Render free export of 16:9 cropped to 4:3?

Working in FCP 6.0.1
My sequence is at HD XDCAM 24pVBR just like my media. I am delivering to multiple broadcasters one of which is going to recieve the show in 4:3 SD. The show is shot 4:3 safe and both broadcasters want the rough and fine cuts delivered in 4:3. I am delivering them digitally over FTP sites for this process. I simply want to be able to take my sequence side crop it to 4:3 and export via compressor.

Currently I have to make a non HD 4:3 sequence and zoom it from letterbox to fill the screen. This then renders for almost 8 hours. I do not have time in the schedule for a day of rendering. In the future I am going to output to tape side cropping with the Kona Card during an SD donwconvert then redig the tape and compress that media for posting to the FTP site.

There has got to be a way for FCP to be able to export my sequence with minimal render time. Anyone have any suggestions?

You can try nesting your entire video sequence, throw it onto a timeline, and crop that nest to a 16:9 size. Cropping in the motion tab (without keyframes), will usually result in a full quality rt render bar (dark green).

Hmm... what other effects do you have on the clip? Actually, a widescreen filter also produces a full quality rt bar. Are you downconverting it in Final Cut? I did downconverting on a commercial that had a fairly high render time ratio, but that was also partly due to the fact that i had some vignette filters and what nots on it (but conversion will still massively increase your render time).

How do I make a 4:3 timeline at the HD resolution? I don't care about the downconvert in FCP I'm compressing it to an mp4. And if I can keep the sequence at the same rez as the media I should save my self the 8 hours it took to downconvert it last time. It is an hour long sequence.

There are random effects throughout the timeline, dissolves, dip to color, occasional color effect. I do want to nest the sequence and apply the Time Code Generator to it before I export to compressor.

Thanks for helping.

the trick is to get your show out of FCP as quickly and easily as possible,
THEN do the grunt effects work in compressor, or other.

so export as a QuickTime Movie, same settings.
self contained will take a bit longer and use more media as it's creating new media.
NON-self contained is very fast, BUT dependant on the media on your drives, including render files
it may not open a week from now.

you may evevn find that bring that file back into FCP and cropping, or adding BITC is faster than what you;re doing now, or nesting.
but if you do it all in compressor, (yes, there is a Timecode filter in Compressor!) then that can tick over in the background, while you keep working in FCP.

i havent worked with IMX, so dont know it.
maybe the playout to tape and re-capture is the best approach??


nick

I'll do a test with this right now. I should be able to not have it self contained if I'm just going to put it through compressor, the compressed file should be self contained, right?

The TC option in compressor won't match my sequence timecode, but reimporting it might work. Although I've been having trouble bringing in exported QT's back into FCP and having them play in the timeline. Even when exporting current settings and then letting fcp 6 make the sequence match the media. Render, render, render.

I haven't found a way to crop in compressor, make letterbox or anamorphic yes.

I'll post my results in a few minutes.

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I should be able to not have it self contained if I'm just going to put it through compressor, the compressed file should be self contained, right?

right

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The TC option in compressor won't match my sequence timecode

it should

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I haven't found a way to crop in compressor, make letterbox or anamorphic yes.

hmmm.. maybe it cant be done?
i'd like to think there was a way.

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Although I've been having trouble bringing in exported QT's back into FCP and having them play in the timeline. Even when exporting current settings and then letting fcp 6 make the sequence match the media. Render, render, render

.

that's weird.
there was an issue with DVCProHD sequnces being exported with the incorrect frame size or pixel aspect that meant re-imported files needed rendering.
think that was fixed in 6.02
haven't heard of XDCAM issues, but i don't use it.


nick

I just went through compressor. Today the TC is working fine, but it worked fine until a couple of days ago when it was just making up TC. I can't find away to have full control of the media size, I can make it 16:9, or letterboxed in 4:3, or anamorphic in 4:3 or completely squished by being overly letterboxed, or overly anamorphic.

I feel that there has to be a way to do it. It would be the same as if I needed to make a PAN and Scan version of this. Except I don't have to keyframe to move around, I am content with whatever is centered.

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I can make it 16:9, or letterboxed in 4:3, or anamorphic in 4:3 or completely squished by being overly letterboxed, or overly anamorphic.

if the file is natively 16/9, you can go to the geometry tab in the inspector, and choose 4/3.
that'll do a straight "centre cut"

if the file is natively 4/3 but needs an anamorphic stretch to make it 16/9,
open it in QT,
open Movie Properties (Apple J)
go to video track (top half or window) visual settings (bottom half of window)
un-check "preserve aspect" and give the file a new width.
save it,
THEN take it into compressor and do the crop trick.

it's still up for grabs if this will be quicker than a centre cut on play-out through the kona card.



nick

I just went through compressor and had no problem finding the cropping controls. When you apply a codec, you can make adjustments in the inspector. Go to the 2nd button from the right at the top of the inspector to find the geometry controls. Adjust the source inset controls to crop the image. You can also do this in the viewer by adjusting the red bounding box.

With regards to your long render time, I had a thought. I wonder if your SD sequence settings might the cause of the long render times. FCP works natively with the IMX codecs (both SD and HD) but IMX is a long GOP compression. It might be taking so long to convert a long GOP codec into one that is not. But perhaps if you went from XDCam HD to XDCam SD which is also long GOP then in might not take as long to render. Worth a test perhaps?

Andy

I can shrink the image in the geometry controls I can't expand it. I need to either stretch the anamorphic wide. Or zoom in on the letterbox. As far as I can tell by moving the box selecting preset options or manually typing in numbers I can only make the image smaller I cannot zoom in or squeeze out. I've feel like I've tried every possible combination of settings can you tell me exactly what settings your using for Source inset, Dimensions, and Output image?

My footage is native 16:9 but compressor brings it in preview as anamorphic. I don't know why the quicktime movie itself opens as 16:9.

I'll try that the xdcam SD is IMX 50 so I'll give that a try soon.

Using the IMX SD settings definitely saved render time. I'm able to export from XDcam as a quicktime and import it back into an IMX 50mb SD sequence and resize it and add TC without having to render. Its not as timeless as it should be but it cuts my time by like 75%. Thanks.

I think I know what your problem is. The footage is coming into compressor at 16:9, but the preview window is previewing at 4:3. At the top of the window there's a drop down box in the center. Choose "correct for aspect ratio" and then your native 16:9 footage will display correctly. Then use the cropping controls as previously mentioned to make your 4:3 crop.

Andy