Squashed Image

Chris Messineo

Chris Messineo

Veteran
I shot using 24PA and recently bought a G5 and FCP HD to do my editing.

I captured all the footage into the computer using 2:3:3:2 pulldown and it looks great in FCP.

However, when I do an export to QuickTime the image is squashed from top to bottom.

Any thoughts, what could be causing this?

Thanks,

Chris
 
Re: Squashed Image

I apologize for the newbieness (is that a word) of this reply, but what export settings?

I am just going to File - Export - Quick Time Movie, I don't see any options for export settings. Also this is a new install of FCP and I haven't changed any defaults in the system (except to choose 2332 pulldown as my default).

Thanks,

Chris
 
Squashed

Squashed

I did a little more research (I am still confused) but I found some settings.

If I look under Sequence - Settings. My current frame size is 720 x 480 with an Aspect Ratio of NTSC DV (3:2) and everything looks perfect in Final Cut Pro.

On the same screen under Quick Time Video Settings the compressor is set for DV/DVCPRO - NTSC and when I save my sequence as a quicktime it gets that squashed look.

I did a search on the word "squashed" and it mentioned something about rectangular and square pixels (it was very confusing).

Any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks,

Chris
 
Re: Squashed Image

Quicktime playback makes video look "squashed" because the pixel aspect ratio is assumed to be square by Quicktime. FCP uses the correct pixel aspect, and if you encode your Quicktime file and make a DVD, it'll be fine, too. It's only Squashed in the QuickTime player...

-Barry
 
Re: Squashed Image

But, I've watched lots of movies on the internet in quicktime and I've never seen any others squashed. Why just mine?

Is there a way that I can watch them not squashed?

Thanks,

Chris
 
Re: Squashed Image

Instead of exporting a quicktime movie, try exporting using quicktime convertion (a little lower on the same tab). It will give you some encoding options to try and it will save a movie proper for computer viewing. It's kinda lame but the export quicktime movie command is for files that will be used inside FCP... Not cleverly named...
 
Re: Squashed Image

How squashed does it look?  Can you post a frame grab or a short segment of the video?  The variance between the different pixel aspect ratios shouldn't be really all that noticeable in general (but can show itself more depending on the content)
 
Re: Squashed Image

Thanks for the advice, I will try the quicktime conversion option.

As for the frame grabs, I would love to post them, but am embarrassed to admit, I still haven't figured out how to do frame grabs from inside Final Cut Pro.

Any advice on how to do a frame grab?

Thanks,

Chris
 
Re: Squashed Image

Make sure your movie is 740 x 360 if it is 16:9 durning export - that may unsquash it.
 
Re: Squashed Image

Also, the reason why you've seen quicktime movies that aren't squished is because they were created with a square pixel aspect ratio, but the SCREEN aspect ratio was widescreen/4:3/whatever the ratio was. So while your footage is inherrently 720x480, to make a quicktime for the web, in order to preserve quality, you'd make one at 720x360, or whatever would produce a widescreen ratio with square pixels.
It's normally good though, to use full resolution, regardless of if it's squished or not, untill the final process (making the actual file for the web) because you then always have the highest possible quality, and can make dubs at whatever resolution is needed.
 
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