Exported video looks squished

[Russell Lasson]

What footage are you using? Is it HD footage or SD? Also, how will you play it to the wide screen TV? SD DVD, Blu-ray, or a HD file based server (like an AppleTV or something)?

-Russ

Russell Lasson
Colorist/Digital Cinema Specialist
Universal Post
Salt Lake City, UT

[Todd Reid]

Åre you using the proper pixel ratio?

I just checked a project of mine, and my 720p sequence is using square pixels.

Try changing that, or better yet,
use an “easy setup” that most closely matches your footage.
I use the 720 prores set up.

if you do this, it won’t change any existing sequences, so create a new sequence, and copy/paste into it.

Todd Reid
Senior Editor
Digitized Media, Inc.

[Robert Boyhan]

I’m just using SD footage, but the majority of the movie is pictures that I took with my DSLR (Nikon D60). Those images are jpgs, at 2048 x 1536. I thought I would just be able to set up the sequence in a widescreen setting and then crop whatever images I’m using to fit on the viewable canvas. I don’t mind if the video clips have black around them. I also created some titles and map animations in iMovie and then just exported those as HD (1280×720) to use as clips in FCP. I just really like that map feature in the new iMovie;)

I’ll be putting them on a SD DVD, but I haven’t even got that far. Whenever I export a piece of what I’m editing, to test, it comes out looking squished (fat). But in the canvas in FCP, before export, everything looks fine. I usually test with two images… one is the globe animation I exported from iMovie, and the other is an image of an old man I took in Buenos Aires. I can usually tell right away that the globe is slightly oblong and the old man’s face is squished. I thought maybe I needed to save the images out differently before importing them into FCP, but why would the animation saved as HD from iMovie be coming out squished also? Thanks again. Let me know if you need any other info.

~robbie3600

[Robert Boyhan]

Hi Todd,

I tried creating a new sequence at 720p with square pixels. Then I copied and pasted a piece of the footage from another timeline. I exported it and it still looks squished…in fact, with those settings it looks squished in the canvas prior to me even exporting it.

Check my response to Russ for more info on my project. Hopefully it will spur some more ideas. Thanks again for your time.

~robbie3600

[Robert Boyhan]

I have a feeling my point is not being illustrated well enough. I grabbed some screen captures as visual aids. I’m sure this is something simple that I’m forgetting, or just don’t know about.

Here’s my sequence settings(with the aspect ratio at 720×480):

that produces this image in the canvas(which looks the way it should):

But, when I export using Export/Using Compressor… Then set it to “DVD: Best Quality 90 minutes – 16:9//MPEG-2 6.2Mbps 2pass 16:9”

The resulting video comes out looking squished(stretched horizontally/fat)

The exported video is obviously wider than the image in the canvas, but I don’t know why. I’ve tried many different combinations of sequence and export settings but can’t figure it out! Can anyone please help?? Let me know if you need any more info. Thanks

[Jon Fessler]

I’m having the exact problem, however my film was shot on an HDV cam, SonyFX1 I have a frane size of 720×480 NTSC DV (3:2) Pixel aspect Ratio 720×480. Same problem, the picture looks fine in the canvas but when I export it comes out squished.
Any ideas??

fessler

[Jason Cox]

I am having the same problem and wondering if you two have fixed your problems and if so, what did you do?