Confused about FCP settings for XLH1
 

Hey guys. I feel like I may be missing something here. I'm importing footage from an XLH1 into Final Cut Pro and that is all fine. However, when I try to export a still image using the quicktime conversion, the image does not come out widescreen... Like the dimensions are all smooshed together. I remember last time when I exported a quicktime movie of a finished video the same thing happened. Is there some sort of special format setting to ensure that what you have is what you get?

Thanks

That's from the HDV format's non-square pixels, which squeeze 1920 into 1440 width...We export a still image from the time line using Quicktime conversion, then our procedure (made an action to do this, works a treat) is to open the JPG or PNG in Photoshop, deinterlace, image size to 1920x1080 with square pixels, adjust levels if desired, and save as (add filename)....maybe someone knows how to cajole Quicktime into doing this, but I haven't found a way.../ Battle Vaughan/miamiherald.com video team

what about with the video as well? it seems like there should be a preference in final cut to deal with this problem before exporting... thank you for the advice though I will definitely try that.

I don't pretend to understand the magic, but HDV video, when played back, is recognized and the player plays it back in proper perspective. That's not true of the frame grab because a jpeg is a jpeg and the opening program doesn't know to stretch it, as the video players do...I think I got this right, the whole non-square pixel thing hurts my head......./bv PS I tried to upload a Photoshop droplet that automates the frame grab processing (not always a good idea, I admit, each one needs its own tweaking) but the file attachment feature here didn't recognize the file type....

hmmm... ok I see what you mean. I was under the impression that when I had exported video previously with quicktime the dimensions were shrunk during compression or something... But yea it definitely looks fine in the viewer on Final Cut. I think I may have just exported it wrong. Thanks again Battle.

No, you didn't export it wrong...that's what you get from qt conversion to still image...there is a difference in exporting the hdv video, which is corrected in aspect by the player, as I understand it.

The still image will come out as what it is ....1440x1080 in this case, rectangular pixels, and it needs to be corrected in other software as I described. Maybe someone will chime in with another way to do it...but that's the process as I understand it and it is the only way I know to fix an hdv frame grab. /bv