[Ruckus Skye]

Tony, yes they did use DVCPRO50 codec, because that’s what I asked them to use (that’s what the client wanted). Anyway, it turns out that Virtual VTR’s DCCPRO50 preset actually puts out the clips at 640×486, but the clip properties say that it’s 720 – even though it’s really 640. Makes no sense and the lab couldn’t explain it either. There was no way to adjust it in virtual VTR, so they just re-output it for me as uncompressed 8bit 4:2:2 and now it works great and looks better anyway. We’ll just have to downconvert it to DVCPRO50 after we finish cutting it.

Thanks to everyone who took the time to try and help!

-Ruckus

[Ruckus Skye]

Thanks for the insights Tony.
Let me try to be as clear as I can: The clips that the lab gave me right out of Virtual VTR are most definitley 720×486 – whether they should be or not, they are 486 not 480 without a doubt.
So, when I set my FCP timeline to 486 so that it matches the clips, I get a red bar and have to render it. I just double checked both the clip and seq settings, both are set to 720×486 and it makes me render it to see it.

The real issue is not having to render, but the tearing. which you said is due to a field disorder.
Could you elaborate a little? I just double checked both my clips properties and my SEQ settings and they are both Lower field first – is that what you mean? If so, they are both the same, so what else could be causing it? So, do I need to go back to the lab and tell them to give me new clips and make sure they are 720×480? Will that fix the tearing? Or, should I make them lay it to tape and then actually capture in FCP instead of them exporting through virtual VTR and then pulling those clips into FCP?

Thanks!

[Ruckus Skye]

Thanks John, that makes sense, but still doesn’t explain the “breaking” I’m getting. If I change the setting to 720×486 to match the footage and then render, it still doesn’t play correctly.
I’m wondering if it’s the way it was captured to the hard drive out of the spirit? If anyone feels like trying here’s a really small piece of the footage. I opened it in Quicktime, trim-to-selection and saved as, so it should be exactly like the footage I’m using. It hasn’t been through Final Cut or anything else.

https://www.streamload.com/joybeanstudios/EL/T2F5I98R02/DVCPRO50_Test.mov

Another interesting thing is: when I pull it into after effects and make a comp with the same settings it get the same “breaking” on the footage. Any ideas?