mysterious, unwanted conversions!

hey all!

So i am doing a twice-montly series of 6 minute shows for a corporate client. Everything is shot DVCPROHD 720p 23.98 960x720 HD pixels.

At the end of each show, I do a "export...quicktime...current settings" to create a master for archival purposes.

the weird thing is that the quicktime that comes out of episodes 1 & 2 are 1280 x 960, square pixels. When i "ctl+9" the original sequence and the clips, it says they are 960x720 HD pixels, but then the quicktime they create is 1280, meaning that, when i import that master into another project with DVCPROHD 720p settings, i need to render. Episodes 3-5 are fine, and as far as i can tell, i haven;t changed my workflow.

Any suggesstions?

Thanks!!

greg

You didn't say in so many words that you were exporting from Final Cut or QuickTime Pro. QuickTime Pro has surprised more than one person by exporting at the screen resolution, not the resolution of the show or the settings.

Koz

If you open them in Quicktime and go to Window > Show Movie Properties > Video Track , do the 'scaled size' and 'preserve aspect ratio' box settings match on the good and bad clips?

FINALLY! Someone else who has been experiencing this! It's driving me nuts! I think I may have found MY problem...I don't know if it will be yours or not, and I haven't had ample time to do more than a 10 sec. test export, but consider this fix...with this disclaimer...

I'm no tech-guy by any stretch of the imagination. What I know about CODECs and frame sizes couldn't feed a fish.

My Easy Set Up was set for "all formats", thinking "Hey, FCP6 has this great way of matching all these sqnc/clip setting numbers up anyway...let's cover them all." But when I customized the set up to my exact specs (720p24 Varicam/23.98), open a new sqnc, and export a QT using 'current settings'...viola...960x720, no rendering needed.

Something about FCP6 covering too many bases with "all formats" is making the compressor force-feed a 1280 x 720 picture out the back end of QT export. Try specifying your EZ Set-Up. I always thought that as long as your actual sqnc. settings were as they should be, 'current settings' would do the rest. Am I wrong? If so, how come this EZ Set Up change seemed to work? Anyone?

- graciously
guy capo

<<<What I know about CODECs and frame sizes couldn't feed a fish. >>>

See, I would have used "guppy" right there instead of "fish." To anyone used to harvesting live fish from natural water, "fish" can mean anything up to and including an 18' swordfish whose lunch could be considerable. Guppies in their natural habitat (surrounded by glass walls, bubbling deep-sea divers and pressed noses) rarely go over about 1/2 inch (13mm). That and "guppy" is a good deal funnier than "fish", IMHO.

Koz

OK...
So a co-worker of mine had the same issue, and I offered the same "easy set-up" workaround, and it fixed his 1280 x 720 Quick Time export issue as well.

So until a guru comes up with a better explanation, this grunge fix seems to be working...but there's gotta' be something more at play...something larger than what I understand about FCPs innerworkings.

- graciously,

guy capo