Glitches and Video Size

Hey everyone,

I am very new to Final Cut Pro. I have just edited my first video using footage that was shot by a Pure Digital Flip Video Camera (the kind of camera that you just plug into a USB port to upload the footage into your computer). The footage was given to me on a DVD from the person who uploaded the footage on their computer. My intention with this footage was to use it to teach myself Final Cut Pro. I got the Final Cut Pro 4 For Dummies Book and have done pretty well on my own. I have hit two brick walls though and was wondering if anyone can help me. It would be greatly appreciated. Here is the info on my version of FCP and my Mac.

Final Cut Pro Version 5.1.4
MacBook (the white one)
Mac OS X Version 10.5.2
2 Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo
1 GB Memory

ISSUE #1
The video footage I'm using plays well in Quicktime, but in Final Cut Pro there are very visible and annoying glitches in the video. The glitches remain in all of the versions I have exported from Final Cut Pro. I can't seem to find out how to fix this with the Dummies Book I have and have looked at several FAQ's and can't seem to find any info to help me fix my problem or tell me my problem is unfixable.

ISSUE #2
In the video I am editing, I am using some footage from YouTube that I have converted into MOV files. I can't seem to get this video footage to be the same size as the other footage from the DVD. The YouTube footage comes out way smaller. Again, I can't seem to find out how to fix this.

I understand these may be really simple issues, but I'm just a beginner so please keep that in mind. Thanks for any help! I have the footage available if you need to see it.

Thanks again,
Andrea

Learning Final Cut Pro isn't that scary, though you're kind of giving yourself a harder time than necessary because you're working with a bunch of unorthodox media. You'd probably have a better time starting out by using media from the Peachpit Press books (Diana Weynand's Final Cut Pro book, for example). Or shoot some footage yourself, but use a DV camera. DV is a much easier format to deal with than those hard-disk or DVD cameras.

> The video footage I'm using plays well in Quicktime, but in Final Cut Pro there are very visible
> and annoying glitches in the video.

Many things can cause this. Wrong frame rate, wrong codec. The number-one cause of playback problems for new users is trying to use a drive that's not fast enough. Are you using a USB drive? You can't edit video with those. Get a Seagate, Promax or G-Tech FireWire 400 drive, at least.

There isn't much we can tell you about this issue unless we know more about your media and editing settings. Check your Sequence Settings (select the Sequence you're editing with, then press APPLE-0 -- that's a "0" zero, not the letter "O". Also select one of your media clips and press APPLE-9 (Item Properties). List the information in these two places and post them here so we can diagnose.

> ISSUE #2
> In the video I am editing, I am using some footage from YouTube that I have converted into
> MOV files. I can't seem to get this video footage to be the same size as the other footage from
> the DVD. The YouTube footage comes out way smaller. Again, I can't seem to find out how to
> fix this.

Either blow up the YouTube video footage to fit the frame size of your timeline, or convert them before using them. For the blow-up, you'll need to use the Motion tab of the Viewer -- too early for you to learn, in my opinion. As for converting them first, again, we'll need to know what codec, frame size, frame rate etc. you're using to edit with before we can tell you.


www.derekmok.com

Thanks for your fast response! I do not have any of the drives you have mentioned. I will definitely be looking into getting one ASAP. I just got a MacBook a few months ago and have been only using what it has come with.

Here are the details you asked for:

Sequence Settings:
Frame Size: 720 X 480
Aspect Ratio: NTSC DV (3:2)
Pixel Aspect Ratio: NTSC CCIR 601/DV
Field Dominance: Lower (Even)
Editing Timebase: 29.97
Quicktime Video Settings
Compressor: DV/DVCPRO-NTSC
Quality: 100%
Audio Settings
Rate: 48 kHz
Depth: 16-bit
Config: Default

Item Properties:
Size: 18.9 MB
Vid Rate: 30fps
Frame Size 640 X 480
Compressor: DivX 6.0
Data Rate: 329.0 K/sec
Pixel Aspect: Square
Field Dominance: None
Alpha None/Ignore
Composite: Normal
Audio: Mono
Audio Rate 16.0 kHz
Audio Format 32 bit

Thanks again for your help.

-Andrea

Here are the problems.

> Vid Rate: 30fps
> Compressor: DivX 6.0

NTSC video is 29.97fps. But some web movies are at 30fps. That is one potential cause of your playback glitches.

DivX is not an editing codec. In fact, it doesn't play all that nice with Macintosh OS in my own experience. Use Compressor, QuickTime Player or MPEG Streamclip to convert these clips to DV NTSC if you want to conform them to the Sequence Settings you're using. Do one clip and see if it glitches. If not, you can batch-convert all your media.


www.derekmok.com