Re: 16:9 appearing as 4:3 in Color *pic*

Hi, I'm working with some AVCHD footage which is 16:9 and all appears fine within FCP but once sent to Color it shows it as 4:3.

Why is this? I've attached a pic.

I've worked with the same format before and it all appeared fine in Color, in the right aspect, now it just suddenly decides to change aspect?! Also once sent back to FCP it comes as a squished 4:3 image but in a 16:9 frame.

Any help on solving this would be much appreciated.

Thanks :-)

FCS2 with all latest updates (except the just released pro apps one)
10.5.3
Footage is HD and in AIC codec

1) IN your setup room, under the "prjct settings tab" make sure that Resolution preset matches your footage.
2) Then check in the "user prefs" tab, make sure that "video output" is set to match your footage frame size and frame rate

FYI: pg 84 of the color manuals says that AIC is supported for Input, but you need to render back to something else (uncompressed, dvcproHD)

happy grading,

Jeffrey Di Lullo
bbc&s video communications

Hi Jeffrey, thanks for the response. All my settings are correct, 1920 x 1080, 25fps etc is all as it should be but still it appears as shown in my pic above.

Also when I send it back it prompts me if I want to send back in the chosen codec, I click no and it sends all my graded footage back in AIC so it doesn't seem to need to have its codec changed as it says in the Color manual, go figure!

I feel this issue may source from FCP as it has all looked fine in Color in the past and I've changed no settings in Color.

Color will allow you to choose "original format " but that doesn't necessarily mean that it will correctly deal with footage when rendering back to AIC (once again this is not a supported codec for export from color). Color is rather finicky about the final output. Try rendering out to Pro Res.

Is your footage anamorphic? You could be having issues with the anamorphic flags when you get back to FCP. Do you have any effect applied to this timeline that you sent from FCP? That can cause issues.

Heres and idea. Take one of your offending clips and drop it into a new timeline in fcp. Make sure that your fcp timeline's settings match your clip's setting exactly. Then send to color and see what happens. (you may have already done this)

jd

Jeffrey Di Lullo
bbc&s video communications

Hi, did everything you said and still no luck....i've tried several different things and every time it appears as 4:3 in Color, now when I export back to FCP it is now coming in as 4:3 with black bars either side filling in the 16:9 space.

Really cannot figure this one out for the life of me, its very frustrating because its creating a huge problem for my grading workflow.