Aspect ration problem

Q

Quackerback

Member
I've worked with MiniDV tape for years and just upgraded to a Panasonic HVX camera with a FireStore drive so I can do some HD work. I shot a couple of hours with the 720p setting on the HVX and the DVCPRO setting on the FireStore. In FCP, the bin says the files are 960 x 720 but if I set the sequence setting to 960 x 720, there are black bars on the top and bottom in the viewer. The only setting I can find for the sequence that looks right is with the frame size set to 1280 x 720 (HDTV 720p) and the Pixel Aspect Ratio set to NTSC - CCIR/DV (720x480). That truncates a little of the screen on the side which is fine. My problem is that I can not get this to export to QT without it completely changing the aspect ratio. I've tried 25 different settings and it always changes something. The exported QT files typically say they are DVCPRO HD 720p, 960 x 720 (1,248 x 702), which appears slightly wider than it should. What baffles me is that 960 x 720 is a ratio of 1.33 (4:3) whereas 1248 x 702 is 1.77 (16:9). So why does QT give the 2 different ratios for the same file? 16:9 appears to be the correct ratio in FCP (the image looks right). How do I get it to export so that it appears the same in QT as it does in FCP? Using the current setting when exporting does not do it.
 
OK, discovered that if I start a new sequence with a setting of 960 x 720 and put a fresh clip into it from the bin, it looks great and it exports to QT just fine. But if I try to copy a clip from my finished sequence, it distorts that clip significantly, stretching it much wider than it should be. If I try to set the settings on the finished sequence to the same settings on the finished sequence, it does the same thing. So why are all my clips on my finished sequence so messed up???? How do I restore them to their original format without recreating the whole sequence from scratch? This is 26 minutes long, taken out of 4 or 5 hours or more of original material so I really don't want to do it all over if I can help it!
 
I assume that rendering the sequence must change the aspect ratio, so if so, can you unrender it after it has been rendered several times?
 
when you set a different sequence, sometimes you have to close all open sequences, make a new sequence, leave it empty, quit, reopen the application and start a new sequence. and sometimes you'll have to trash your prefs.

as a quick solution to your current problem, as long as your not clipping the file, if it's just stretched, just export/save the file as a self contained movie as is, open the file in quicktime, under window properties select the video, change resolution to the correct resolution, and file->save or export to anything you want.

it's not the prettiest solution, but it's easy to explain and get's the job done.
 
Thanks Amr. I actually figured out a better solution. I discovered that "conform to sequence" essentially undoes the render (if the sequence is set correctly). The only downside was that I conducted do it to the whole sequence, I had to do it to every individual clip. But once I did that, they all were returned to their native size with the correct aspect ratio. So all is well once again and my hours of work have not been lost--other than the hours I spent trying to figure out what was wrong! At least I learned a few things in the process.
 
The thing you need to understand is that DVCPRO HD 720 footage is 960x720, but with a 1.333 pixel aspect ratio. That means that the pixels are wider than they are tall. 960 x 1.3333 = 1280. It's 16:9 footage.

You want to use a DVCPRO HD 720p sequence, which is optimized for this. You don't want 1248x702; that's not full resolution.
 
i think he already tried the preset, he thought he did something wrong when the export looked different than fcp. but sometimes fcp bugs out a little when you start a new sequence with other sequences open. it does not save the last setting sometimes or parts of the setting, unless you quit the program, and reopen, at least fcp 6 used to do that a lot. so when he exported, it looked at older settings.

and please don't repeat what dvcpro hd resolution and aspect ratio are for 3 pages.
 
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