24pa - 16:9 FCP - anyway to change wrong sequence settings to 16:9 progressive?
 

Nearing completion of a quality 10 minute production captured in 24pa 16:9 with the xl2. Has really turned out nice except production has the black "letter box" look so our sequence settings may have been incorrect in that 16:9 anamorphic was left unchecked and under the advanced tab the compression settings were set to interlaced and 4:3 (not progressive and 16:9).

Just did a short test sequence for 24pa with 16:9 and progressive checked - the result is a full screen image that also appears to be of higher quality.

Is there any way to convert the old sequence to 16:9 and progressive? We tried just checking the 16:9 in the sequence setting and selecting progressive in the advanced tab - but it gets that squeezed look.

If we start over - would probably take three or four days to rebuild it - and it may not be the same. Would appreciate any advice anyone can offer.

Unfortunately Patrick, the sequence settings can't be changed with any clips on the timeline.

My advice would be to create a second sequence with the correct settings, then go to the original, do a select all, then copy. Go to the new sequence and perform a paste. If this works, then you can go back and delete the original. Or you could correct the original sequence's settings and put everything back. Then you could erase the second one you created.

I can't promise you this will work. You may end up having to rebuild your original from scratch after correcting the settings.

-gb-

You can change the setting of a sequence, just select the sequence in the browser and go to sequence settings and change them to 16:9 progressive your clips will then be squished. Just do a select all and go to edit-remove attributes and put a check in the distort box which will remove the distort property and your clips will fill the frame.

It worked!
 

Thanks Nate & Greg.

The only sequence setting that can't be changed with any clips on the timeline is editing timebase. You can change anything else, but your motion settings might be wrong after doing this but you only need to change one and paste attributes to all your other clips.

I do this all the time for making quick DV layoffs of HD sequences.