[Jason Levine]

I just upgraded to After Effects CS5 and I’m also having problems with the missing DV/DVCPRO codec but for different reasons.

The footage we use in FCP is DV/DVCPRO running at 23.976 fps. In CS4, Mmy typical workflow was to export from FCP. Import into AE. Turn Field Rendering off in the Interpret Footage window. Create my comps and render with the same DV/DVCPRO settings (also making sure Field Rendering was set to none) They came back into FCP with no problems.

Now in CS5 if I use the DV25 codec I get an error message at the bottom of the Output Module Settings window indicating a “settings mismatch” and that “the frame rate of output file will be adjusted from 23.976 to 29.97 to meet format constraints…”. Then I’m forced to output at 29.97 which creates comps that run too fast in FCP. Not good.

I tried using the DV/NTSC 24p codec (never heard of it but the “24” sounded promising) and I got comps that were the correct length in FCP but they came in with Field Rendering set to “lower” (despite the fact that Field Rendering was set to OFF in AE) The result is in FCP the clips play at half resolution unless you manually go in to FCP’s Item Properties and right click on the Field Dominance setting and change it to none. (After which you are no longer given the option of changing it back btw…) Manually changing the Item Properties in FCP seems to be a functioning workaround for me, but not the other editors who use my comps (and aren’t technically savvy enough to be right clicking in the Item Property window)

Anyway, everything we do is for offline only so I really don’t care about which codec has the best image quality. My only concern is a smooth roundtrip between FCP and AE. Is there anyway to get my old DV/DVCPRO codec into CS5?!

thanks in advance.