[Ben Insler]

I was thinking the same thing. Also, we frequently downconvert using Kona 3 from DVCPRO HD to 525. You have to tell FCP to do that manually. If this feature were real, I would assume FCP would always want my video playback settings to be HD. I’d be upset if I HAD to choose that.

It does seem, however, that Apple is trying to save people a lot of setup headaches in the new version….

-Ben

[Ben Insler]

Unfortunately, by shooting in letterbox, you have recorded a 4×3 image with black bars on the top and bottom (rather than using the whole 4×3 chip and shooting anamorphic 16:9 which, when stretched using anamorphic interpretation, yields a 16×9 image.

The only way to do what you’re asking is to scale up your footage in a 16:9 sequence. Assuming this is DV, make a DV Anamorphic sequence and place your final edited movie (4:3) inside of it. It will display as pillarboxed, meaning that FCP will automatically put black bars on the left and right so that your movie displays correctly. It will also be letterboxed, since that’s how you shot it, so the image will be framed by black on all sides. Now, scale the clip up in the timeline until it fills the frame. Then, export as 16:9.

Since you’re scaling the image up, you may noticeably loose image quality. There’s no way around this, sadly.

Best,

Ben

[Ben Insler]

Supposedly (so it says in the promo videos), Color’s tracker is now adapted from Shake, but we’ll have to see…

Nonetheless, I’d have to say that keying is work to be done in a compositing package, not an editing one. As soon as you need to do something complicated, you’ll have trouble in Final Cut. It’s tough to get a REALLY good key on just one layer alone.

-Ben

[Ben Insler]

I may be wrong, but won’t FCP add the pulldown automatically if you place/nest your 23.98 elements in a 29.97 sequence? Honestly, I’ve never done this, but I’d at least try it. Even if this works, I can’t say with any assurance that this is the “best” workflow… but see what happens.. and if you get a minute, post back here, ’cause I’m curious myself.

Best,

Ben

[Ben Insler]

Yes it does. Does the file open in QuickTime? If so, try converting it to a 16 bit 48k .aiff and bring that converted file into FCP. If it doesn’t open in FCP or QT, the file may have been damaged on download.

-Ben

[Ben Insler]

Do they remain unrendered permanently (until you re-render them) or only while the export is going on? When FCP exports using QT conversion, it removes the render file references (temporarily) and recomposites your video tracks from the timeline, but your render files should come back online after the export.

-Ben

[Ben Insler]

Yeah, it doesn’t make much sense. We’re stuck too.

Thanks for the help,

Ben

[Ben Insler]

Thanks Walter. I had the same worry about frying the port. We tested running a firewire HDD through that port and it works fine.

[Ben Insler]

The setting is “On Timecode break” (on the right side of your preferences window). Change the selected setting from “abort” to “make new clip” or “warn after capture”. Make New Clip will break your logged section into multiple logged clips (but be careful, you loose your set pre/post roll time at the beginning and end of each new clip). Warn After Capture allows FCP to ignore the time code break and maintain your logged in and out points – FCP will give you a warning at the bottom of your capture selection window that TC breaks were found once your capture is finished.

Should do the trick.

-Ben

[Ben Insler]

Check and make sure that the “TC Rate” property of the audio matches the frame rate of your sequence. I’ve run into this problem before when getting audio files from windows machines. We’re editing in 30 fps (well, 29.97 but you get the idea) and the TC Rate is 25 fps, and so the audio plays in sync at the beginning but falls out of sync by the end of the sequence. The only fix we’ve found for this so far is removing the audio from your project, trashing prefrences, and then re-importing the audio. Sometimes we’ve had to do this 2-3 times before the audio came in right.

You might also be able to export the audio from QuickTime, converting it from wav to aif – then FCP might read it correctly. I’m sure you have a LOT of audio for this though. Maybe you can pull it into iTunes and convert all the audio at once that way if trashing prefs doesn’t work for you.

Best,

Ben