looks okay in compressor, squished in quicktime

[Craig Seeman]

[Ericsson Chu] “Anyhow, my first question is what codec should I use to extract? I need the file to be in a quicktime container, but I can extract using dv ntsc, prores, uncompressed, etc.”

Compressing an already heavily compressed file to another compressed format will do additional damage. If you can handle going to uncompressed, while it won’t make the source look any better, it’ll prevent it from getting worse.

[Ericsson Chu] “Next, some of my files are coming out looking real squished in quicktime, but when I bring them into cinema tools or compressor the preview looks the way it ought to. Is their a quick fix to this? I’m guessing quicktime is just interpreting the footage incorrectly? “
I’ve actually noticed that different versions of Quicktime handled these issues differently (7.3.x, 7.4.x, etc).

How you handle depends on what your source aspect ratio (and pixel aspect ratio) is.
You need to tell us what your source is/are and their aspect ratios.
It can be as simple as a quick fix in Quicktime or it may be a compression setting but we won’t know unless you tell us.

You might want to read the post at the top of this forum that says PLEASE READ. You might have had your answer already if you had provided us with the information.