Hey everyone,

I've been editing footage from the XL2 (24p 2:3:3:2, 16:9 aspect ratio) in a 23.98 16:9 anamorphic timeline in Final Cut Pro. Every thing works fine. But when I output it back onto miniDV, the footage appears streched just like the source footage was like originally on tape. How do I output it back onto miniDV but have it letterboxed within the 720x480 tape frame? I found that by taking that footage thats been edited and bringing it into a regular 23.98 timeline without marking it as anamorphic, it letterboxes it on the tape. Is that the only way to do it? Is there a way I can output from my original anamorphic timeline to miniDV and have it show in its proper aspect ratio on tape? Thanks guys.

Did you ever find an answer to this question?

I am having the same problem.

Any help would be great. To bad no one responded to you.

David

I'm a little confused as to what you want.... everything is behaving as it should. If you shot anamorphic then the stretched image is what got recorded on tape, as you note. If you want it letterboxed in a 720x480 frame then the easiest way to do this is generally exactly what you tried: drop the anamorphic sequence into a 4:3 sequence and render.

There is also a widescreen matte in the in the Mattes folder on the effects tab of the browser; you can drag this onto your clip. Another alternate would be to use the crop property on the clip's motion tab. All of these will require a render however.

Just realize that if you send the letterboxed image back to tape you have altered it and reduced its vertical resolution by 25% (since it will only have 360 lines instead of 480).