Horizontal Distortion Lines

[James Bishop]

Here is a grabbed frame from the quicktime movie showing the distortion:

[Tom Wolsky]

DV is the codec. Earlier you said the material was MPEG. Did you convert it? The image you show in the next message indicates that there is something seriously wrong with your workflow. You should not be seeing the black bars at the top and bottom of the image. It’s really hard to tell what you’ve done, but it seems like a fairly complete mess.

Let’s start with some basic information. From the Edit menu please give the exact item properties of the clips you’re editing and the exact item properties of the sequence you’re editing in.

All the best,

Tom

Class on Demand DVDs “Complete Training for FCP7,” “Basic Training for FCS” and “Final Cut Express Made Easy”
Author: “Final Cut Pro 5 Editing Essentials” and “Final Cut Express 4 Editing Workshop”

[Jake Penta]

I seem to be having the same problem. I have the same settings

(720×480) MPEG-2 Video
NTSC CCIR 601 Pixel Aspect
29.97 FPS

I get the same problem and I really cannot figure out what it is. I am about to go mad! Really if you could help at all, I am ready to start from the beginning.

Jake

[Tom Wolsky]

What are these specs? Your clips? They’re MPEG-2. FCP doesn’t support MPEG-2. Convert it to a format sued in FCP and use sequence settings that match the format you convert it to.

All the best,

Tom

Class on Demand DVDs “Complete Training for FCP7,” “Basic Training for FCS” and “Final Cut Express Made Easy”
Author: “Final Cut Pro 5 Editing Essentials” and “Final Cut Express 4 Editing Workshop”

[Jake Penta]

I am a huge newbie, so please bear with me. ( I got FCP a week ago )

Essentially they are “.mov” files, I imported them in iMovie 08 and located them with finder. They are all .mov files. When I go to

RightClick>ItemProperties>Format it says it is MPEG-2 Video. Its compressed that way.

I’m not getting clipping or anything when I edit, and the only problem is the horizonatal lines.

The original aspect ratio without the Horizontal distortion is fine in “viewer” but when I go to “canvas” and start editing in the sequence, they are there.

I’ll attempt converting them, but if there is any other way to make them work I’d like to know because I’m not a fan of quality loss.

[James Bishop]

oh sorry i thought you were asking for the codec of the exported movie. yes the files i upload from my camera are mpg files.

the black bars at the top and bottom are just part of the widescreen bars. I just did a screenshot and cropped part of the clip

ok here are the item properties as it says in the edit menu:
Name: MPG
Vid Rate: 29.97 fps
Frame Size: 720×404
Data Rate: 734.5 k/s
Pixel Aspect: Square

And the properties of the sequence:
Vid rate: 29.97 fps
Frame size: 720×480
Compressor: DV/DVCPRO-NTSC
Pixel aspect: NTSC- CCIR 601
Field Dominance: Lower (Even)
Aud rate: 48.0khz
Aud format: 32-bit floating point
TC Rate: 30

[Tom Wolsky]

That’s why you’re seeing the black bars.

This media needs to be converted before you edit with it. Take it to Compressor, convert it to DV50 at 720×480 anamorphic 29.97fps with uncompressed 48k audio.

Edit that in a DV50 anamorphic sequence and you’ll be good to go. You’ll still have interlaced media, but it will look correct on a television set. Or if it’s only for computer display you can run the finished output through JES Deinterlacer.

All the best,

Tom

Class on Demand DVDs “Complete Training for FCP7,” “Basic Training for FCS” and “Final Cut Express Made Easy”
Author: “Final Cut Pro 5 Editing Essentials” and “Final Cut Express 4 Editing Workshop”

[James Bishop]

Ok thanks for the advice.

Is that the only way of doing it?

Only the DV50 conversion option is in the ‘Advanced Format Conversions’ in my compressor, which I don’t seem to have access too.

In fact I have tried using my compressor before and I don’t think it works at all.

Is there any other software that can do the same thing?

And are you saying that their is no way of fixing this without re-doing all of the editing?

Best,
James

[Tom Wolsky]

MPEG Streamclip.

There might be a way to do it using Media Manager, but I’ve not tried it with this type of situation, and I don’t think you have enough experience with it to do it yourself. If you don’t want to rebuilt it find a local FCP certified trainer who’ll act as a consultant for you. It won’t be free.

All the best,

Tom

Class on Demand DVDs “Complete Training for FCP7,” “Basic Training for FCS” and “Final Cut Express Made Easy”
Author: “Final Cut Pro 5 Editing Essentials” and “Final Cut Express 4 Editing Workshop”

[James Bishop]

Yes I was thinking about possibly doing that. Thankyou very much for all the advice.

I don’t suppose you know anything about Roxio Toast aswell do you? I have one other problem. I tried burning a DVD several times and every time the audio seems to go slightly out of sync with the video. Do you have any idea why that might be?