FCP: Video Size Problem

[jrhmy]

Hello,
I spent the morning editing a sequence - fixing the audio in Soundtrack Pro and then color correcting and rendering.

Everything's fine, except when I export it, the dimensions are incorrect. I thought it was an exporting problem, but I realized that there is something wrong with my sequence settings.

At full resolution, each of my clips are viewed at 24% (to fit the screen). The entire sequence dropped in quality, and is viewed at 74% in order to be the "same size" on my screen as the 24% clips from my camera.

Also, my other sequences that work fine don't display black letterboxes within the video; they are simply cut off of the frame. In this problematic sequence, there are black stripes at off-frame areas in other sequences.

I tried imitating sequence settings, but it didn't work - the entire clip shrunk in size, so that on the viewer, you see the video in a small box within a big black square.

I'm unable to identify the exact problem, and I understand it might be a bit misleading. But any information would be appreciated.

Also, I tried copy and pasting clips from this sequence into another one that worked; the clips are still in poorer quality and at a different size.

 

[knightly]

At the top of the canvas window, is the selection set to "Fit to window?" - although this shouldn't affect the output, I'm wondering if your zoom is filling the frame with the footage, but the footage is smaller than the sequence.

What kind of camera/ what size footage? What settings are you using for the import and for the sequence?

 

[jrhmy]

At the top of the canvas window, is the selection set to "Fit to window?" - although this shouldn't affect the output, I'm wondering if your zoom is filling the frame with the footage, but the footage is smaller than the sequence.

What kind of camera/ what size footage? What settings are you using for the import and for the sequence?

Yes, it is set to 'fit to window', which is why I didn't notice the problem earlier - the original footage looked the same size as the clips in the timeline.

I used a 7D, 1920x1080. I don't think it was an import problem, because the clips imported play in full quality, it's only the ones in this particular sequence that has problems. I mimicked the sequence settings of the working ones, but that didn't fix it.

If it makes a difference, copy and pasting the clips from the problematic sequence into my previous ones that work didn't make a difference; the existing clips from that working sequence play in full quality, but the clips I've pasted remain with the same problem. However, if I drag the original clips from my import into the working sequence, it appears fine and is zoomed in at "24%" to fit my screen, instead of the 74%.

Thank you,
Jeremy

 

[knightly]

Check the scale of the clips in the viewer window under the Motion tab and see if it's the same as the others that work...

the sequence settings should match that of the clips being used, or they'll have to be scaled to fit... to do bulk scale changes, set up one, then copy it (right-click or ctrl-click) and select all (command-a) and then right-click and paste attributes... you'll be presented with a dialog to select what you're pasting... you can then choose scale and it'll propagate to all the selected clips.

 

[jrhmy]

Thanks, knightly!

I took a look at the motions tab and the scale was different from the rest. I set all the same sequence settings, then adjusted the scale to 100 - it still didn't look right. But I realized there was distortion set to each clip. I don't know why though.

It's rendering right now; hopefully it'll work. Any idea how to set a default "new sequence" setting?

 

[knightly]

That is in the preferences somewhere... look around in there. Not only will you find that item, but it'll force you to go through the rest of the prefs to see what else is available.