NOTE - After originally published on 1/5/09 we were informed of an error in our explanation. We had mistakenly listed Inverse telecine to be a third option for creating our PAL masters, but it is in actuality a component of the second process.

Like everyone, we've been guilty in the past stuffing up and putting out some inferior quality releases. Reasons for this vary and include:

• Change in management
• The guy who was supposed to check this was on holidays
• $$
• 1001 other reasons (usually having to do with $$)

Now of course, you can't keep doing business putting out dodgy releases. Consumers get fed up, don't trust you, sales go down, money dries up and that's the end of it. Luckily for us, we're re-entering the anime scene having learned a few things. One of these things I want to elaborate on here is the conversion of NTSC to PAL formats.

In the broadest terms, the difference between NTSC and PAL has to do with the number of frames (technically, fields) that pass per second (fps for short).

• PAL is the standard in Australia and consists of 25 fps.
• NTSC is the standard in Japan and consists of 29.97 fps.

Anime is usually created at 24 fields per second when it goes to broadcast on TV. From here, frames are copied and added to the original to bring it up to NTSC. This process, while good, is not perfect and can cause a slight juddering in movement due to the repeated images.

PAL is the standard in Australia. To convert NTSC to PAL we have options:

We could use clever software and hardware to merge the frames, keeping the overall fps speed. This method, technically called field interpolation, is best used when the original source is a 'true' NTSC original and the picture motion is present in ALL the frames (relatively rare in anime). This can give very good results when handled carefully.

Another, more preferable way would be to re-create the 24 fps version by removing the added frames - this process is called inverse telecine. Once back to the original 24fps it's then sped up to PAL frame rates. Although speeding up might sound like a horrific thing to do to your film it is actually the best looking method, an industry standard procedure for motion pictures and can often end up being better than the original! It's worth noting you have to handle the audio very carefully to correct the pitch (our authoring house uses high quality DIRAC processing).

In Summary:

Siren, in partnership with our newly acquired A-grade DVD authoring facility, is acutely aware of our options and will use the best method for the material, to be determined on a case by case basis. More, we will source the best quality masters every time. We will not use DVDs as our source master format. We use industry standard Digital Betacam or HD masters when possible.

This is how we fixed up X, Nightwalker and Iria.

Nightwalker

Video Source: Digital Betacam NTSC tape. Converted to PAL using field interpolation software method with low level sharpening filter.

Audio Source: Original digital files; reviewed, cleaned and encoded with professional digital audio software and equipment.

Subtitle Source: As on original DVD release.

Iria

Video source: D2 NTSC tape. Converted to PAL using top of the range 4-field 10-bit motion compensated digital conversion hardware.

Audio Source: Original digital files; reviewed, cleaned and encoded with professional digital audio software and equipment.

Subtitle Source: As on original DVD release.