Accidentally Edited HD footage on SD Timeline - help??
 

I shot my first HD project with a Canon XH-A1 in 24F (2:3 pulldown mode - in the future I'll use 2:3:3:2). Anyways, I captured the footage and created a new sequence to rough cut the footage. Then I created another new sequence to edit the final video in, but for some reason this sequence had SD settings. Here is a rundown of the settings:

ROUGH CUT SEQUENCE
Frame Size: 1440x1080 (16:9)
Pixel Aspect Ratio: 1440x1080
Editing Timebase: 23.98
Compressor: HDV 1080p24

FINAL EDIT SEQUENCE
Frame Size: 720x480 (3:2)
Pixel Aspect Ratio: NTSC CCIR 601/DV
Editing Timebase: 29.97
Compressor: DV/DVCPRO - NTSC


My problem is that I've already done the final edit. I didn't realize the settings were wrong while I was editing, since I'm so used to working with the 4:3 setup. Now I've realized the error and I need to get the final edit sequence into a sequence with settings like the rough edit has. How do I do this?

I've tried copying and pasting, but the video pastes in at like half the size necessary and with the wrong pixel aspect ratio. What do I need to do?

Hey Travis,
under "user pref" and "editing" what is your auto conform set at? I have mine on "ask" so when I drag a clip into a new sequence it will ask to change to sequence to match the original clip. Where did the clip on vimeo come from? the rough cut sequence?

Mine is set to "ask". It very well may have asked me, but I didn't realize the settings were wrong at the time. I'm pretty new to the whole world of HD.

The clip on Vimeo was from the final edit; the SD sequence.

hmm looked pretty good for SD, anyway. you should be able to just highlight everything in your edited sequence, copy and paste it back into an HD sequence.

Is there any interlacing on the original HD sequence rough cut you started?

That's what I thought, but when I copy and past to the sequence with the proper settings it comes in at 50% size, so I adjust it back to 100%, but the image is still squished vertically and doesn't fill out the screen.

No. In fact, there is no interlacing in the final edit sequence either, which is apparently SD.

Alright, I think I got it fixed. So I clicked on my original rough cut sequence, then created a new sequence. This creates a new sequence with the settings of the sequence you were just in. So I had a sequence with the proper settings.

Then I copied and pasted the final edit into this new sequence from the old SD sequence. The clips are all small and squished. To fix it, I have to adjust each and every clip manually. First, I had to open the clip to fix, then go to the motion tab and bump the scale from 50% to 100%. Then, also in the motion tab, I discovered that in the "distortion" section there is an aspect meter. It was set to "-50", so I compared to the clips in my rough cut sequence and they were set at "0". So I set the aspect back to "0" and the clip then filled the screen properly.

I'm so happy because as I was editing I wasn't real happy with how my "HD" footage looked. That's because it was downconverting to SD on the timeline. Now that I'm seeing the video come to life on an HD timeline I'm loving it!

Wow, that sounds like a bunch of trouble. I'm glad your getting to see the HD in all its glory now. Another way to do it might have been to highlight everything in the new timeline, right click and then remove attributes. That would take away the distortion and scale stuff as well. Glad you figured it out. Whatever your Audio/Video settings are in the menu will determine what every new sequence is when you create it.

I thought remove all attributes would also remove all of the color-correction filters as well, and reproducing those would have been much more work. Oh well, the video sure does look better in HD, lol.

remove attributes gives you some choices, you can just remove the scale and distortion stuff with checking the box for filters... the new one looks great, the first one was a little orange but I don't think it was too far over the top, maybe just a little.

Alright, good to know.

Oh, and I feel like the new color look is a bit too desaturated, so maybe I need to find somewhere in between the two. I want the video to have a very warm, "sunshiney" feel, and the new look doesn't do that for me.

Yeah, csi miami without the "I go tanning too much" feel.

lol, sounds good.