There are two parts to my problem

Source file is GO GRO HERO 3 1080p/29 MP-4

(1)  Will not play smooth / stalls in AVID timline. I read that this is becasue the CODEC used in GO PRO camera is h.264 and it has to be converted to DNX-HD before import. http://www.acrok.com/video-converter/  seems to solve the play back issue by converting the file to DNX-HD.  It plays well in a 29.97 timeline.

(2)  The frame rate is wrong for my 23.97 timeline and skips..as if frames are missing.  The ACROK software has a 23.997 output option, but the same problem (skip frames) reamins when I import to 23.97 timeline.

Can 29.97 convete to 23.97 and look good ...what are the tools / workflow?

Create a 29.97 project and import the footage into that so it looks and plays smooth, then open your 23.876 project and open the 29.97 bin from the other project. Avid will apply it's own motion adapters to the clips and the playback will be about as good as you're going to get. There are some adjustments in the motion adapter settings, so you can tweak a little bit.

Chris

MAC - are you really running MC 4?

Assuming you have a more recent MC then AMA link to the GoPro footage in MC and let MC do the transcoding. Do this in. 29.976 project and then open this bin from your 23.98 project. No third party tools required. 

I don't think 29.97P (!) to 23.976P is ever going to look great, though...

Sadly, I am still using 4.08.  Lots of reasons why but not my first or best choice.  Will this approach anyhow....I tired using GO PRO software to do the conversion but it does look any better than opther stuff I have tried. ...The goods news is, most of it will appear in a 29.97 project. 

Many thanls for the help

http://www.videocopilot.net/tutorial/frame_rate_converter     Has anyone tried this ADOBE After Effects conversion?  Claims good results....

If your footage happens to be interlaced, you can get better results than if it's progressive. With interlaced, you have some intermediate sub-frames you can play with to smooth the motion. If it's progressive, you will be doing strictly interpolated conversions between whole frames and Job is right, it doesn't often look great. Good luck.

Chris

Interesting... I tried AVID META FUSE. It seems to convert 29.97 Go PRO format to MXF 24p rather well....no apparent jitter from missing frames...   The older version of Mata Fuse that came with AVID 4.08 does not have the 1080p 29.97 option.  When I read the resulting ALE file, it looks as though telecine was used to convert this.   Again, I took a 1080p/29.98 and MetaFUSED it to a 23.98 and then relinked in a 23.97 project...it works....   

Doing this on the XP machine takes forever -- it's much faster in Windows 7 with an updated version of METAFUSE

Am I going donw a rabbit hole or did I find the solution?

Double check, I recall that MetaFuze would do a slowdown. You will not see any stuttering, and it would be the best way to go technically, but the speed may be off and sound would be completely out of sync.

That I can live with --It's all b-roll with no sound, and a lot of it will have timewarp on it....it's a win.  Thx