Joining in a slew of similar entries... Help, FCP vidders!

[cherry]

I'm having trouble with exporting my Premieres vid. (My awesomeness, let me know you it!) I'm running Final Cut Pro, and I have a system that usually works pretty well, using Compressor, but it is flummoxed by my aspect ratio!

My Premieres vid is in ultra wide screen -- 2.5:1, rather than 16:9, and I cannot figure out any export technique that doesn't make it horridly squishy and distorted and unwatchable. I did my .avi export by trimming the bars from my clipping program and manually resizing it to source dimensions, but I cannot do this with the high quality export!

I've tried close to twenty combinations of import/export/encodes, and I am completely at a loss. Any guidance at all would be greatly appreciated.

Comments

[cherryice.livejournal.com]

I think -- I think that I have somehow achieved my goal. I fake letterboxed it out to 16:9 and did some weird cropping during export, but the video itself appears to be about the right size on my screen. It *looks* correct on my end, and I am just hoping that VVC tech does not make frustrated faces at me.

[laurashapiro.livejournal.com]

They're normally very helpful if a file seems weird, so I wouldn't worry overmuch. Glad you got it to look right! If you have a minute, maybe you can post about what you did so we can learn from it? I say this as a fellow aspect ratio sufferer. (:

[cherryice.livejournal.com]

I can try to do that -- I don't know that it would really be helpful, but at least it would help me remember what I did, should it ever come up again.

I find Compressor's pretty straight forward for MPEG-2 conversion, and I think I might have recently discovered the key to getting aspect ratios right in divx. Or, at least manipulating whatever went wrong so that it looks right.

[laurashapiro.livejournal.com]

I seem to have the opposite problem! I can never get Compressor to work right for aspect ratios, but I have no issues with DivX at all.

I have a feeling this goes back to my sequence settings in FCP. I suspect I've been doing *that* wrong the entire time.

[cherryice.livejournal.com]

... There are sequence settings in FCP?

[laurashapiro.livejournal.com]

I'm really sorry to be the one to have to tell you this, but yes (http://www.larryjordan.biz/articles/lj_sequence_settings.html). More info here (http://forums.creativecow.net/thread/8/1091299), and of course in the FCP manual if you can bear it.

[cherryice.livejournal.com]

Lalalalalalalala.

Okay, actually, this isn't too bad. I thought you meant FCP itself had settings in a submenu somewhere I was supposed to set every time I vidded an at half past the hour and on dates divisible by three and seven, or something. Some of these things, I already do, just from trial and error of ticking boxes.

[laurashapiro.livejournal.com]

I gather that you are meant to set sequence settings for each vid (provided that they actually should be different -- like if your last vid was 4:3 and your current one is 16:9, or your last one was standard definition and you're now working in HD). I have never done it until recently, and now I'm wondering if that's why my aspect ratios are always fucked up.

Meep.