[Noah Rodman]

Hi

I changed my settings to convert the files to .dv
It seems to have helped a little (I can operate without as much lagging) now. However, I still encounter a loss in quality upon export

Not sure what I’m doing wrong, still, but have been trying out many scenarios to no success. All in all, I’m glad this forum helped me solve my letterboxing problem. If you have any more tips, i seriously appreciate them

current sequence settings: 720 x 480 NTSC DV; Pixel aspect ratio NTSC-CCIR 601/DV; Anamorphic 16:9 applied; DVCPRO50-NTSC compressor

exporting at ‘best’ quality, DVCPRO50-NTSC, interlaced
I also don’t think I have ‘ProRes’

[Noah Rodman]

Ok, I used that preset and imported a new clip with 1920 x 1080 dimensions, converted to a mp4 with an H.264 codec. The clip fits the frame perfectly and seems to be rendering at a faster speed, though I’m not sure why.

Now my only problem is quality. The image quality is worsening from .tod to mp4 (a little), mp4 into sequence and export with quicktime.

Your improved the quality a bit in the sequence, but I still have a quality problem overall. Do you have any last suggestions so I can commence converting the rest of my files?

[Noah Rodman]

Ok, so here’s what I’m doing:
-converting .tod files at 50% in MPEG Streamclip, keeping 1920×1080 size
-placing them in sequence with 720×486 CCIR 601 NTSC (40:27) settings,
pixel aspect ratio ‘PAL-CCIR 601 (720×576), Anamorphic 16:9
-some files are taking up the screen, others are not. might have changed settings at some point
-files taking too long to render (10 minutes for a 10 second clip)

Wondering if the files are too big, and where in the steps I should fix things. Also want to feel confident in my clip settings so I can convert the rest of them and get editing

[Noah Rodman]

Hi Rafael,

The clip properties state that the file was 1920 x 1080 pixels. I scaled it down to 720 x 480 and it seems to fit. But is there anything else I should check? This clip is still taking somewhat long to render (7 minutes for 10 seconds). Is my file too large to begin with? Or am I all set for editing and exporting?

[Noah Rodman]

Hi again,

I’ve been trying to work on the problem myself for a while, and have had limited luck. First of all, I was able to convert my .tod files with MPEG Streamclip at an acceptable size that doesn’t have letterboxing in FC. My sequence settings are 720 x 486, CCIR 601 NTSC (40:27), Anamorphic 16:9.
Actually, the clip does not perfectly eliminate letterboxing. There’s a slight band of black on the top and bottom.
On top of that, these clips are taking a long time to render (26 minutes for 26 seconds), and a very long time to convert to mp4 as well.

I really appreciate your help with these problems. I just wanted to make sure I was using an appropriate aspect ratio and settings, and if I can do something about this render time issue at least.
Also, if Prores is something that could help, I have yet been unable to find it. Any suggestions?

[Noah Rodman]

My export settings when I click “use Quicktime conversion” read that I’m using H.264 compression, the quality is high and the dimensions are 476×362

The info on these files before I put them in FCP (after they’ve been converted from .tod files) reads that they’re MPEG-4 files with dimensions 640×480.

I can change the export dimensions, but the problem is that my files are already letterboxed (and maybe altered in other ways) before I put them in Final Cut. I’m wondering if FC has any way to change them to fullscreen dimensions and retain quality if I need to enlarge any images
or if my .tod converter is no good..