Please...What am I doing wrong?
 

I have edited a little video together in FCP. I would like to make it a DVD now. It seems no matter what I export it is (Quick Time movie or using Compressor) the video is stretched. If I use compressor, the audio isn't there either, but I can import that easily enough, but why will it not stay the same (visually) in FCP. I have tried exporting (using compressor) for 4:3 and 16:9 and it still looks stretched horizontally. I tired openig it up, after I exported it, in Imovie, DVD Studio, and IDVD and it is still stretched.
As you can tell, I'm very confused...and I don't understand this video problem either.

Thanks for the help.

Todd

Todd, I've moved your thread the Mac editing forum (it was in the PC one).

Oops, Sorry, & Thanks
 

Well that explains why no one was commenting on my question.

Todd: what sequence settings are you using, and in what format did you shoot? That could at least give users a start on diagnosing your problem.

I am shooting with a MiniDV camera. (I think it's 16:9, but I have to double check that now.) the settings for the sequence are 720 X 480, NTSC DV(3:2) Aspect ratio, Anamorphic 16:9 is checked, Compression is DV/DVCPRO NTSC. Something I just noticed when I was looking at my settings, In the Quick Time Video settings, in the advanced settings under "Compressor" it lists the aspect ratio as 4:3. Is that what is giving me the problems? Because I do have Anamorphic 16:9 checked in the general settings.
What does Anamorphic mean anyway? Maybe I'll undrestand if I have a clearer defination of Anamorphic.
Thanks again,
Todd

Todd,
If you are editing a 16:9 sequence in Final Cut and not having to render every time you put a clip in the timeline, then you are editing 16:9 footage, and you should use a 16:9 aspect ratio in Compressor. Sounds like you just solved your own problem.

Anamorphic describes squeezed images, like what you are describing when you export 16:9 footage with the 4:3 aspect selected. Whenever you see a feature film projected with a 2.35:1 aspect ratio, you are seeing anamorphic footage. Instead of building cameras that use film stock with a wider aspect ratio than than the standard 1.85:1, people who want that wider ratio use non-spherical lenses that stretch the image to fit the standard stock then project it back through anamorphic lenses that unstretch (is that a word?) it back to 2.35:1. The principal seems to translate to electronic acquisition. I've shot quite a bit with a PD-170 in its 16:9 mode, and it uses only part of the CCD to record the image then stretches what it records over the 4:3 area that the camera normally records. If you check that box in FCP, it knows to unstretch the footage, just like the anamorphic lens on a projector would.

Adding more info.
 

I just looked at some of the footage I was talking about and it is in 16:9 aspect ratio, however some of it is on 4:3. I had 3 cameras rolling at an event. two of them were 16:9 but one of the cameras was set at 4:3. This is going to be a big problem for my project, isn't it?

Todd,
It is not necessarily a problem, depending on how you want to deliver it. You can either letterbox all the 16:9 footage, crop the 4:3 footage to match and export a 4:3 sequence at the end or you can crop all the 4:3 footage and export a 16:9 sequence at the end. The 16:9 sequence will be much nicer for people with 16:9 TVs. For people with 4:3 TVs, I'm not sure whether there's an advantage to one or the other (it just determines whether you or the DVD player letterboxes the footage, and I don't know whether one way or the other keeps higher resolution). It will be annoying because you'll have to render either all the 4:3 or all the 16:9 footage, but it's not a fatal error. Edit as much as you can in seperate 4:3 and 16:9 sequences before you have to combine them. It will save you some time. Some one handed me footage like this for the 48 hour film project a few weeks ago, and it didn't turn out to be that big of a deal because we were supposed to deliver in letterbox anyway.