[Andrew Commiskey]

For professional systems (especially) downloading ALL upgrades is recommended, software update should be turned off.

Amen, Hallelujah, and pass the peas. This should be the first line in the FCP Manual.

Drew

Chaos is the beginning of everything.

[Andrew Commiskey]

Bottom Line. Communicate with the Post Department and make sure they know what you are sending them. The optimum if you are using actual film @24 fps would be 48.048 (the pull-down brings it to straight 48K so no conversion is necessary)
If you are going to HD Video then Record at 48K, no conversion needed for post there either (the pulldown is already included). The problem is that 48.048K has not been around very long and both Avid and Final Cut Pro developed a work-arounds that were used before the sample rate existed. (basically playing back 48K at 47.52, if you play back 48.048 at 47.52 you end up with close to 2% pull-down instead of 1%)
This is confusing and frustrating for all parties, so I go back to “Communicate with the post department, if they have their game on they will ask for 48.048 because it makes the entire post process work at straight 48K no conversions. If they work in an older work-flow environment they will want 48K and they will deal with it.

OK, Brain tired,
Best
Drew

Chaos is the beginning of everything.

[Andrew Commiskey]

It might be something as simple as corrupt render files. Trash your render files and re-render. I’ve seen this happen more than once.
Drew

Chaos is the beginning of everything.

[Andrew Commiskey]

I feel for you, in this situation I would forget Sync and just find good shots (musicians, CU, crowd whatever) and fake sync or take a measure from the end and find a similar one near the start and build from there. It’s a pain, but it can break things up. You can also set up boxes with different shots of the same subject (simi cubist approach) like 24 did in the 1st season. and don’t forget the biggest rule for bad footage “everyone looks cool in slo-mo” : 0 )

Chaos is the beginning of everything.

[Andrew Commiskey]

Also the sequence settings I’m using are:
Frame Size 720X486 CCIR 601 NTSC (40:27
Pixel aspect Ratio NTSC-CCIR 601/DV Anamorphic
Field Dominance Lower (even)

Compressor: Apple Pro Res 422

Does that all sound right?

Yes

Chaos is the beginning of everything.

[Andrew Commiskey]

I would just go back, create a new SD sequence and drop the HD sequence into it.
Drew

Chaos is the beginning of everything.

[Andrew Commiskey]

When you copy and paste, each file is automatically repositioned to fit the timeline. Unless you have some footage that has been modified motion wise, such as SD expanded to match the size of HD or a picture in picture, when you copy and paste FCP does not change the Motion (scale etc) info unless it is unchanged. Try it for yourself. Because of this reason dropping the sequence into the timeline will keep all this straight and is the recommended approach.
On the other hand, If you need to keep options open like reframing shots and there are no motion changes to clips of the sequence then copy and paste is a great option, it just depends on what you want to accomplish. FCP is a complex program, and after playing around with it for a while I understand there is a logic to how things are configured. Unfortunately their logic and my logic sometimes do not coincide.
The trick is understanding their logic. I hope this helps, I know I learned something new today. Did this process improve your DVD?
Best,
Drew

Chaos is the beginning of everything.

[Andrew Commiskey]

Now that is a good question. I normally just drag the sequence into the timeline, but if you needed to pan and scan or enlarge a clip to crop out something, then it would be useful to copy and paste.
Best,
Drew

Chaos is the beginning of everything.

[Andrew Commiskey]

First Create a new sequence, Apple Prorez 422 NTSC (or PAL) open the sequence settings and check the 16:9 anamorphic box. then drop the HD EX-1 timeline into the SD Sequence. (When it ask if you want to change the sequence settings to match the footage click No) Render, then Export Quicktime movie Current settings self contained. Take this file to compressor.
Hope this helps,
Drew

Chaos is the beginning of everything.

[Andrew Commiskey]

I understand, My curiosity is focused on the effect of the properties window and how compressor reacts to it. Because of the way iDVD works, I could understand how these settings could possibly effect the outcome on MPEG2 compression because it is automatic. In the past I have “assumed” (the start of many mistakes) that compressor would ignore these settings and process raw data. If I was wrong then Compressor could be a much better piece of software than I thought it was.
Anyway, sorry for the confusion, I will run some test next week to see.

Best,
Drew

Chaos is the beginning of everything.