DVCPro HD 1080i footage in FCP letterboxed

[Paul Escandon]

Can you post exactly what your sequence settings are so that we can see if the problem is there? Are you using the easy setups for DVCPRO HD 1080i?

* * *
Paul Escandon
Producer | Director | Editor
Apple Certified Trainer – Final Cut Pro
Oremus Productions
http://www.oremusproductions.com
– –
Adjunct Professor of Media
John Paul the Great Catholic University

[Kerry Bell]

Yes, Thank you Paul

#1. I have let the sequence set itself (as the new v does now) and it sets to 1280 x 1080 DVCPRO HD 1080i60 (which is what the footage is) AND I have set this manually before hand as well with the same results.

I have reset the sequence to another setting and it opens the letterbox look to something normal looking in 16:9 but then it wants to be rendered and plus I can not real time view the raw footage.

I have been trying many different configurations but each new setting requires rendering.

[Paul Escandon]

Okay – your sequence settings sound right…

What is the frame size that Final Cut is showing in the browser for the HVX200 clips in question? Does it match exactly that same frame size that the sequence setting was set to?

* * *
Paul Escandon
Producer | Director | Editor
Apple Certified Trainer – Final Cut Pro
Oremus Productions
http://www.oremusproductions.com
– –
Adjunct Professor of Media
John Paul the Great Catholic University

[Kerry Bell]

Yes
Frame Size 1280 x 1080 is exactly the same as clips

[Paul Escandon]

So are you positive that there is no letterboxing that was somehow baked into the frame on acquisition? I don’t know enough about that camera specifically to know if that’s even possible when shooting HD.

Final Cut should not automatically adjust parameters of the clip if the sequence matches the settings of the clip (or in the case where it auto conforms the timeline when you place the first clip in it).

Double click the clip on the timeline that has the letterboxing problem and check the motion tab. Has final cut adjusted the scale of the clip (something other than 100) or the distort or crop parameters at all? Let me know what you see there.

* * *
Paul Escandon
Producer | Director | Editor
Apple Certified Trainer – Final Cut Pro
Oremus Productions
http://www.oremusproductions.com
– –
Adjunct Professor of Media
John Paul the Great Catholic University

[Kerry Bell]

The HVX200 when in HD mode is native widescreen. You do not have options to letterbox.

I guess I was taking about … my everyday settings deals with SD footage. So when I go to drop the HD footage, FCP asks “For best performance your sequence and External Video should be set to the formate of the clip you are editing. Change sequence settigs to match the clip settings?” I click “Yes” and it conforms to the footage.

OK I did check the Motion settings right off. No Crop, Distort or or any settings out of the ordinary.

HOWEVER, now here is an interesting development..
I drop the footage in the timeline and choose not to conform to the clip settings. Now in 720 x 480 frame size, I can now go into Motion tab; Distort, Aspect ratio and it will allow me to open the aspect ratio to fill the 16:9 screen. Though I have some pixel issues. At least when in the 1280 x 1080 setting I could not do that.

[Paul Escandon]

So..

When you drop the file in the native 1080i timeline, does it want to render the clip? It should play with no rendering necessary right? Is the render bar gray? Or is it something else like a light green?

Also, can you get the image to fill the frame with tweaking the aspect ratio slider? Or is it not possible to get it to cleanly fill the frame? Also, you did say the scale is 100% right?

This is a weird issue and I’m not sure exactly what’s going on here.

* * *
Paul Escandon
Producer | Director | Editor
Apple Certified Trainer – Final Cut Pro
Oremus Productions
http://www.oremusproductions.com
– –
Adjunct Professor of Media
John Paul the Great Catholic University

[Mark Maness]

From reading the posts, it seems to me that you are importing this footage into an SD project, letting FCP change your new sequence to DVCProHD 1080i60, right?

If so, this will cause your letterboxing issue. SD video by its truest sense is 4×3 video. You have to set the video to anamorphic before you can get 16×9 SD video. This sounds like where your video has gone wrong.

Look in your bin window and scroll the window to the right until you see the anamorphic column, is it checked? If so, uncheck it.

Am I on the right track? The earlier posts are somewhat confusing.

_______________________________

Wayne Carey
Schazam Productions
http://www.schazamproductions.com
https://blogs.creativecow.net/waynecarey

[Kerry Bell]

Right. to start off it plays fine with a gray bar above. Of course it’s lettrboxed though.

Sorry, yes Scale is 100%

When set to it’s native 1280×1080 the image will not conform to 16:9 at all. No way no how. Either with Aspect ratio filter or Crop.

Now when I drop it in a equence set at 720 x 480. I can see the Scale is set to 87% but when I re-set that to 100% and render it looks like crap. SO I leave the Scale alone and adjust the aspect ratio filter which lifts the top and bottom to screen edge and render that and it then looks better, OK not real great but since most of the footage of this project is in SD, I think I can live with it if I have to.

By The Way I just found this article:
https://lumieremedia.com/dvcprohdbug/Lumiere_DVCPROHD_BUG.pdf

[Kerry Bell]

On the issue of anamorphic. I have made sure that the HD was not also checked anamorphic. And I made sure I do not have anything in the sequence prior to dropping the HD footage.

That is a good point and can be confusing when workig with 16:9 SD and real HD. I thought I might have got something of those setting mixed up at first.