Please Help me with Pulldown.exe

[MelonDome]

Hello everyone, hope all is well. I followed the instructions and correctly installed the pulldown.exe, virtual dub, ect. from the website.



What I have done:

Downloaded - DGIndex, Virtual Dub, Pulldown.exe

Installed them.

Working Directory - C:\Tools - 24F\Working

DGIndex Path - C:\Tools - 24F\DGIndex.exe

Virtual Dub Path - C:\Tools - 24F\VirtualDubMod.exe

AVS Template - C:\Tools - 24F\Pull Down 24f\Template.avs

Both boxes checked - Calculate required audio, remove temporary dgindex files when done.

Compression - Uncompressed AVI



What I do:

- I first grab my Xh-a1, put the settings to 24f, 16:9 SD, 3:2 pulldown.

- I shoot something outside for 45 seconds them stop.

- I connect my camera to my laptop and sony vegas comes up.

- I select new project, NTSC 24p Widescreen DV

- I select capture and capture the 45 second footage.

- I quit Sony vegas.

- I open pulldown.exe and click add, I proceed to my documents and find the film clip I captured. I double click and add it.

- I hit Run.


What Happens:

- It says executing DGI Index, a big box comes out with all these attributes, except nothing is filled it, it skips right to virtual dub.

- It just sits at "executing virtual dub", and nothing happens.



My questions:

- What am I doing wrong?

- Can You use pulldown.exe with SD footage?


Please help, thanks in advance.

 

[Will Vincent]

I think perhaps you missed a step or two in getting the system set up..

Read through this blog entry and double check that you did everything. I'm guessing you didn't get virtualdub configured correctly.

 

[MelonDome]

I configed Virtualdub now thanks, but I get this error now.

Avisynth open failure:
TFM: d2v file is not a d2v file or is of unsupported format!
(C:\Tools - 24F\Working\PF24_.avs, line 7)


Accoring to the guide, it says to open the Avisynth Template in notepad and type in this,

LoadPlugin("C:\Program Files\AviSynth 2.5\plugins\DGDecode.dll")
LoadPlugin("C:\Program Files\AviSynth 2.5\plugins\mpasource.dll")
LoadPlugin("C:\Program Files\AviSynth 2.5\plugins\TIVTC.dll")

I copied and pasted that before the other writing, and I still get the same error.

 

[MelonDome]

I also believe sony vegas' video capture has something to do with it. Is there a better video capturing tool you guys reccomend that works for SD footage?

 

[WideShot]

For SD I use WinDV and for HDV I use HDVSplit . Check your PM's.

 

[MelonDome]

Wideshot, you explained in the pm that SD 24f does not need pulldown.exe correct? it is true 24p as SD?

 

[MelonDome]

Finally got it to work. Thanks guys

 

[WideShot]

I believe 24p settings (probably IVTC) are correct in your project settings.

What was the solution for you in case any else has the problem?

 

[MelonDome]

I deleted everything, and reinstalled everything.

 

[MelonDome]

Wideshot, if I were to import my 24f footage to my friend's fincal cut on macbook pro, would I still need to go thru the pulldown.exe routine?

 

[WideShot]

is it SD or HDV?

Lets clarify something. Regular 24p inside of a pulldown is NORMAL. It is recognizable by most NLE's directly and handled correctly. Canon's HDV 24p is not handled correctly by several NLE's, including Sony Vegas, which I use. It is this way because Canon, in their wisdom, decided to not make their 24p files FLAGGED that they are inside of a pulldown, therefore NLE's cannot remove the pulldown. So it is necessary to first capture and then process this footage with pulldown.exe OR capture it using Cineform's program which will recognize and remove the pulldown while putting the file into a cineform intermediate codec.

You do not need pulldown.exe for standard definition DV 24f or 24p, as all NLE's should recognize them and correctly remove the pulldown if you apply the appropriate project and render settings.

I am not sure whether FCP recognizes HDV 24p from Canons correctly or not, nor whether pulldown.exe works on mac.

 

[MelonDome]

I just shot some SD 24 f footage and captured using the WinDV capture tool you suggested. I tried running it thru pulldown.exe and it says "No video heading sequence found" "check your PIDS". Im assuming pulldown wont work, because you mentioned above that it doesnt work with SD footage, only with HDV.

 

[WideShot]

You do not need pulldown.exe for standard definition DV 24f or 24p, as all NLE's should recognize them and correctly remove the pulldown if you apply the appropriate project and render settings.

 

[MelonDome]

hahaha, love ya wideshot! thanks. Remember im only 18 .

 

[Will Vincent]

If I remember correctly I'm quite certain I have read that FCP will properly handle the 24p (presumably whether the footage is SD or HDV) ... though there may be some special setting or two, I'm most definitely NOT a mac person, so I can't do any more than speculate..

 

[MelonDome]

Mr. Vincent, have you ever heard of "You cant view 24p films on DVDs"?

I read on some other forum; I believe they were saying that you can't put a 24p film on a DVD and view it otherwise it will be choppy. Is this true? Or did I misunderstand something.

 

[Will Vincent]

Well... I would say yes and no.

There are progressive scan dvd players, but I think they probably do the pulldown removal to output progressive frames to a display that would handle that (like a 720 or 1080p HDTV)

Generally I think when you go to burn a dvd you output the same kind of format that you just went to all the trouble of getting the footage out of for editing, but that's because a standard dvd -- at least as far as I'm aware -- has interlaced frames.