Final Cut Pro to convention-safe MPEG2

dokool · Post by **dokool** » Mon Feb 26, 2007 8:11 am

So I have my final export (640x352, 29.97fps progressive) in the can, and I need to make something I can submit to a convention. Can I do this in Compressor (adding the black bars along the way) or do I need to make the vid 640x480 inside FCP before I encode?

Zero1 · Post by **Zero1** » Mon Feb 26, 2007 6:49 pm

I can't help you with the Mac programs I'm sorry, but do you know what equipment they will use at the con? I was just taking into consideration for non square pixels and such, or DVD playback; you may like to look into 720x480 with a 16:9 AR tag, or simply 720x480 letterboxed.

If they are running a projector off a PC or something, then I suppose it doesn't matter and square pixels is fine, but thought I'd just mention it. Better safe than sorry

dokool · Post by **dokool** » Mon Feb 26, 2007 8:05 pm

Zero1 wrote:I can't help you with the Mac programs I'm sorry, but do you know what equipment they will use at the con? I was just taking into consideration for non square pixels and such, or DVD playback; you may like to look into 720x480 with a 16:9 AR tag, or simply 720x480 letterboxed.

If they are running a projector off a PC or something, then I suppose it doesn't matter and square pixels is fine, but thought I'd just mention it. Better safe than sorry

I... never understood the point of people who don't have familiarity with the scope of the question attempting to answer the question anyway.

*turns on the Shazzy-signal*

Shazzy · Post by **Shazzy** » Tue Feb 27, 2007 12:39 am

What you want to do is nest your sequence in another. This only takes a few seconds.

Here is my original sequence settings designed to match yours:

Here is my convention sequence settings with a frame size of 640x480:

I open up my convention sequence timeline. I drag my original sequence icon from the Browser into the timeline. Everything is now letterboxed appropriately.

Export your convention sequence in Compressor using normal 4:3 settings.

There can be a couple of mishaps depending on what sort of effects you used. Look through your new sequence, and if you notice anything weird, let me know.

Shazzy · Post by **Shazzy** » Tue Feb 27, 2007 1:21 am

And this is now on the mac guide site here.

YouTube · Post by **Kionon** » Tue Feb 27, 2007 10:38 pm

Clearly I should stop working on my mac guide then. Beat to it, I see.

Shazzy · Post by **Shazzy** » Wed Feb 28, 2007 10:03 am

Kionon wrote:Clearly I should stop working on my mac guide then. Beat to it, I see.

Err, these have been up since January 2006 =\

Zero1 · Post by **Zero1** » Wed Feb 28, 2007 7:10 pm

dokool wrote:I... never understood the point of people who don't have familiarity with the scope of the question attempting to answer the question anyway.

The point was, I clicked this thread to assist someone looking to make convention safe MPEG-2. Had the thread title have said "At which point do I add borders to my video on Mac?", or something to that effect, I would have ignored it, but rather than hitting back and forgetting about it, I thought I might try to offer some assistance, while I'm here.

Having re-read the original post, sure it doesn't directly answer your question, but it's not completely out of scope either. You were asking about resolutions, and I came back with something relevant as far as "convention safe MPEG-2" goes (in as much as using CCIR601 vs square pixels for DVD/TV/projector playback).

YouTube · Post by **Kionon** » Wed Feb 28, 2007 10:15 pm

Shazzy wrote:
Kionon wrote:Clearly I should stop working on my mac guide then. Beat to it, I see.
Err, these have been up since January 2006 =\

I don't see how that helps me. Unless you're saying they're outdated and a new one is needed so I should keep working on mine.

dokool · Post by **dokool** » Thu Mar 01, 2007 7:59 pm

I'm getting horrible, <i>horrible</i> jaggies on my MPEG2 when exporting the sequence through Compressor. I'm not sure why, because it's 29.97 progressive the entire way, and none of my other outputs have had the problem before.

I'm going to try doing an uncompressed AVI and running it through TMPGEnc.