3:2 Pulldown for 24p to 30p?

I've got a 24p project i've edited in a 24p timeline, but i need to deliver it in 1080p30 for broadcast. how am i suppose to perform a 3:2 pulldown using compressor? I've tried making a new project and setting the sequence to 30p and exporting it, but i don't get a real pulldown, i just get frame, frame, frame, frame, duplicate; repeated.

That is how it is supposed to work.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three-two_pull_down

I understand how it’s suppose to work but that doesn’t actually help me DO it, ya know? How do I TELL compressor to do this? If I just export 24 as a 30 file, it doesn’t interlace anything for me or blend anything. It just duplicates every 4th frame. 

bradywurtz wrote: I understand how it’s suppose to work but that doesn’t actually help me DO it, ya know? How do I TELL compressor to do this? If I just export 24 as a 30 file, it doesn’t interlace anything for me or blend anything. It just duplicates every 4th frame.

3:2 pulldown is only for converting progressive 24 to interlaced 30 (IOW 60 fields/sec). For 24p to 30p you could use optical flow interpolation, which has its own drawbacks such as compute cost during rendering and possible artifacts. 

To do this within FCP, the 24 fps clips must be placed in a 30 fps timeline. They can be copy/pasted but anytime you change timeline frame rate slight adjustments in edit points may be required. Once in a 30 fps timeline you select the clips and you select the timeline clips, then in the Inspector's video pane, scroll to bottom and set Rate Conform>Frame Sampling>Optical Flow.

To do this in Compressor, send your 24 fps timeline to Compressor: File>Send to Compressor>New Batch. In Compressor, pick a preset such as 1080p. In the Inspector pane's Video tab, enter the frame rate such as 30 or 29.97.  Then scroll down to the Quality pane and for Retiming Quality pick "Best (Motion Compensated)". Export and examine.

Broadcast networks use rack-mounted hardware standards converters for all common conversion types: www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1281034-R...2gql_teranex_av.html

I don't think it's normally necessary to pre-convert the material using an NLE which might not do as good a job. However that's up to the technical submission criteria for each local affiliate. 

ABC, Fox and ESPN use 720p/59.94, whereas NBC, CBS and most other networks use 1080i/29.97. The submission requirements could vary depending on whether it's for local news, etc. Some of the local news depts still use old Avid NewsCutter systems and they may want an exact input format that system can handle.

When I single-step theatrical movies distributed via Comcast, it appears those have every 4th frame duplicated. They didn't even use optical flow -- just did a crude conversion and broadcast it.

So, I'm betting you can't physically see any difference in that fifth frame (which is pull-down technically, adding one or two "dirty" frames). What are you seeing on output and playback that bothers you?  I don't understand what's wrong with what is already happening.  What is the visual issue you're seeing after exporting?

If you need to generate content with pulldown - 23.98 into 29.97 - you only have two options, depending on if the final master is to be progressive or interlaced. If progressive, the cadence will be 2:2:2:4. If interlaced, you are taking 24 frames and creating 60 fields and the cadence is 2:3:2:3 with a pattern of split and whole frames.

The best method I've found to generate 1080i content from 1080p/23.98 masters is to export an edited 23.98 master file. Bring that into After Effects and render it out as a 29.97 interlaced export (use the correct settings). You'll end up with an interlaced master with perfect cadence.

The real question is - do you actually need an interlaced master file or will progressive with 2:2:2:4 be acceptable?

ok, so i've come into an issue trying to use optical flow to retime everything to convert this 24p into a 30p video.

IF i do this inside of FCP and not in compressor, i need to copy and paste my content from a 24p project into a 30p project. Done. Now i need to select video clips and change the re-timing to 'optical flow'. BUT, i can't. I made a multicam clip first with my footage (it was a two camera shoot), and since the multicam clip was made in 24p, and i can't change the frame rate of the multicam clip after it's been made, i can't tell the clips to re-time using any effect because the re-time effect option isn't even available since it's 24p footage in a 24p multicam clip.

i'd have to create a new multicam clip, which i can do, but now i have to edit the entire show again from scratch since the edit points can't just transfer over.

so that won't work.

now my other option is to use optical flow inside compressor, which i can't do either, because since it's not editing it clip by clip and just as a whole, it's now trying to use optical flow on hard cuts, giving me a morph look between two hard cuts of different clips.

so that won't work either.

i guess my only option is to just export like normal and except the stuttering look of having duplicate frames all over the place. unless i'm missing something?

ok, so i've come into an issue trying to use optical flow to retime everything to convert this 24p into a 30p video.

IF i do this inside of FCP and not in compressor, i need to copy and paste my content from a 24p project into a 30p project. Done. Now i need to select video clips and change the re-timing to 'optical flow'. BUT, i can't. I made a multicam clip first with my footage (it was a two camera shoot), and since the multicam clip was made in 24p, and i can't change the frame rate of the multicam clip after it's been made, i can't tell the clips to re-time using any effect because the re-time effect option isn't even available since it's 24p footage in a 24p multicam clip.

i'd have to create a new multicam clip, which i can do, but now i have to edit the entire show again from scratch since the edit points can't just transfer over.

so that won't work.

now my other option is to use optical flow inside compressor, which i can't do either, because since it's not editing it clip by clip and just as a whole, it's now trying to use optical flow on hard cuts, giving me a morph look between two hard cuts of different clips.

so that won't work either.

i guess my only option is to just export like normal and except the stuttering look of having duplicate frames all over the place. unless i'm missing something?

You're wasting your time. Optical flow is bound to mess this up. Especially at cuts. Remember, you are not trying to change speed if this is an edited sequence. Go 24 into 30 and live with a 2:2:2:4 cadence, just like every Blu-ray that's out there.

But... 2 questions. Is the issue that you have 24p and 30p clips mixed or are they all 24p? Second, why do you need to deliver 30p? If this is for streaming, most services can handle 24p, so check. If this is for actual TV broadcast, it needs to be 1080i/29.97 or 720p/59.94, which would be a different process, yielding 2:3:2:3 cadence.