P2, Final Cut Pro, and non-square pixels

[w9wi]

OK, a friend just bought a Panasonic P2 camera. She's already got Final Cut Pro 6.0.6 running on a Mac.

When she shoots in 1080i, she's having problems bringing the MXF media into FCP. The aspect ratio is wrong -- FCP says it's 1280x1080, and that's exactly what it looks like. The pixel aspect ratio is also coming up as "1280x1080HD". Note 1280x1080 is NOT 4:3. (that would be 1440x1080)

Material shot on the same camera in 480i 4:3 can be imported without difficulty -- and shows up with square pixels.

FWIW the media is being pulled off the P2 cards via the USB port and using the "Log and Transfer" menu item.

Seems to me there's a bad media creation setting somewhere. But I'm not a Final Cut Pro expert (we use Newscutter XP at work, and I'm not expert at that either..) & I can't find it.

Ideas? Thanks!

[rockmanac]

I believe you have to install a codec for P2 into Final Cut Pro. Also 1080i is 16:9 not 4:3.

The last time I worked with stuff shot on any kind of a device that shoots to cards and not tape, I found a converter that would convert the files to Apple ProRes. FCP 6 is much happier working with ProRes files than it is anything else.

[w9wi]

I believe you have to install a codec for P2 into Final Cut Pro. Also 1080i is 16:9 not 4:3.

The last time I worked with stuff shot on any kind of a device that shoots to cards and not tape, I found a converter that would convert the files to Apple ProRes. FCP 6 is much happier working with ProRes files than it is anything else.

Yep, 1080i* is supposed to be 16:9 -- what's showing up on the exports is not only too narrow for 16:9, it's also too narrow for 4:3!

Ah, so even though it does natively decode the media, a separate converter is necessary to get the aspect ratio right. Googling showed a number of available converters but it was never clear (to this non-editor) which version of FCP they go with. There seem to be radical differences between FCP 5, 6, 7, and X. (I don't see any sign FCP 8 or 9 ever existed )

Thanks!

* I don't see any reason why there couldn't be 1080i 4:3 media, but best I can tell this camera only shoots HD in 16:9.

[rockmanac]

There seem to be radical differences between FCP 5, 6, 7, and X. (I don't see any sign FCP 8 or 9 ever existed )

Not much difference at least interface wise between 4, 5, 5.5 (aka "HD") 6 & 7. X is a blatant pile-o-crap that I refuse to touch. 8 & 9 never existed.

[w9wi]

She got it working without any additional transcoding.

Apparently there's a specific order of workflow you have to use. She explained it, but me not being an editor & not having the software in front of me, it went over my head. I think it had to do with not having copied some metadata file off the P2 card, so while the bin knew the media wasn't square pixel, the rest of FCP didn't know. Something like that.

I did note in passing a few rather uncomplimentary comments about FCP X.

[Kent T]

FCP X= aka iMovie Pro.

[NECRAT]

I believe you have to install a codec for P2 into Final Cut Pro. Also 1080i is 16:9 not 4:3.

Don't forget that 1080 interlaced is just the horizontal resolution. In theory, anything 1080i by default is 16:9, but I've seen it where there was a resolution called "1440 x 1080", which is 4:3. So it *can* for all intensive purposes be either. But in the broadcasting realm, it's usually associated that any "HD format" has an aspect ratio of 16:9.

[Deep Thought]

Woah. Zombie thread on the loose!