[Jaap Verdenius]

Same story over here – we have been using the J-3 with SDI output since 2003, capturing to FCP via Blackmagic cards, using SDI for audio. Works excellent – also, maintenance costs have been very low.

Jaap

[Jaap Verdenius]

Considering you have this problem it could be worth a try:

– Open DVDSP
– In the Asset (lower left corner) tab click import and import your QT
– drag it to the track window (to the right of the assets) and tell me if you can see your black bars in the viewer

If not, then that proves iDVD to be the source of the problem.
If yes, well… I wouldn’t know how to explain that, as you told that they WEREN’t there in Quicktime Player. So let’s hope you won’t see them!

Jaap

PS DVDSP is not that difficult as long as you don’t care too much about fancy menus. In fact it has a very nice workflow with FCP when you export through Compressor (!!… by the way – did you try File> Export to Compressor in FCP and see if that would solve the problem?)

[Jaap Verdenius]

Open the clip in the viewer and use the motion tab (basic motion: scale and position, even rotation…). Keyframing available.

Jaap

[Jaap Verdenius]

I would try my luck at an iDVD forum – if the sequence settings are not the problem and the movies show up correctly in Quicktime Player then the solution must be found in iDVD.

(You don’t have DVDStudioPro? It is part of Final Cut Studio 2 so if you have FCP6 you also have DVDSP.)

Jaap

[Jaap Verdenius]

Hm. Difficult…

What happens when you export (a part of) that sequence to a selfcontained QT movie, reimport it and drop it back into that sequence? Does it still show up red?
If yes, it must something with FCP or your system. If no, it’s something with your clips.

Jaap

[Jaap Verdenius]

You can definitely edit in 640×480 square pixels:

– Open your sequence settings (Cmd-0)
– set aspect ratio to “Custom”
– set frame size to 640 and 480
– set pixel aspect ratio to square

I think the order is important and you have to set aspect ratio before the other two otherwise FCP gives a message that it can’t do what you want it to, but don’t give up, it can do it.

If your timeline turns red there must be something else going on, perhaps it is because you changed your settings while the clips were already on the timeline. The solution is to remove attributes from the clips (select them and cmd-opt-V); or to empty the timeline and re-edit the clips.

Jaap

[Jaap Verdenius]

If the bars don’t show up in Quicktime Player then you exported correctly from FCP and you might as well be sure that the solution must be found in iDVD. Now I don’t know iDVD and I can’t say anything sensible about it, but there is a way to exclude the possibility that this has anything to do with (sequence settings in) FCP:

– Duplicate the sequence that shows up OK in iDVD (rightmouse it in the browser and select Duplicate)
– Delete all clips from that duplicate sequence
– Select all clips in one of the ‘guilty’ sequences and copy-paste them into the duplicate sequence
– Export the duplicate sequence the way that you did before.

If that proves a solution then the problem must have been within your sequence settings.
If it doesn’t solve it, then you have to check out an iDVD forum.

Jaap

[Jaap Verdenius]

There are many roads to Rome, so let’s get some clarity on the road you took:
– What exactly are you exporting (quicktime/mpeg/else) and how did you do it (export to quicktime movie/ quicktime conversion/ via compressor)?
– Is your sequence (meant to be) 4:3 or 16:9?
– Does the sequence with the bars look squeezed (with tall people etc)?
– If it is a quicktime, do the vertical bars show up when you open it in Quicktime Player?
– Which DVD program do you use?

Jaap

[Jaap Verdenius]

Got it, thanks Dave.
I see this also works in FCP, nice.

Jaap

[Jaap Verdenius]

First, set you sequence playback RT settings from Safe to Unlimited
(popup menu on the upper left corner of the timeline window).

It that doesn’t work, tell us the settings of your sequence and that of the footage (codecs etc).

Beeps indicate that the sample rates of the footage and that of the sequence are different.
In FCP 6 you can create a new sequence and have FCP adjust its settings on the first time you drop a clip into it – it will show a message box.