I wondered if anyone can help with this frustrating problem:

I'm working on a project in 4:3 PAL. Most of my footage is shot native SD 4:3. I recently started using the XH-A1 and converted the HDV 16:9 footage to DV-PAL 4:3 cropped. However when I import it to FCP (4.5) the images are slightly narrower then all the native 4:3 stuff though in the browser it says all images are 720x576. When viewed in QT though the cropped images are the correct size. (I should say that I have the same problem with images converted from my HDR-HC3 so it looks very much like a FCP issue)

I can't seem to get round this.

Any thoughts?

Geoff

What about zooming in slightly? Not the best solution but quick and easy and if it isn't that much then the quality will hardly be affected.

720*576 PAL does not use square pixels but slightly wide. Maybe just a slight horizontal zoom would fix the problem. There might be a setting somewhere in FCP for this also.

720*576 PAL does not use square pixels but slightly wide. Maybe just a slight horizontal zoom would fix the problem. There might be a setting somewhere in FCP for this also.

Useful thoughts guys, thanks. I get confused re square / round pixels etc. What I can't fathom is why the downrezed HDV footage is different from the rest. There is a function in FCP which enables you to 'show as square pixels' which is on for all clips - if I switch it off all clips are squished a bit, but the slightly narrower sizing issue of the cropped downrezed HDV footage remains.