Format problem

Mac OS 10.5.80
FCP 5.1.4

I have not encountered this problem in the past.

Captured HDV footage to NTSC Anamorphic and edit same. Looks fine in all respects on playback.

Made a Quicktime movie self contained for authoring a DVD, however, the format is 4:3 and not 1920:1080 or 1440:1080.

I have authored many DVD's using this method in the past only in the proper widescreen format.

What am I overlooking?

Thanks for your assist.

Well, why would you get 1920x1080 or 1440x1080? You captured at NTSC anamorphic. That's 720x480.


www.derekmok.com

This makes no sense. If you downconvert to NTSC why would it be HD? What are you using to author? Does it support anamorphic SD media?

All the best,

Tom

I've done this a least 50 times. Downloaded HDV to NTSC Anamorphic so that I have a widescreen format. Whatever the screen ratio it still should be widescreen and not 4:3.

I use DVD Pro for all of my DVD authoring.

Prior to this experience my Quicktime self contained movie was in widescreen and not 4:3.

Can't figure what I've done wrong when I was successful all of the other times.

Thanks

> Whatever the screen ratio it still should be widescreen and not 4:3.

You confused "aspect ratio" and "frame size".

Anamorphic 16:9 SD is 720x480, intended to be viewed at 854x480 or 720x405. You wanted "widescreen", not "1920x1080" or "1440x1080". You should have said "16:9", which is an aspect ratio. 720x405 is 16:9. 854x480 is 16:9. 960x540 is 16:9. Hell, 160x90 is 16:9.

Try to be more precise and exacting with your terminology. For example, there's no such software called "DVD Pro". You probably meant "DVD Studio Pro". And you don't "download" footage unless you were acquiring a file through the internet. You were either "capturing" from HDV tape, or you were "ingesting" (Log and Transfer) tapeless HDV files. You don't "download" from tape or drives.

If your DVD is not playing at 16:9, check your settings in the Inspector and make sure everything is set to "16:9 letterbox".

You lost a lot of quality by capturing HD as SD, though.


www.derekmok.com

So noted and appreciated, however, the problem still persists.

You take your video to Compressor and you make an anamorphic MPEG-2 file and take that to DVDSP and put it in a 16:9 project.

All the best,

Tom

Not sure whether he actually goes through Compressor, but I have noticed sometimes that a widescreen HD movie file (1920x1080 or 1280x720) sometimes doesn't get recognized as anamorphic right away by DVD Studio Pro, but a Compressor-generated MPEG-2 made using that same file as source doesn't have this problem.

So I'd say, do it Tom's way. But if it doesn't work, we're gonna need more than "the problem persists" to help you. What exactly is happening? When you use the Simulator in DVD Studio Pro, do you see a wide frame or an anamorphic frame? Did you set the DVD Studio Pro settings properly? There are multiple places (menus, tracks etc.) where you need to set that 16:9 Letterbox setting, plus your source files need to have that flag as well.


www.derekmok.com

The FCP timeline is in the 'DV NTSC 48KHZ Anamorphic' ratio. I want to record a QT Movie Self-Contained with this same screen ratio, however, instead of it being in the widescreen format it is in the 4:3 ratio.

In the past I have used this method successfully dozens of times but today for some unknown reason the QT self-contained movie is rendered in the 4:3 format. This is before I even temp to get it to DVD Studio Pro.

????

> I want to record a QT Movie Self-Contained with this same screen ratio

Record? You mean export.

Is your Sequence Setting set to anamorphic? Go into Sequence Settings (APPLE-0) and check. Don't rely on your Sequence Presets for this information. Sequence Settings are unique to every Sequence and don't always match your presets.


www.derekmok.com

The exported QuickTime is it anamorphic? Does it looked squeezed so it's tall in thin? If not what do you see?

All the best,

Tom

In the past it has been anamorphic which is exactly what I need. Now for whatever reason it is squeezed and in the 4:3 size.

I am supposed to deliver this project on Monday.

Squeezed in 4:3 is anamorphic. That's what anamorphic means. I don't know what you have been doing previously, but what you're seeing is correct. The display may depend on the QT version you're using. What matters is what the file actually is. Go to the movie inspector and see what it says. The file sounds correct.

All the best,

Tom

Tom,

Thanks for your assistance this morning. I have attempted to locate 'movie inspector' but I am not familiar with this procedure.

