Aspect ration probs when exporting in FCP
 

Hi,

I'm not very inexperienced. I have an 16:9 edit session in which I have a three minute long completed production and can't export without getting a vertically squished final.

The Settings for this edit say:
Frame size 720x480 NTSC 3:2
Pixel aspect ratio: NTSC CCIR 60i DV, 16:9 anamorphic box is checked
Feild Dominance: Lower, even
29.97 timebase
QT Video Setting: DV/DVC Pro - NTSC
Audio 48 kHz.

Can someone tell me what settings I need to export this production to keep the quality up and aspect ratio intact?

I'm being asked for an mp4, but every time I try, I get the 16:9 squished vertically into a 4:3 when I play it back in Quicktime. I have played back 16:9 video in Quicktime before with no problems.

I have exported via Quicktime (insted of Quicktime compressor). The result is more like 16:9, but the image looks a little soft and there's still some aspect ratio distortion.

Thanks,

Ty Ford

Unfortunately, Quicktime doesn't understand pixel aspect ratios for SD DV. When you export as Quicktime and view on a computer monitor it will be displayed as 720x480 with square pixels, regardless of the anamorphic format. In fact, if you watch regular 4:3 video on your computer monitor using Quicktime it will also have 720x480 pixels and will also be in the wrong proportion (it will be 3:2 instead of 4:3 and everything will be a little too wide).

If you plan to view on a computer screen then you have to change the frame size to the correct proportion for square pixels before you export. In other words, 854x480 or 720x404 would be correctly proportioned for 16:9 (or anything that works out to 1.78:1).