• Sony Cameras

  FCP timeline settings: HDTV vs HD for XDCAM

  Posted by Kathleen Lingo on March 31, 2010 at 6:46 pm

  Hello-

  When I bring my EX1 HQ footage into FCP (either 720 or 1080@24p or 30p) and place it on a timeline it detects my footage as HDTV and not HD. The pixel aspect ratio is square and the field dominance is set to none- so this is a good sign that the footage is being recognized as progressive and not interlaced, right?

  What is the difference between HDTV and HD for the timeline settings?
  If I change the setting to HD is says everything needs to be rendered.

  My guess is that if I make my footage uncompressed HD (through Compressor) it would be recognized as HD by FCP, and the reason that it is being detected as HDTV is because the XDCAM codec is a compressed form of HD?

  Does this logic make any sense? Is there a problem with FCP?

  Thanks!

  Don Greening replied 16 years, 4 months ago 2 Members · 2 Replies
• 2 Replies

• 

  Kathleen Lingo

  March 31, 2010 at 7:31 pm

  To clarify-

  When the Quicktime video settings says the compression is XDCAM EX 1080p30 (35 Mb per s/VBR), the sequence setting is HDTV 1080i (16:9) with the pixel aspect ratio square and the field dominance set to none.

  When the Quicktime video settings says the compression is XDCAM EX 720p30 (35 Mb per s/VBR), the sequence setting is HDTV 720p (16:9) with the pixel aspect ratio square and the field dominance set to none.

  The Quicktime settings and the sequence settings seem to be contradictory, no??
• 

  Don Greening

  April 1, 2010 at 3:03 pm

  I’ve been doing a bit of research and as far as I can tell there’s nothing wrong with FCP as you suggest nor are you reading the sequence/QT settings incorrectly. I’m still waiting on some answers from other sources but essentially the HDTV 1080i sequence setting exists because the EX shoots square pixels in PSF format. You’ll notice that the HD formats are all anamorphic.

  I don’t have a clear idea of why the 720p setting isn’t listed in the same way. I’m under the impression that the EX shoots PSF in 720 as well but this might not be the case. Therein lies the ambiguity in the frame size aspect ratio confusion.

  In any case, in order to ensure that your sequence matches your clip settings is to just let FCP conform the timeline for you.

  – Don

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