[Michael Gissing]

If the original timecode was correctly captured when you went in DV then you should have no problems recapturing from the HDV, particularly if you use 9 pin & HD SDI.

I recaptured a documentary with over 1100 cuts including a sequence of single frame shots (about 140 events) with only one error which turned out to be a mistake by the editor on the original ingest ignoring a genuine timecode break.

[Michael Gissing]

[Kathy Anderson] ”
Could there be some kind of hidden setting that I’m missing”

There must be a difference between the sequence settings. Have a look at the settings particularly if whether fields are set to upper, lower or none.

You can always create and save a custom setup with the settings from your working sequence and then use that as your Easy Setup each time you create a new sequence.

[Michael Gissing]

What version of FCP are you running? I use Media Manager on a lot of jobs and I only recapture the final sequence shots plus handles. So it does work for me in the way you want it to. You don’t have a timelapse shot in your sequence by any chance or any speed changed clips?

[Michael Gissing]

What happens if you take the two shots with the dissolve, turn off overlay and then make a quicktime of the shots, the replace the original clips over the background and set to overlay?

I was also wondering if nesting might help, but I am not sure it will and nesting can be an ugly thing if you need to later media manage.

[Michael Gissing]

What are you using Compressor to export to? ( target codec?, exporting for DVD?, converting to standard def?) What are you watching the file on, your computer screen or an external monitor?

Field order issues can be introduced at many levels so without that info it is hard to guess.

[Michael Gissing]

I would go to the highest practical res and then scale down the to PAL & NTSC. As 1080 60i has the highest frame rate and the same pixel res as 50i, I would use that and scale down to PAL & NTSC.

Bearing in mind the final PAL & NTSC must be interlaced, you might as well go for 60i in my opinion. 24 to 25 frame conversion isn’t as pretty as 29.97 to 25 and 1080 over 720 makes sense to me at least. 60i is 29.97, so it is only the PAL that needs frame interpreting and it is better to start at a higher frame rate than the target.

[Michael Gissing]

[Lauren Petty] “Is there another way? (media manager does not give me quite what I need).”

Actually, Media Manager does exactly that. you can create a new sequence from the sequence you made the EDL without media. If you select to delete unused media and set handles, it will break long files into short ones to recapture, same as going via EDL but maintaining all your FCP info including CC filters, resizing etc.

[Michael Gissing]

[Nick Price] “Saying it isnt the job of FCP editors to adjust final music masters is ridiculous”

I said “Mastered final audio track”. I already clarified with Jeremy the difference between mixing audio during and edit and dealing with final mixes dropped into an FCP project for final outputting.

[Michael Gissing]

[Nick PRice] “between 4 to 6 on a PPM, and -18 to -10 on a vu meter, like FCPs. And music should generally sit around 5 on a PPM, no more than -12 on a VU meter. So just turn it down. There wont be any quality loss(!).”

PPM meters are a not accurate for a digital world. They are not a reliable measure of loudness, nor a really useful measure of peak levels. You mean dbfs not VU. -20dbfs = 0VU. Your comments are inaccurate and confusing.

If you “turn it down” it does effect the quality as you are reducing the effective bit rate. If you don’t understand this then please don’t pass comment.

To answer Tom. Tone is basically irrelevant in a digital world. Its purpose was to calibrate analog machines. In the NTSC world we provide -20 dbfs 1khz tone because they ask for it. In PAL it is -18dbfs 1 hhz tone because that’s what they want.

Broadcasters have chosen a maximum peak of -10dbfs. For DVD release there is no such limitation. Features films exceed the -10dbfs peak scale as does music DVDs. It isn’t the job of FCP editors to readjust a mastered final audio track unless they are providing versions for multiple markets including broadcast & DVD.

My job running a facility that does both audio mastering and FCP onlining is to make versions for those markets including cinema release. They all have subtly different requirements which a simple level tweak in FCP is not the right approach.

I don’t know why there is so much muddled and confused information and misunderstanding about audio. I do however appreciate this lack of understanding as I have had a long and distinguished career as a result.

[Michael Gissing]

[Sean ONeil] “There’s no such thing as native 1920 HDV.”

Yes I know that. There are however 1920 x 1080 m2t files. Is that what the DTE drive stores or not? I feel like we are arguing at totally cross purposes here.

The original post talked about….lets forget it. The original poster dumped a poorly framed question and isn’t the least bit interested in our speculative diatribe. Nor am I any more frankly.