HVX-200 and FCP and output and web

HI, I have several questions that I have not beed able to find answers for so if you know, or can direct me to a tutorial, or book that would be great.

1) I have FCP 5.0.4 and have clips that are 960x720 DVCPRO HD 720p60 23.98fps
I want to show them to a client on a DVD and on a portable DVD player or TV that is not a widescreen TV.
When I export fro the timeline to Quicktime Movie with current settings and then import into DVDSP the picture looks squished in from the sides on the viewer in DVDSP.
When I put the same file in iDVD with the 16:9 Widescreen option cicked upon opening the program the video looks good and wide, but after burning it doesnt look too good on my regular TV, a little blurry but maybe that is just my TV.
I have also tried using print to tape and recording the sequence back onto my p2card and I can play it through the camera and watch on the HD monitor but it still looks fuzzy somehow.

What is the best practice for showing HD work? Also what is the best way to export it to SD? I am sure many people have asked these questions but I didnt see anything specific when I searched. I have tried nesting a sequence into a DVNTSC seq and it said notr allowed because of different editing timebases, but if I copied the whole sequence and pasted it in it worked but it needed rendering and didnt look so good.

2) I also really want to understand how to best export clips or sequences for showing on my websites. I would like them to show up looking wide as well. I have tried compressor with mpeg4 at all different kps and all the h.264 types, they look okay but they do not look wide. Are they any great books that really give the detailed info needed to make the best looking and fastest playing movies for on the web? I am very willing to learn.


Thank you so much for any help! Jennifer

Thanks, this is a good question - some clarification would be good. I'm pretty sure that if you want to view on an SD system then , yes, you will need to drop that HD clip in a DV sequene, thereby reducing the scale somewhat, and then you'll end up with black bars on top and bottom. Maybe i'm wrong, maybe zee experts will chime in?

my method for taking hvx sequence to sd is:

1. edit program in an appropriate dvcprohd timeline
2. complete the edit
3. create a new SD 10bit uncompressed timeline
4. drop the dvcproHD sequence onto that
5. export a reference movie of the SD timeline5. import that into DVDSPRO.

for me, this process made the absoluely BEST SD dvd ive ever seen

and here are a couple of my hvx to web movies - they arent "squished" and for beautiful looking h264 not too big in file size... simple "export using qt conversion" to h264, no particular magic to it...

[understandinc.com]
[understandinc.com]

Thanks so much! Where exactly do you pick the 10bit part? Do you ever get that warning saying cannot do this operation due to differing editing timebases? Do you drag the sequence from the browser to the new timeline, or copy and paste?

YOur movies do look great! What size are you using exactly (widthxheight)? Can you tell me every setting you have under video, filter, size, audio, and streaming? Also how large are the files that you showed as examples? Are they bigger than 10MB? It would be so cool if there was a chart of length of time, time of export, and resulting file size and quality. But I guess there are so many possible variables. Please let me know any details. Also do you use DReamweaver to publish your website? Thanks so much, Jennifer

thats a lot of questions jen! lets take them one by one:

1. right click on your sequence in the browser and pull down to "settings..." then in there you'll find 10bit uncompressed in the compressor pulldown menu in quicktime video settings box.

2. no i dont recall ever getting that warning

3. YES, once your HD edit is done and youve created your 10bt SD timeline, just drag the sequence from the browser into the SD timeline - its CAKE!

4. the web movies you saw were done so long ago ive forgotten the specifics but as i recall -
h.264 at medium/high quality on the slider. 29.97fps. 511x286. linear pcm 22k mono. prepare for internet streaming checked - fast start.

5. the singer file was 5megs and the astros clip was just under 11megs

6. YES i do use dreamweaver to build my website. - and if you'll notice im building it as we speak. - im adding/changing pages every few minutes tonight until i pass out...

6b. if by "publishing my website" you are referring specifically to the above two video clips then NO. those are simply uploaded to a "directory browsable" driectory [samples] on my ftp server - easy as pie!

My workflow for an HD DVD:
Simply CTL click the HD sequence in the browser & export to Compressor
Select a SD 16x9 preset
Compress using MPG-2 and AC3
Import assets into DVDSP
check 16x9 in DVSP
Build in Letterbox format

Quote
jenvery
Do you ever get that warning saying cannot do this operation due to differing editing timebases?

You'll get this message if you try to edit a 29.97fps sequence into a 24fps or vice versa.

ak
Sleeplings, AWAKE!

So how would you drop the HD sequence into an SD seq if one is at 23.98fps and one is 29.97 fps? Thanks! jen

How do you set up the ftp directory? It seems like I did something like that a long time ago to show a client photos. What programs do you need? That may work well for showing clients clips of my work. If you have time, let me know any details about it, step by step! Thanks Jen

Quote
jenvery
So how would you drop the HD sequence into an SD seq if one is at 23.98fps and one is 29.97 fps?

You don't. Or more correctly, I don't. If the SD sequence is for tape output you make a basic SD sequence setting of your choosing but you match up the frame rate to your HD sequence. You let FCP add the pulldown on output and you're done. If the SD sequence is for web or DVD or something like that do the same but don't bother adding pulldown frames in the render. Leave it at 23.976.
If you are making a QT to send elsewhere for output keep it at 23.976 and the end system will add the pulldown.

ak
Sleeplings, AWAKE!

1. right click on your sequence in the browser and pull down to "settings..." then in there you'll find 10bit uncompressed in the compressor pulldown menu in quicktime video settings box.

2. no i dont recall ever getting that warning

3. YES, once your HD edit is done and youve created your 10bt SD timeline, just drag the sequence from the browser into the SD timeline - its CAKE!

when I select the 10 bit above that it asks about field dominance should I put none, odd, or even?

what i did was create the directory (folder) with my ftp software; interarchy (but cyberduck, fetch, etc, will do as well) then contact my hosting company and have them set up that folder as "directory browsable"