I shot a live concert yesterday with the Z7E (set to HDV 1080p), and when i Log & Transferred it into FCS 3 and, put the video on the timeline, the video has this weird letterbox. When i play the footage in the viewer it's OK but on the time line its no good.

Thinking its a display glitch, i exported a segment from the sequence, and it looked the same.

I tried endlessly playing with the sequence settings but got to nothing.
I've attached two screenshots.

Can anybody help me?
Really appreciate the help!

You've only posted half the pertinent info there Yigal, can you post a screenshot of the source clip's item properties too?

Yes, here it is
thank you!

Sorry Yigal

I should have been more specific, a Clip's Item Properties window is revealed by selecting it then pressing Cmd-9 (or choosing Edit menu > Item Properties > Format).

Your screenshot suggests that your source master clip or timeline instance has somehow had the "anamorphic" flag applied, causing the distortion displayed in the canvas, Try removing that anamorphic flag and then choosing Modify menu > Scale to Sequence, or otherwise double click the timeline instance to load it into the Viewer window, then go to the Motion tab and reset the Distort >> Aspect Ratio property to 0 (zero).

Hope it helps
Andy

Hi Yigal,

My guess would be to check that the "anamorphic" tickbox is checked in the properties for both the sequence and the clips. Also, make sure that you are using a 1440x1080 timeline, not a 1920x1080.

Thank you all for your replies. I tried your suggestions, but nothing worked.
In the end i just imported the footage into a new project (with the same settings actually) and it all worked.

Thank you for your time!

Sometimes it is in the "distort" settings in the same tab as "basic motion"

But if you got it to work, you got it to work.