Solving 24P DV Capture and Pulldown Issues

Many editors are now entering the exciting world of 24P production, whether in DV, HD, or film postproduction. (We use the term 24P for both true 24 and 23.976 frame-per-second video, although you'll learn about the variations between them later in this section.)

FCP, as well as many third-party capture devices, has the ability to detect and read the 24P advanced pulldown flag. When you capture 24P advanced clips by using the dedicated DV NTSC 48 kHz Advanced (2:3:3:2) Pulldown Removal, FCP automatically removes the tagged frames. FCP regards the subsequent clips as true 23.98 fps clips without any trips into Cinema Tools for reverse telecine.

When editing 24P footage in FCP, there are a few places where you might run into problems.

24P DV Capture and Pulldown Problems at a Glance
Type of Problem	Symptom	Possible Cause	Solution
Render errors	#1: Red render lines in 24P sequences	You edited clips in sequences with the wrong editing timebase, or you didn't remove the pulldown	Use the right timebase and remove pulldown, page 841
Pulldown errors	#1: FCP can't find pulldown information	Your deck or camera doesn't read non-drop frame timecode	When capturing 24P, use a camera that reads non-drop frame timecode, page 842
	#2: Trouble removing pulldown after capturing footage	You didn't change capture preset before capture	Use FCP's Remove Advanced pulldown feature, page 843