Where can I find it?

Thanks

PG Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Tom,
>
> Thanks for your assistance this morning. I have
> attempted to locate 'movie inspector' but I am
> not familiar with this procedure.
>
> Where can I find it?
>
> Thanks


There's this thing called "Google" that all the kids are excited about:

[www.woopid.com]

FCP 7.0.3, PPro CS5.5, MPro Octo 2.8, 16 gigs RAM, Matrox MXO2, Sony EX1

Cmd-I in the QuickTime player.

All the best,

Tom

Still struggling.

Derek said to check Sequence Settings by using Apple 0, really? My keyboard doesn't have an Apple key. Did he mean Command-0?

Command I does not provide a response to anything.

> Derek said to check Sequence Settings by using Apple 0, really? My keyboard doesn't
> have an Apple key. Did he mean Command-0?

"APPLE-" is the same as "COMMAND-".

> Command I does not provide a response to anything.

In QuickTime Player, even non-Pro versions, you press COMMAND-I (Movie Inspector) on an open movie file to get an overview of its properties. COMMAND-J (Movie Properties) shows even more in-depth information. You're not pressing "CONTROL" by mistake, are you? Either that or your QuickTime Inspector window is offscreen, somehow.

But as Tom said, chances are there's nothing wrong with your movie file at all. The very definition of "anamorphic" means squeezed. It's meant to be distorted when in 720x480 (3:2 DV) so that it can be "unsqueezed" by a 16:9 device such as a DVD player or a broadcast monitor.

[www.lafcpug.org]

It means you have the exact same media as you used to (unless you used to do it wrong but thought it wasn't), but only now have you noticed how it's supposed to behave. Anamorphic is a way to store a wider 16:9 frame using media that records in a different frame size.

And if for some reason you didn't "flag" your anamorphic footage as such, it's as simple as a button press in FCP.

I think you should just take screen captures of your Sequence Settings, QuickTime Player Movie Inspector, and DVD Studio Pro settings. We're going around in circles, but there's a very high likelihood that there's nothing wrong with your media at all, and you're just missing one project setting somewhere.

When you're done with this, you should get help from an FCP instructor. Your workflow was kind of problematic to begin with, by capturing HDV (not the best footage to begin with) using DV NTSC. Not only did you lose the resolution of the larger pixel count of HDV, but you captured with one of the worst SD codecs for onlining you could have picked.


www.derekmok.com

Derek,

First I want to thank you for your detailed information regarding the problems that I am having with FCP etc. I greatly appreciate your expertise.

I have found a so called work-around to the problem. Since the tracksheet played properly in the widescreen format I bumped it over to a videotape composite, then recaptured it onto a different timeline and then exported it as a QT self contained movie. Using this process saved the day as now I can deliver the authored DVD tomorrow.

It is my assumption that the video scenes on the timeline in question are all corrupted. I can add another scene to this same timeline and it will export correctly to QT. The problem might be having installed a demo version of Twixtor yesterday. I purged it from my system and did a re-start but that didn't correct the corrupted scenes.

Once I get this project ready for delivery I will study your detailed information. Its always good to learn to do something the correct way. I was in the Network Broadcast business for most of my adult life as a news/documentary cameraman but not much editing. Now I am learning a great deal more about editing thanks to Cafe LA and guys like you.

Thanks again and as Tom would say: "All the best."

PG

im sure this has been said already, but...

ANAMORPHIC means the 16/9 image is squeezed into a 4/3 frame,
it gets stretched back out to 16/9 when it is played back correctly.

the DVD PLAYER WILL DO THIS regardless of what the QT file looks like, as long as the DVD is made correctly.

you just have to set 16/9 as the display option in DVDSP.

if you are using iMovie, you do need to tweak the QT file.

open in QT (not QTX)
Command J to open the Properties window,

Select Video track (in the column, near the top)
open "Visual Settings" (from the row of buttons towards the bottom)
un-check "preserve aspect ratio"
change the figures. (i don't know what they are in NTSC)


again, this is simply changing the way the clip is DISPLAYED,
but now iMovie knows it is supposed to be displayed as 16/9.


hope that helps,
nick

Thanks Nick. It helps a great deal. Between you and Derek I've learned a lot today.

Thanks again.