[Tom Brooks]

I put my bet with Duane. When you export, is the box for “Make Movie Self-Contained” checked?

[Tom Brooks]

Sometimes you get away with not doing it, but there’s always a point to matching sequence settings to source clip properties.

[Tom Brooks]

I guess you could just quickly drop them all in a new timeline, paste the attributes to them, and then drag the clips from the timeline to the Browser. The new clips will now have the attributes.

[Tom Brooks]

Since you shot on a Canon 7D, your clips are progressive–not interlaced, upper field first. That camera does not record 1080i. So, your clips are 1080p25. Your sequence should match that. If Final Cut doesn’t ask if you want to change sequence settings to match your clips, you should set sequence to:

1920 X 1080
Aspect ratio: HDTV 1080i (16:9)
Field dominance: None
Editing timebase: 25

I’d suggest making a copy of your sequence and change the Field Dom. on the copy to None.

Since you’ve already done the edit without converting clips (must have been agonizing), I’d probably just change the final sequence’s Quicktime Compressor setting to ProRes 422 and render. Then export a self-contained or reference movie. The exported movie will also be 1080p25. Take that into Compressor to make MPEG-2 and AC-3 assets. I would check to make sure that Compressor recognizes the Quicktime movie as progressive rather than (incorrectly) interlaced, upper first.

If your sequence properly matches your clips, you should get better quality. I suppose you’ve heard by now that your best bet in future would be to use the new Log and Transfer plugin for the Canon camera, which can be obtained from the Canon site. At the very least, convert the original clips to ProRes 422 in Compressor. It makes life so much easier.

[Tom Brooks]

Sorry, I failed to think clearly before. Your problem is that you are using DV/DVCPRO in a 1280 sequence. DV is designed for standard def only. It won’t work in RT at 1280. Convert to ProRes instead.

[Tom Brooks]

It’s a mystery allright. Check the clips in the timeline for distortion. Under the motion tab. Just a shot in the dark.

[Tom Brooks]

First guess is that the sequence contains items that require render on export. Motion projects on the timeline, for instance. If you export using QT conversion or Export Using Compressor, Final Cut renders all effects according to sequence settings. It can take a long time. A quicker way is to render everything first, then export a QT reference movie. Compress that to H.264 in Compressor. Use a quick cluster to speed it up.

[Tom Brooks]

[Michael Neel] “Even if we chose a compressor from the sequence settings (i.e. uncompressed 10 bit or 8 bit, MPEG 4, Apple Intermediate Codec) the same thing happened. “

That should not happen. If your sequence is 10-bit UC and you render out AE to the same, it should play with no problem in the FC timeline. Are you getting colored render bars over the timeline with these clips? Make a careful check of your AE settings, especially frame rate, to make sure it matches your sequence. I love ProRes, although I haven’t had a chance to use 4444 with alpha as yet.

[Tom Brooks]

Yah, I know. I guess I believed the OP when he said pA, which would IMPLY 1080. In retrospect, that was a poor assumption. I’ll be quiet now.

[Tom Brooks]

Dave, I don’t see a big problem here. If your DP shot 23.98pA, it’s 1080pA23,98. Log and Transfer this with pulldown removal checked (the default setting). The captured clips are perfectly compatible with 720pN24 clips. Just scale them to fit the timeline (probably happens by default) and render if necessary.

Final Cut Pro 6.0.5, Mac OS-X 10.5.6, Quicktime 7.6, Adobe Prod Prem CS4, G5 Quad 2.5, Kona-LHe V6, 8.5GB RAM, Nvidia GeForce 7800-GT 256MB, G-RAID 2x1TB FW800, 6TB RAID-5 (Enhance E8-ML, Highpoint 2322), Panasonic HVX-200P P2. Also MBP 17″ Core 2 Duo 2.5, 4GB, GeForce 8600M GT 512MB.