Basic FCP Sequence Settings question for 1080 footage w/ 7D

[Shane Ross]

Why are you using HDV sequence settings? That’s wrong wrong wrong! HDV is a thin raster 1440×1080…and a GOP format to boot!! Why aren’t you cutting in your first clip into a new sequence, and when FCP asks “DO YOU WANT YOUR SEQUENCE SETTINGS TO MATCH YOUR CLIP SETTINGS’…why don’t you click YES? That will make a sequence with the EXACT settings of your clips. Meaning you put a clip on the timeline and have NO color bar above the footage…no need to render.

Don’t keep the full card structure…editing ProRes in HDV sequences… Man, not doing anything right, are ya? (ribbing there…)

Shane

GETTING ORGANIZED WITH FINAL CUT PRO DVD…don’t miss it.
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[Michael Sacci]

[Jordan Wilson] “Compressor: HDV1080p30 (Also tried ProRes)”
CHANGE that IMMEDIATELY!!!!!
Every time you render something you are compressing to HDV, that is bad, time consuming, wrong is every sense. Go back and stay with ProRes.

Can you post the QT player info of the video and a frame grab.

[Michael Gissing]

Firstly you should edit ProRes 422 in a matching sequence. HDV is not a good codec and it is also 1440 x 1080 native.

Change your Easy Setup to ProRes 422. Drop one clip into the timeline and see if it wants to change sequence settings. Say yes if it does. Check the sequence settings to make sure that it is 1920 x 1080 ProRes as expected. Also look at the clips from MpegStreamclip in the bin and look at the columns that show frame size and codec to make sure that you have in fact converted the 7D files to the correct codec and pixel aspect.

I suspect the problem is an incorrectly setup sequence or incorrect pixel aspect on the MpegStreamclip conversion. Check all those things first and also do a test export of the single clip yuou put in the ProRes sequence to see if it exports correctly.

[Jordan Wilson]

Thanks for the feedback (and ribbing). Need that to get better (and get my act together)

I did the whole drag a clip in and click yes before. Not sure why I didn’t do it this time.

So, now I’m faced with a problem because of my lack of preparing the sequence correctly.

I saved and closed my project. I opened a new project file and dragged one 1080p clip onto the timeline. FCP asked me if I wanted to convert settings. I said yes.

So now I have the proper settings on my new project. Great. BUT…. I can’t get my old project to take on the new settings. I tried in two ways.

First, I tried copy and pasting all of the files from my old project over to my new project (the one with the proper settings). When I do this, here’s what it looks like in final cut:

And obviously when I export, it looks like this:

So in my sequence settings, I have the correct settings, but apparently it’s carrying over some previous settings?

The second way I tried was to manually change the settings in my (incorrectly configured) project file. Once I manually enter the correct settings (the settings that pop up after FCP asks me if I want to change my settings), I get the same problem.

So no matter which way I change the settings, it brings up the small version of the video….

I tried from scratch, with unedited clips, and everything works fine. However, I just can’t copy-and-paste my old files from the incorrect project file. And I don’t want to start over from scratch and lose all my edits….

[Shane Ross]

Highlight all the footage you pasted…then right-click and choose REMOVE ATTRIBUTES. Then check BASIC MOTION.

Shane

GETTING ORGANIZED WITH FINAL CUT PRO DVD…don’t miss it.
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def

[Michael Gissing]

After removing the basic motion settings, if the picture is stretched in any way, also remove attributes>Distort.

[Jordan Wilson]

Sweet! Thanks Shane. I think this solved 90 percent of my re-importing issue.

When I did clicked “Basic Motion”, here’s what I got:

There’s still a tad of black pillar boxing above/below. So I tried also checking “Distort” Here’s what I got:

So I think this takes care of the whole black box issue, and now it’s in 1080 (I believe?)

The thing I’m wondering is in format it says 1920×1080 (1888×1062) Millions. Should that 1888×1062 read 1920×1080?

Thanks again.

[Michael Gissing]

Don’t worry about the quicktime inspector. It is 1920 x 1080.

[Shane Ross]

Ignore what QT says…no one understands why it does that. Know that what you have in FCP is right.

(Good call on Distort…I forgot about that)

Shane

GETTING ORGANIZED WITH FINAL CUT PRO DVD…don’t miss it.
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def

[Jordan Wilson]

Yup… basic motion+distort worked wonders and saved me hours.

Thanks so much for the help on this! Much appreciated.