small resolution query

Greetings,

My brother works at a law firm and I'm doing some freelance for him: editing video of depositions.

He's sent me some files that are 320x240 size. They ahve some sort of PC Box that takes DV tapes and converts to MPG-1. They are mpg, so I've already converted with MPEG STREAMCLIP to a suitable format. Using FCS 5

Each sequence will have a split screen: One track is the person talking and the other is a video of documents projected on a screen.

So, again, I converted to a DV/mov format, and put in browser. In the viewer the fils show as being small (320x240), but when I drop into timeline and view in canvas, it seems the files are being shown as 720 size -- I'm only seeing one corner of the image.

If I SCRUB through timeline, the images are fine (320); it's ONLY when I PLAY them that they are blown up. I assume I have a setting that I need to change. Any ideas?

I notice that the viewer is set to "Show as square pixels" is that the cause? I don't think these are anamorphic. If I open with QT, they are still 320x240 size. In motion tab, both tracks are at 100 (and what I see is the small size).

I converted using the DVCpro (NTSC) setting in Streamclip. Is this the culprit? I found a doc on the net that suggested this instead of the simple DV setting.

I guess a "catch-all" question would be: WHat setting do you all use in Streamclip when converting for FCP?

[edit: I should add that I am aware that, since they began as 320x240 mpg clips - the quality will be for crap. I am told that this is not important. The documenting of teh event itself is the point.]

Thanks in advance,

BM

Any second you're going to tell us what your goal is.

What's your goal?

Koz

Hi,
Sorry for the delay, I was on the road for a couple days (school admissions).

My goal is to edit the clips together.
The clips are - 7 clips of person being deposed.
an 7 clips of caamera pointed at projection screen.

All I need to do is line up when a document is mentioned with the video of the document. It's very easy.

So I have Person clip 1 and Doc clip 1 on V1 and V2, respectively. They each show up in the viewer as 320x240 size. So I just change the screen alignment so that they are both on screen in the canvas.

My question is- When I play in the timeline I see a 320x240 size box but in that box is the CORNER of the video playing. It is as though the clips are 720x480 clips and I have cropped to 320x240 size.

In the OS Finder and QT Movie Info the clips are shown as 320 size. So somthing is telling FCP that the clips are 320x240, but when it plays them (ONLY IN THE TIMELINE) they are displayed as blown up and cropped. And I can't figure out why.

Thanks for your help