[Andy Mees]

Neil, I think you’ll find that Mattias Sandström is the talented author of the impressive Too Much Too Soon plugin collection.

https://www.mattias.nu/plugins/

[Andy Mees]

This is a month old dead thread boys and better left that way … and before going off on a tangent its probably worth making note of the info in the OP’s last message: I’m using FCP 4 …

[Andy Mees]

Hey Jose
A quick search here will turn up plenty of tips on converting 60i to 24p.
Cheers
Andy

[Andy Mees]

Actually you may be missing the point here Sascha. Audio is logarithmic by nature and FCP simply displays it’s audio controls accordingly … a simple switch to allow one to control the fades linearly is a purely graphical change, it doesn’t affect how the audio itself is handled. If you attempt to override FCP’s handling of the audio and manually shape a linear fade you’re going to end up with an audibly non-linear fade.

Cheers
Andy

[Andy Mees]

I’m shooting 720p/60 fps with a Canon 7D

Ok, so shooting H264

Using MPEG streamclip to transcode files into “Apple XDCAM EX 720p60 (35 MB/s VBR)” format.

Then transcoding to MPEG2

Exporting to Quicktime in Final Cut as “XDcam EX 720p 60 VBR)

And then re-compressing to MPEG2 again

AFTER ALL THIS — I feel there is a loss of quality

No kidding!

And once I burn the .mov file with iDVD, I am SURE there is a loss of quality.

Well of course there is. You’re now taking your nasty re-compressed HD edit and re-compressing it yet again, this time to a low bit rate SD MPEG2 file for DVD delivery.

I agree with Chris on this. Your current workflow is your problem. Transcode your source clips to Apple ProRes 422 (unscaled), then work natively and export your master edit in that same format. Take that HD master **, reimport it into FCP and drop it into an SD ProRes sequence (Apple ProRes 422 NTSC 48kHz Anamorphic), export that using those settings and use that as your source for iDVD.

You might want to test this workflow on a single short but representative clip of just few seconds, see if the results are more to your liking.

Cheers
Andy

** Note that your HD master is 60p whereas your SD target will be 60i, however in creating this 60i conversion FCP will actually throw away every other frame ie it will create a the 30psf representation of the edit so will not get the full smooth motion of your 60p original. If you want to maintain the original motion quality then you can use the free JES Deinterlacer app to create 60i from 60p

[Andy Mees]

Hi Virgilio

Sorry, FCP does not allow you to change this … for now it remains a feature request.
https://www.apple.com/feedback/finalcutpro.html

Cheers
Andy

[Andy Mees]

Hey Jeremey, I think what’s being asked here is with regards to moving clip instances between tracks in the timeline, not nudging elements within the canvas.

Eron, as noted by Christian above, make sure that the clip element you are trying to move is not linked eg video not linked to audio (or make sure that you have overridden the linked status eg select only the video). Also remember you can only move 1 track at a time and that each track must not contain any element that would block the placement of the clip you’re trying to move.

It works fine here my system.

Cheers
Andy

[Andy Mees]

Have you tried Color? It ships as part of the Final Cut Studio suite and is much more capable than MB Looks, and if you need more presets to work from you can check out Color Looks as an add on:
https://support.apple.com/downloads/Color_Looks

Maybe have a look at Core Melt’s Pigment:
https://www.coremelt.com/products/v2/pigment—color-tools.html

Also check out Patrick Sheffield’s Movie Color:
https://straylight.tv/pluginz/

[Andy Mees]

Hey Steve
How different … or different how? Would be best to post screen shots if you can. Or could it just be that your scope settings are different?

Cheers
Andy

[Andy Mees]

Another path that lies somewhere between the two would be to use overlay 16:9 crop guide on the original 4:3 sequence and then cut up and reframe according to that crop guide … then export to Compressor and use the crop function there as already suggested. That’ll get you the straightforward center cut crop that you want + allows you some prior control over the framing.

For the crop guide overlay, you could create a graphic in photoshop or similar or use a mask shape or a preconfigured letterbox generator or similar … you can pick up a free letterbox generator here or here and probably elsewhere too (make sure you grab the ‘generator’ not the ‘filter’ in the first of those two links.

Cheers
Andy