Final Cut Express anamorphic help please!

[foxota]

I've been editing my footage within a NTSC anamorphic timeline, but when I finish and export it to quicktime file it reverts back to full frame. The footage itself is originally in widescreen, but when I open the quicktime file, and even when i burn it to DVD and watch it on a widescreen TV, it is still squeezed in a narrow box. I don't have this problem with all my projects-- just this one, and I need it to be in widescreen. Can anyone offer any solutions?

thanks alot.

 

[evil_santa]

when you say widescreen do you mean 4:3 letterbox?

Also how are making the DVD, exporting a QT file & burning in toast?

 

[foxota]

It is 16 x 9 and I am exporting to quicktime and burning to iDvd, but the problem occurs before iDvd even begins -- I export it to quicktime, then look at the new quicktime file and it has been squeezed into fullscreen.

thanks

 

[Jopling]

I find that I have the same exact problem in Final Cut Pro HD. I'm editing 16x9 in an anamorphic timeline and sometimes it just likes to smash the footage when played on a tv. I noticed at the school station i worked at we'd get a lot of projects with the same problem and we'd have to tweak them before we played them, even then it wasn't getting exported out of finalcut.

 

[evil_santa]

is your sequence set to Anamorphic 16:9 in the Sequence Settings?

then Export > Quicktime Movie...
then when the dialog box comes up chose 'Current Settings' & I use Make movie Self-Contained.

the file it that is created should be 4:3 Anamorphic.

If you burn this in toast it will give a full screen 16:9, I have not used iDVD, but i assume you have to have the project set as a 16:9 before you burn it else it will revert the file back to a letterbox.

 

[killr_b]

If you are using FCP or Express,

Make sure your timeline is set to anamorphic.
Render 'till no red lines show.

Export using Compressor. It came with FCP.
-Use one of the fast widescreen setting just for a look.
-If it works, use a setting that provides max. quality per space available.
-Create your own preset if you feel comfortable with doing so.

Be sure to encode your audio to AC3 (Dolby Digital) or it will overrun your max bitrate.

When you open iDVD, make sure you have v.6, because I don't think the earlier versions support widescreen. Maybe 5 does...
Set the iDVD project to wide by starting iDVD and choosing "new project," and selecting wide when you choose your project name.

This should work.
B

 

[macgeek4]

I have the same issue with widescreen. Thanks for the provided information, it fixed my problem.

However, I have a project that I want to change to anamorphic 16:9, but when I alter the sequence, it takes my fullscreen project and squeezes it down. Is there any way I can alter my project without distorting my entire project?

Do I have to start from scratch?

 

[TheNightPhoenix]

I think it should be explained what anamorphic footage is.

Anamorphic footage is 4x3 video displayed as 16:9, it is not true 16:9.
When exporting footage out of final cut and playing it in quicktime, it should look 4x3, this is normal

When burning a DVD in things such as DVD Studio Pro, you need to tell it that the footage is Anamorphic.

 

[mattgab1]

I encountered this problem as well with a camera that actually shoots video in wide-screen (FCE would compact it giving it a "stilted" look); which was one of two problems I had when I first started to use FCE (yesterday), both of which I solved with iMovie. The first, which I shall briefly mention, is that my camcorder interfaces with USB, not Firewire, so I had to import the movie clips from my camcorder with iMovie (ver. 7.1.4). iMovie preserves the 16:9 aspect ratio if one tells it to.

At first, I used the files iMovie would make for its own use (the files in the "Event Library"). FCE would import these, but it would squash them into 4:3 every time. After looking around on the internet--including this thread--I did more experimenting.

I noticed that if I imported a movie that was exported as a wide-screen Quicktime movie (such as the graduation video I made for my cousin using iMovie), FCE would rightly treat it as a wide-screen video. What this means is, if you import your clips from your camcorder into an event, collect all the clips you want to edit into an iMovie project, then export the project "using Quicktime", you can then import that with FCE and edit it in wide-screen format.

The manner in which you export it depends on how fast your computer is or how much time you have: on my 3.06 GHz (Intel core duo) iMac, it took 2 and a half hours to export a 13 minute video (16:9, standard def.) in an uncompressed Quicktime movie with the quality settings the highest. Determine which file format is right for you if you do not quite have the time to enjoy every clip in its uncompressed, no-loss format.