sequence settings between cameras

A client who i shot a promo film for on my Sony pal PDX10 dvcam camera a year or so ago want to add some interviews etc to update the film. I have since sold the camera and now own a Canon XHA1 HDV cam. They are quite happy to have the new footage shot in pal dv or hdv so i brought a couple of clips in both formats into the sequence to check they'd match up before i go off to shoot next week.
There seem to be compatibility problems.
The stuff shot on the pdx10 has black letterboxing above and below the image and the sequence settings does NOT have the anamorphic 16:9 checkbox checked. Otherwise its a nice widescreen picture. When i check the box it becomes squashed and useless.

I shot some pal dv stuff on my Canon in the summer so put a clip in the timeline with the pdx10 shots. The clip is in 4'3 with no black letterboxing. I go back to the Canon's DV timeline sequence settings and notice that the 16"9 box is checked.

Finally i try bringing in an HDV clip from the Canon which doesn't look so bad in the pdx10 timeline but some of the information is missing round the edges. I check the settings from the hdv timeline and see the anamorphic box is not checked.

So when i go off to shoot this thing next week do i shoot in DV mode or HDV mode, and which sequence settings will insure all the footage looks the same?

Thanks for your time.

Dom

Let's start with what version of the software are you using? Is the DV material anamorphic or not? You seem to have a mix of 4:3 and anamorphic is that correct? What format is most of your material? Will it be DV 4:3, DV anamorphic, or HD? All HD is widescreen, non-anamorphic, though some do weird pixel aspect things.

Thanks Tom,
OK, i'm on the latest version 6. I always shoot everything in 16"9 though i recall that the pdx10 didn't shoot "true" 16;9. I'll be shooting the new footage in DV 16:9 but presently the stuff from the two cameras looks different. I never shoot in 4'3 but at the moment the clips from the Canon (shot in DV 16"9 mode) is showing up as 4:3 in the timeline.

So is most of your footage going to be DV? Go to Easy Setup and pick DV Anamorphic. Make a new sequence. Open it. It should show a widescreen canvas. Check the item properties for your clips. Make sue the anamorphic flag is checked on for them. Edit them into the timeline. They should behave correctly.

Ok Tom, i started a new project and chose the DV anamorphic easy setup. put the clips in and the opposite has happened. The clip shot from the Canon (in dv 16:9 mode) now looks fine but the clip from the PDX10 (dv 16"9) now looks squashed, so i'm back where i started i'm afraid.

Did you check the item properties for the clips? How is the anamorphic check set, on or off?

Yes i did check that.
the dv cam clip has a tick in the anamorphic column and is squashed. the other 2 clips from the Canon ( 1 HDV the other DV 16"90 look fine and do not have checks in the column.

Make a new DV sequence. Go to sequence settings and make sure the anamorphic is unchecked. Take the PDX10 material and uncheck the flag on one of the clips. make sure you do this on the browser clip. Never copy and paste from one sequence to another unless you know what you're doing. Edit the unchecked clip into the non-anamorphic sequence. Does it fit correctly? If it does the material was not shot anamorphic.

Did that Tom. with the clips flag unchecked in an unchecked sequence setting its showing as four three. which seems to suggest its anamorphic.

"Never copy and paste from one sequence to another unless you know what you're doing."

that's what i've been doing wrong.
Also, I was not changing the clip properties in the Browser either which was confusing me. I've now got the two dv clips (flags checked in the browser) sitting side by side from the canon and the sony and they look great. the dv sequence is unchecked.
Tom yr a star. Many thanks for helping me out here tonight. Much appreciated.
Dom

16:9 Full height anamorphic should look squashed..the frame should fill the enitire Canvas/viewer window in FCP. That is normal with DV 720/576.

yeah i know Phil, but there's squashed and there's flattened to the point where all you see is a sliver of video. that's what i was getting when i said it was squashed. I should have said double squashed.
I think after Tom's help last night i've got my head round where i was going wrong, and it all looks fine now.

Dom,
Your problem stems from the fact that the PDX10 is a 4:3 camera. When you shoot widescreen on that camera, it crops off the top and bottom so what you have to do is capture those clips as 4:3 (that's what they are), stick them in your anamorphic timeline and scale them up to the proper size.

Slight correction:

Although the PDX10's CCD has a 4:3 aspect ratio, the video window can be resized from a 4:3 window to a 16:9 window. This window generates an anamorphic image with full vertical resolution. Moreover, the angle-of-view becomes appropriately wider. The viewfinder and LCD correctly show a letterboxed image.

DSR-PDX10 review

This would still lead me to believe you have to capture the clips as 4:3 and resize them. But it does not, apparently, do widescreen the way a DVX100 does it.

Tim,
I was aware the sony was not "true" sixteen nine, however it had an option to shoot in either mode and i used it quite happily like that for the 2 years i owned it. More importantly since Tom helped me out with the sequence/clip settings fiasco last night, the DV 16;9 footage from both cams looks perfectly nice. This is a low end job and recapturing is out of the question. The client was very happy with the stuff from the earlier sony shoot and my only concern is that the new stuff from the canon will not look out of place. As far as i can see it looks good.

Love those evil geniuses at Sony.