Screwed up aspect ratio

mainstreetprod

mainstreetprod

Veteran
I have been dealing with this for some time now - somehow my FCP settings
are causing a project that should be 16x9 HD (1280 by 720) to render out
elongated, with black bars at top and bottom. The window itself is the correct size.
If I'm just dealing with rendering out a clip, it's easy enough to take the clip to
another project that hasn't been affected and render it there. This time I have made a long video and can't do that. No amount of trying to adjust the size in the viewer window helps. THe project settings (in easy setup) are all correct.
Any idea what has happened and how to correct it?
 
Can you post some stills of your desktop with the problem in FCP- shift apple 3.

Noah
 
Here it is. Changing the size with the wireframe has no effect. I can change the
project settings to DV 16:9 and get an image that is about the right aspect ratio-
but nowhere close to HD quality. Using HD settings gives me this "long" picture.

1178247441.jpg
 
Last edited:
Cool- it doesn't look like the sequence settings match the clips. What did you shoot, what did you capture and what is your sequence set for?

Noah
 
I shot 720p HD with an HVX in normal widescreen ratio. I've never tampered with sequence settings until today and have had this problem for weeks in
certain projects. I am using the DVCPRO HD 720 easy setup settings for the project. It is possible that when I started this project, the easy setup settings were on DV. No amount of fooling with sequence settings seems to give me the right ratio, with the exception of DV. But then I get lousy quality. Thanks for your time in looking at this!
 
Try starting a new project with the 720p easy setups, then bring in the media from your hard drive. It should work fine.

Noah
 
The above screenshot is from a former project which exports at proper aspect ratio. Notice the blue line going down the right side of the viewer window - that is invariably there when all is right with the world and export will be correct. What does the blue line mean?
Also, I would like to avoid redoing the whole project if possible. Is there any way to copy and paste my sequence from the first project to the timeline seen above? Or will the sequence retain its incorrect aspect ratio when I bring it over?
 
Sure you can try it. (The blue thing indicates the first frame of a timeline BTW.). You can also hit the reset button in the aspect ratio and distortion tabs of the first clip and then do a cut and paste attributes to all of the others.

Noah
 
Thanks for the advice. I was able to get a decent looking export by opening another project that exports correctly and dragging and dropping this sequence into it, then expanding the wireframe in the viewer window to full size. For some reason that did not work in the original project. When I can
get this one nagging problem licked, I will really be able to accomplish a lot
with FCP. Maybe a DVD tutorial is in order.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top