Live Type

[Tom Wolsky]

You need to set the project properties of your LiveType project to match your sequence settings.

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”

[Tom Matthies]

Open up Liveype. Go under the “Edit” pull down menu at the top of the screen. Go down to Project Properties and pick the size/aspect you need for your project. If you are editing in HD, I generally pick the size that matches my Sequence size and not the Media size.You should not need to resize your title at all. They should all be clean and crisp with the proper settings although the DV codec is pretty rough on the quality of titles.
Tom

E=MC2+/-2db

[Michael Gissing]

Also use a ProRes or Uncompressed sequence to edit in so your text doesn’t render badly. DV renders graphics and text badly

[Larry Lancit]

Thanks Tom–I set the properties to HDTV 1080i and it certainly looks better and fits the screen!

[Jason Porthouse]

Larry, you’re certainly going about this an odd way. You’re shooting HDV but editing in an SD timeline – this uses FCPs scaler to scale the HD footage to SD. Not the best.

If you’re creating your LiveType graphics for SD, you should have LT setup for SD NTSC Anamorphic. The resulting output will be a 4:3 file if not viewed correctly – after all, all SD material occupies the same space – 720×486 (or 576 in PAL land) so I’d expect this.

When you’ve imported the LiveType clip into FCP, check the Anamorphic column in the Browser to switch the clip to 16:9. This will then display correctly.

It’s also worth playing with the alpha type – I found that this can yield benefits – from ‘straight’ to ‘White’ or vice-versa. I’ve noticed this can improve the quality of the overlay.

If I were you, I’d edit in an HDV timeline (or even better, ProRes in HD resolution) and use compressor to convert your HD master into an SD copy…

_________________________________

Before you criticise a man, walk a mile in his shoes.
Then when you do criticise him, you’ll be a mile away. And have his shoes.

*the artist formally known as Jaymags*

[Larry Lancit]

Thanks for your advice Jason. I am relatively new to FCP so maybe you can help me understand why I am doing this. Here is the application:
I am creating a program that includes segments with a variety of formats that I then burn to a DVD. The DVD is then duplicated and exhibited on a DVD player whose signal is inserted into a hotel’s in room cable system using a modulator.

When I was instructed how to setup FCP, I was told to use the DV NTSC setting because a large % of the televisions in hotels are still SD format. I thought it was kind of funky to do this since I am shooting in HD and I would expect that the DVD production would letterbox it for SD televisions. Perhaps you could find me offline and give me some advice that would help me do what I need to do to exhibit the best way on my hotel network. My email is larry@paradisecoasttv.net