As much as it breaks my heart, I have to downconvert the Canon HD to betacamSP 4x3 squeezed.
IT is running through Streamclip now, hoping that works well but looking for options. If I go through FCP I believe I'll have to put each clip on the timeline, then convert. If possible I'd like to do a batch conversion.

Why do you have to squeeze it? Convert your 5d clips to ProRes then just drop them into an SD timeline. FCP will automatically down res and letterbox them.

What are you using for an output to tape?

I have both Matrox MXO2 and AJA HDe. Both will just play component out if you conform clips to 29.97 (in Cinema Tools) then play them back as clip or in timeline, no rendering in FCP.

hello Olaf - planning to run firewire out to a DV pro deck or composite to a Betadeck. All is transcoded to AvidDV25 already. Am I going to have an issue if I don't run it through Cinema Tools to conform to 29.97, or is that covered when I output to the Avid codec?

hello Olaf - planning to run firewire out to a DV pro deck or composite to a Betadeck. All is transcoded to AvidDV25 already. Am I going to have an issue if I don't run it through Cinema Tools to conform to 29.97, or is that covered when I output to the Avid codec?

I have never used AvidDV25 codec. But chances are it also conformed to 29.97. You can check to make sure timeline is 29.97.

If it plays out to deck and you monitor deck output, and everything looks fine you are OK.

If this is for broadcast make sure signal is legal ire 7.5 to 100. You can do that in FCP using its scopes.

I finally ended up running all the clips (it was an overnight batch run) through MPEG Streamclip. It transcoded to Avid DV 25 and changed the frame rate to 29.97 in one pass, and seemed much quicker than compressor, certainly simpler.