[Brad Elliott]

It is possible that the sequence settings aren’t being changed to your clips settings?

What does FC say the settings are for the clips?
Check the columns for
Frame size
Compressor
vid rate

Do they match your sequence settings in the same columns?

[Brad Elliott]

I would recommend keeping at at least 15-20% of your hard drive free at all times.

Drives that are less than 50% full will almost always run better than drives that are not. Drives that have less than 10% free will almost always have problems(including but not limited to running slower) outside of there isn’t enough free space.

[Brad Elliott]

SD is SD.

You are losing some horizontal real estate(80 pixels) but that is the difference between rectangular and square pixels.

The Height isn’t changing just the width(square to rectangular).

[Brad Elliott]

1920×1080 is square pixels.
640×480 is square pixels.
720×480 is rectangular pixels.

Look at the 720 & 640 export from Streamclip.
Which one looks less distorted out of Streamclip?
Is there a difference in FC?
In my experience the 640 should look correct in the 1920 sequence.

[Brad Elliott]

Mpg Streamclip should allow you to export an aif from the movie.

This problem could be related to the codec of the QT in question. What does QT say the codec and audio are?(command+i)
If the full version of QT can open every other file except this one you are probably missing the codec.

In my experience whenever I convert all audio to aif 48khz everything works well.

[Brad Elliott]

Wouldn’t this work?

Create a sequence with the proper settings and remove any clips etc.
Duplicate
rename
paste new content

Even with easy set-up you will still have to name the sequence and paste the content

[Brad Elliott]

Depending on their site’s code you could possibly use download helper to extract the video.

Potential problem:
The size of the video is 640×360 or smaller and is in a non-edit friendly format.

You can convert to PR422 but to Christopher’s point the quality is most likely going to be less than stellar.

[Brad Elliott]

This is mostly likely just a view function in QT.
Confirm your sequence is 720×480 before export.

Depending on whether you are looking at your file in QT 7 or 10
Command + i will let you see 2 or all of the following.
Format
Normal size
current size

If I open a 1920×1080 file in QT 10 it auto opens at 1280×720 even thought the file is 1920×1080.
Format size 1920×1080
current size 1280×720

Current size is the size of the window that your video is displaying in even though it may not match the size of your video exported from Final Cut. Format and normal size should denote the actual size of the file. Normal size should only be found in QT 7.

Since rectangular pixels(720×480) cannot be properly displayed on a computer(square pixels) QT opens your file at 640×480(square pixels).

[Brad Elliott]

From within FCP you can export a xml of an audio file with markers and re-import it into another project with the markers intact.

I am not aware of a audio recording application that can embed this info in a wav and have it read by FCP.

I have never gotten separate files from a remote VO session or any TC notes. I just get sent everything recorded. I would ask the talent to send you any notes they may have made.

When we do this the producer(or person directing the VO) is responsible for keeping track of the good takes. The producer will then tell the editor that take 17, part of 19 and the last part of 33 are the ones to use.
Did the VO talent slate the takes?

[Brad Elliott]

We use the $500 addition of Episode and have been very happy with it.

To my knowledge Adobe media encoder only comes with Production premium or the Master collection.