HELP!! Firewire issues

[Chris Tompkins]

What are you viewing this on? Do u have a monitor hooked up to the camera?
When Didging DV anamorphic the capture window will look like 4X3.
B/4 capture go to “Easy Setup” choose DV anamorphic.
Make sure your default time line is also the same. Make new one after easy setup. Load a piece of footage and drop it in the time line.

After u go to tape – playback to a monitor that will display 16X9

Chris Tompkins
Video Atlanta

[Adam Taylor]

when you say it recorded to tape in 4:3, you’re probably not seeing true 4:3 but a distorted aspect ratio 16:9.

Formats like DigiBeta record 16:9 anamorphic this way, so that all the bandwidth on the tape is used to store data, rather than wasting digits by filling them with black bars at the top and bottom of the image. this extra data helps to improve the overall picture quality. Offhand i can’t remember the technical explanation but its something to do with squeezing the image in at the sides by changing the pixel dimensions from horizontal to vertical.

This is the reason the format is called 16:9 Full Height Anamorphic (FHA). Its during playback or transmission that the image is restored to its correct aspect ratio either by the broadcaster, the monitor, the edit software, etc.

some questions that might help point you in the right direction…

Have you checked your import settings to ensure you are capturing the correct aspect ratio video?
Is the camera outputting at the correct format? I seem to remember on my Sony camera there are options for outputting different formats.
Once the video is on the timeline, double click the footage and check the Viewer windows Motion Tab, the Distort setting may be incorrectly set.
what format does your camera record? dv, hdv, digibeta, something else?
are you editing and playing out the same format as you recorded in, or are there some format conversions going on?

adam

Adam Taylor
Video Editor/Audio Mixer/ Compositor/Motion GFX/Barista
Character Options Ltd
Oldham, UK

http://www.sculptedbliss.co.uk

[Nick Kesler]

Just a thought that might help. Every once in a while, I’ll have some really strange issues pop up while I’m capturing or exporting through firewire. I’ll double-check my settings, but it still won’t do what I’m asking it to. (ie: improper formating like you’re experiencing or no timecode, etc.) After banging my head against a wall, I’ll usually remember that trashing my preferences works when all else fails. You can do it pretty easily yourself. However, there’s a free, simple program I found that is perfect for this, plus it lets you backup your settings from a time when all is working well with Final Cut (and the rest of FCS 2). It’s called Preference Manager. Hope this helps, even if not in this case.