When to convert PAL to NTSC in a workflow?
 

Hi again,

realizing that eventually I may be asked for my project to convert PAL to NTSC, should I apply the same logic as for filters i.e. do it before the capture with a converter

Thanks

Leave it as PAL. Those converters do a pretty lousy job at PAL<>NTSC conversions. Such a conversion in real time isn't easy to do "good", thats why Snell and Wilcox Alchemist standards converters go for six figures. Convert to NTSC right before compression for your target media (eg: DVD).

You do filters before capture because you capture in lossy DV. Otherwise you would've done capture -> filters -> PAL to NTSC. Now that you need to do conversion, you either do:
filters -> capture -> PAL to NTSC
or
capture -> filters -> PAL to NTSC.

Try both and see which one you like better.

Do not do PAL to NTSC prior to capture.

--Leonid

Correct:
Hardware filters > capture > PAL to NTSC conversion
Capture > software filters > PAL to NTSC conversion

Or better yet:
Hardware filters > capture > software filters > PAL to NTSC conversion

In fact, you can often leaves PAL as PAL and NTSC as NTSC. The reasons to convert disappear more and more each years.
Many NTSC players now play PAL, because of universal manufacturing practices.
PAL players always played PAL as PAL-60.
Streaming videos are format agnostic, no comprehension of "PAL" or "NTSC".
In fact, all digital video is now standardized luma/chroma, with only framerate determining format. The analog era is gone.