3:2 in fcp to 4:3 dvdsp4 Why so muddy?

i have a ntsc 3:2 in fcp but when i convert thru compressor to mpeg2 and put it in dvdsp4 my only choices are 4:3 and 16:9. once the dvd is finished burning and i play it back on the regular tube tv it seems as though the movie is too large for the screen.

i get text that runs off the screen and some of the clips i wanted at the lower left (PIP) are a off the screen further than expected. its like it has been sized up or magnified and i am guessing that what 4:3 is (the next largest size of screen larger than 3:2).

the other thing is that my images seem to be very muddy and not as crisp as seen in fcp5 on my 2nd monitor ( a regular 17 inch TV ). i mean i do expect some degradation of image but not as much as i am getting. the image is also slightly yet nautically darker than what i saw on my camera lcd.

WHAT I DID:
i use a dvx100b to tape these images. some are in regular dv and some are in 30p.

i did the 2pass vbr in compressor and dvdsp.

fcp5 sequence settings are dv ntsc 3:2. at points in the timeline i have as many as 7 v-trks and as many as 3 audio trks ( audio seems fine). no compression markers used.
file type in fcp time line; text gen. / .motn/ dv clips/ aiff 48/16

compressor is was set to 2pass vbr. 4.7 avg. bit rate all other setting were default.

dvdsp4 set to 4:3 2pass all other settings default

QUESTIONS:

which is best for the average TV 4:3 or 3:2?

how do i clear up some of the muddiness/ slight blur/ slight darkness?

is it true that the lower the avg bit rate the better the quality?

PRE-THANX



""" What you do with what you have, is more important than what you could do, with what you don't have."

> > > Knowledge + Action = Wisdom - J. Corbett 1992 """"

> i have a ntsc 3:2 in fcp but when i convert thru compressor to mpeg2 and
> put it in dvdsp4 my only choices are 4:3 and 16:9. once the dvd is finished
> burning and i play it back on the regular tube tv it seems as though the
> movie is too large for the screen.

NTSC DV is 3:2, or 720x480 pixels. NTSC TVs are 640x480 pixels, or 4:3. That's normal. You're not supposed to put important text or important information in the shot in the area where the difference occurs. The 640x480 field is called the Action Safe area. Titles have an even smaller safe area, called the Title Safe area, in order for all TVs to be guaranteed to see the text.

Select your Canvas in FCP and go to View - Show Overlays. Then choose View - Title Safe. This will show you the borders outside of which you're not supposed to have important action -- the inner border is for text (smallest TV frame size that exists), the outer border is where nothing will be seen on any TV, period. However, if you play such a DVD on a computer, or a movie file, those "no man's land" areas will still be visible.

When you resize and reposition, or do split-screen work, you have to go for the lowest common denominator for screen size, namely Action Safe. For text, stay within Title Safe.

> the other thing is that my images seem to be very muddy and not as crisp
> as seen in fcp5 on my 2nd monitor ( a regular 17 inch TV ). i mean i do
> expect some degradation of image but not as much as i am getting. the
> image is also slightly yet nautically darker than what i saw on my camera
> lcd.

Camera LCD screens are the absolute worst place to judge image quality, colours and contrast. Even worse than a computer monitor, in my opinion. Not only do the LCDs tend to have more contrast and appear darking, thus fooling you into a false perception of your footage, but the small size of the screen will make you think the image is better than it is. An image that's a little soft may actually look almost focused on a camera LCD.

As for why your images look bad on a TV, did you render before viewing? Did you capture the footage at the best possible quality?

> is it true that the lower the avg bit rate the better the quality?

Not as far as I know. However, too high a bit rate will cause your DVD to be unplayable on many players.

>>>Did you capture the footage at the best possible quality?

WOW, I did not know that there was a quality setting for capture. BOING!! thats probly why it looks that way. i must explore that because i have had problems with the quality difference nearly as long as i have had final cut. i has never been too terrible as to where it was not presentable but it has always bothered me a little. i knew it wasnt the NLe.

Q. so what would be the best capture and sequence setting to achieve premium?

>>>As for why your images look bad on a TV, did you render before viewing?

i rendered the timeline and view it in the canvas if that is what u are saying.

Q. is there a way of up resing the image if the capture was default?

by the way i know that this may be a bit much but if i am lovin the 30p on my cam should eye be using the contrast / matrix / and detail settings so that i could help the capture quality? i have only had it for 5 months ( dvx100b )

i wish we had an ameture cam forum for novice to share experiences with other novice. i would guess that all of us have cams. i have tried to use dvx users but they dont answer email and i cant post.

THANX



""" What you do with what you have, is more important than what you could do, with what you don't have."

> > > Knowledge + Action = Wisdom - J. Corbett 1992 """"

> so what would be the best capture and sequence setting to achieve
> premium?

You shot on DVCam or Mini-DV? The right settings in FCP would be 720x480 frame size, DV/DVCPro Compressor (codec), Quality 100 per cent. The default DV NTSC Easy Setup should get you these settings, but I always recommend that people look at the presets after using Easy Setup. So many people rely just on Easy Setup, and that's the path to ignorance of the actual settings.

> i rendered the timeline and view it in the canvas if that is what u are saying.

Wait, I thought you said it looked bad on your "second monitor, a 17" TV"?
You can't judge image quality in the Canvas. It doesn't show video quality properly. If it looks good on an external monitor, that's it.

> Q. is there a way of up resing the image if the capture was default?

If you already used the presets described above, there's no point. That's the maximum quality for DV NTSC. The only thing you can do is to capture the DV footage using an Uncompressed 8-bit or 10-bit codec. That will *not* make your video look any better, but will make titles and other graphics etc. look better.

> by the way i know that this may be a bit much but if i am lovin the 30p on > my cam should I be using the contrast / matrix / and detail settings so
> that i could help the capture quality? i have only had it for 5 months (
> dvx100b )

On the camera? First of all, I'm pretty sure that display settings on the camera only affect what the camera's viewfinder or LCD screen shows you. What you shot is what you shot -- if you're using FireWire, using the camera as a capture device, there should be no way to manipulate the image on the tape. Capture presets control what tools the computer uses to encode the video files created, not the footage in the camera. And if there were a way to change contrast etc. for the footage, I wouldn't recommend doing it, because the maxim of post is always to get the cleanest representation of the photography possible. Add effects later.