 | Win11 Pro | Ryzen 9 3950X | RTX 4070 Ti | 32GB RAM | 10TB SSDs | 5K+4K HDR monitors

Canon Vixia GX10 (4K 60p) | HF G30 (HD 60p) | Yi Action+ 4K | 360Fly 4K 360°