Different Formats --> One Sequence

Shot some footage on a JVC HDV unit, some footage on a DVCPRO HD CAM, and some on regular Mini-DV. How do I move all formats onto one sequence so I can edit a montage together?

which version of FCP are you using?

Just choose an output format, make that your sequence setting and then drop all the other stuff onto that. Depending on your FCP version, you'll probably have to render all the vision that is not the same as the timeline format. You might also have to deal with aspect differences, if anything is not 16:9, or you choose to cut in a 4:3 sequence.

I changed my ingest formats to more closely match each other. Not sure what your options are but I was getting footage from three sources. IMX50 (wrapped in a Quicktime) on file transfer, I couldn't change this, so i decided to ingest from tape in IMX50 (my second footage component.) My third component was files I was getting via ftp. They were sending me H264 but were able to change that to DVCPRO. All of these formats can live on a timeline together and do not require rendering or re-compression.

Just a thought.

Jude,
I'm kind of a beginner, what do you mean change the output format? can you walk me thorugh it? Basically all my footage has been uploaded already (over the years, with different cameras used to shoot things) and i have all this footage in different projects, some of which i want to upload into one sequence.
dan
i am using FCP HD 4.5

basicly what you have to do is choose a format in which you will work with.

The general concesus is this:

Work in your lowest quality format to compesate for quality

There by you want to work in a dv sequence, and drop your other clips in there. Other wise you will be scaling up to hdv, or trying to make dv look like dvcpro

ok, so do i just open up a dv sequence and when i drop my higher formats in, will they automatcally adjust to the format? or do i have to change some settings.
dan

Be very careful about FCP 6's "open timeline." It's a great preview capability but, as I discovered, you risk frame / timing accuracy if you don't render.

We were mixing AJA 422 uncompressed 8-bit with DV50 footage in a three-screen museum project; all screens were required to be in strict synch. We discovered timing would float by a few frames between tracks and we couldn't rely on it. Rendering solved the problem.

That's today's FCP "open timeline" as I know it.

- Loren
Today's FCP keytip:
Set Video In & Out separate from Audio with Control I & O !

Final Cut Studio 2 KeyGuide? Power Pack.
Now available at KeyGuide Central.
www.neotrondesign.com

I have FCP 4.5 and am unfamiliar with the open timeline. How do i set that?

That's pretty much all you have to do, Dan, unless some of your footage is widescreen and some not.

As for choosing what kind of codec to make your timeline, that depends on what you want to end up with. If you needed to end up with a HD Cam output, then you would cut in HD Cam and make everything else conform to that. If you're just doing home movies and want to end up by printing back to a mini dv tape, then you'd work in dv.

Although, I can't remember if FCP 4.5 could manage HDV correctly... Someone else will chime in here if required, I'm sure.

You don't have an open timeline in 4.5. Only in V 6.0

FCP4.5 can't do HDV, period. The only HD format it could handle was DVCPro HD.


www.derekmok.com

So, given that, you'll probably need to use something like HDVxDV to convert the HDV into something 4.5 can recognise, or upgrade FCP.

My HDV footge has been downed to basic DV so my question remains. Is it as easy as importing all clips from the different formats into one DV sequence? what about ratios?