Import sequence settings

Apple Final Cut Pro Legacy

Import sequence settings

Posted by Marcus Bird on January 31, 2008 at 11:59 am

Hi,

Im trying to capture footage from some HD tapes and having a little difficulty. When I set the frame size to DC PAL 720*576, then capture as DV PAL, it imports and plays fine.

However, this is shot on 16:9 broadcast quality camera’s, not HD but (as far as im aware (and please correct me)) not to a 720*576 aspect ratio. I’ve played around with the settings to import as HDTV 720p (16:9) and as its just changing the frame size, it again imports but doesnt fit the frame size… It does show more of the footage that the previous setting was cutting out though.

Can anyone shed some light on this for me? What frame size, aspect ratio and capture/input settings should I be running? Its such a basic step but I don’t want to capture a load of footage incorrectly.

Thanks,

M

Russell Lasson replied 18 years, 3 months ago 2 Members · 5 Replies
5 Replies

Russell Lasson
February 1, 2008 at 11:10 pm

You failed to mention the deck and format that your using. Also are you digitizing over firewire or using a capture card?

It’s likely a deck setting that is downconverting the video to SD. That’s why the SD setting works. You should go through the menu on the deck to see if downconverting is turned on. Then your HD settings in FCP should work.

-Russ

Russell Lasson
Kaleidoscope Pictures
Provo, UT
Marcus Bird
February 3, 2008 at 1:32 pm

Hi Russell,

Thanks for getting back to me. Apologies, the deck I have here is a Sony DSR 45p. I don’t have a capture card. I’m sure you know the deck, but found this online if it helps – https://www.promotionhire.co.uk/uploads/pdf/VTRs/DSR-45P.pdf

Can you offer any more advice?

Thanks again,

Marcus
Russell Lasson
February 4, 2008 at 6:01 pm

The DSR45P is an SD deck. It sounds like what’s happened is that your footage was shot 16×9 SD, not HD. 16×9 in SD land is anamorphic, meaning it stretches the image horizontally to create a 16×9 frame, even though the actual frame size is still 720 pixels.

So it sounds like you digitized it right, but now you just need to select the anamorphic check box in the browser for your clips. Also you need to select the anamorphic box in your sequence settings.

In the easy settings, you could look for the DV-PAL Anamorphic settings (you might need to select the show all box to see it come up.) Then when you digitize and create a new sequence, everything should be anamorphic.

-Russ

Russell Lasson
Kaleidoscope Pictures
Provo, UT
Marcus Bird
February 6, 2008 at 11:25 am

Hi Russell,

Thanks for getting back to me. I imported using the DV-PAL settings and realized that when I changed my sequence settings to anamorphic it worked as it should. I didn’t capture the footage as anamorphic, though it seems to be displayed correctly – will the content have been downsized at all?

As a footnote, anyone reading this post looking for some help might want to check out this link I found by Walter Biscardi, https://library.creativecow.net/articles/biscardi_walter/realtime_sequences.php from the thread here, https://forums.creativecow.net/thread/200/876627#876630.

Thanks,

Marcus
Russell Lasson
February 6, 2008 at 5:40 pm

Both anamorphic SD video and 4:3 SD video have the same frame size, meaning both are actually 4:3. In the browser, there is a anamorphic column, if selected, the video plays back at anamorphic. When you digitize at an anamorphic setting, that’s the only difference. It puts a check mark in the anamorphic column (which you could do anyways).

-Russ

Russell Lasson
Kaleidoscope Pictures
Provo, UT

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