24p for who?

I keep hearing everyone talk about 24p. I understand that this is the same rate at which film is shot, but is it for anybody that isn't planning on transferring to film in the future? I'm a wedding videographer and I'm always looking for something different. If I shoot in 24p, edit in Vegas and then send it back to DVD, will it be converted back to 30 frames? Will most DVD players even play 24p?

Thanks for the thoughts and help.

-Chad

I keep hearing everyone talk about 24p. I understand that this is the same rate at which film is shot, but is it for anybody that isn't planning on transferring to film in the future? I'm a wedding videographer and I'm always looking for something different. If I shoot in 24p, edit in Vegas and then send it back to DVD, will it be converted back to 30 frames? Will most DVD players even play 24p?

Thanks for the thoughts and help.

-Chad

Commercial DVD players output in NTSC (or PAL); both are interlaced signals rather than progressive -- and PAL, at 25fps, is so close to 24fps you probably wouldn't try <G>

That leaves the matter of progressive vs interlaced. The 24p would have to be converted to NTSC 30fps using a pull-down conversion. Instead of having 60 distinct fields per second, the conversion duplicates the one progressive frame into each field so it may look like 24fps. Not perfectly, as there are still frames that, via interlace, consist of different field halves.

A- B- C- D- (4 frames @ 24p)

Aa Bb BC cD dD (5 frames @ 30i; the BC and cD are mixed)
Aa Bb BC cC Dd (2:3:3:2 pull-down, only the BC is mixed)

Commercial DVD players output in NTSC (or PAL); both are interlaced signals rather than progressive -- and PAL, at 25fps, is so close to 24fps you probably wouldn't try

Even my 40$ DVD player has progressive output.

You don't have to convert anything. 24p is ideal for DVD. Check out this link for a good explanation:
http://digitalcontentproducer.com/workflow/Shooting_for_DVD012606/index.html
A DVD is actually a native 24fps medium and all DVD players automatically telecine convert 24fps to 29.97fps. This is a very misunderstood and under documented area of DVD production. The only reason you need 29.97fps is if you are broadcasting on TV or editing with existing footage at that rate. Progressive playback is another matter but is still compatible... you just won't have the real advantage of progressive playback unless you have a DVD player and a monitor which both support progressive scan. gp

I'm sure I'll receive a raging firestorm of hell for this comment, but I think 24p is so overhyped for completely bogus reasons. Do you remember when people played LPs? There were (and still are) many who maintained that it was superior to CDs, they talked about the "warm" sound it has (between the clicks and pops and wow and flutter). What they really like is not any superiority in musical qualities, but they just got attached to the distortion that was added to the recording. I've been working on a documentary for over a year, part interviews part sporting events inside/outside. I shoot everything in 30F, it has a much better flow to it and I find it is easier to watch. I did comparisons between 24F & 30F for a variety of stuff and definately favor 30F.

I have also heard (though it was second hand and not via personal experience) that 30F can also be converted to film by some houses (where it ends up as 24 FPS). If you plan to go this route, do check it out first with some video to film transfer houses. As far as progressive scan goes (F) or (p) I definately also agree it produces a much better product than interlaced video, I did back to back test on this, for shots with relatively little motion, this is little to no percievable difference, but there definately is for fast moving shots like sports.

I'm sure I'll receive a raging firestorm of hell for this comment

Yeh I'm pretty sure you will too! ;)

I think 24p is so overhyped for completely bogus reasons. Do you remember when people played LPs? There were (and still are) many who maintained that it was superior to CDs, they talked about the "warm" sound it has (between the clicks and pops and wow and flutter). What they really like is not any superiority in musical qualities, but they just got attached to the distortion that was added to the recording.

Sorry, but I'm going to have to disagree with you on most of what you said there :p. Firstly, please list these 'bogus' reasons you say people use to overhype 24p (then I can say why they aren't 'bogus', or give other reasons you might not have thought about to 'overhype' 24p ;):p). Well I started writing about CD's and LP's but got carried away and decided to delete it because this is a video forum :p (What I will say though is that I think you know that: "What they really like is not any superiority in musical qualities, but they just got attached to the distortion that was added to the recording." is an exaggerated comment... would you also say that there is no difference between audio with a sample rate of 32kHz and audio with a sample rate of 48kHz?).

I shoot everything in 30F, it has a much better flow to it and I find it is easier to watch. I did comparisons between 24F & 30F for a variety of stuff and definately favor 30F.
30f is okay if you don't want to export your stuff to Europe/Australia. So far, 24fps is the most compatible format. But for home video this does not really matter.