Need 4:3 Pal DVCam (letterboxed) copy of XDCam HD material

[Kalunga Lima]

I can't seem to figure out how to get a PAL DVCam 4:3 (letterboxed) of my XDCam HD material

I shot material in XDCam HD 1080p25 VBR and edited natively in FCP but can't seem to be able to record a copy in PAL DVCam in 4:3 for local TV with my wide screen material letterboxed using a Sony HVR-M25E deck.

Same goes for making a PAL 4:3 DVD copy. Any suggestion what work flow to use to let

... oh yes, and the client is breathing down my back

thanks
kalunga

[Christian Hoffmann]

Ok, there are several ways to do this. Here is one to make a quick letterboxed playout. Export your XDCam HD sequence as a self contained Quicktime. Choose the Easy setup "DV PAL 48 Khz" from the Final Cut Menu. Re-import your Quicktime File to Final Cut Pro. Create a DV PAL sequence in 4:3. Since you work in 1080 25p go to the Sequence settings and set the field order to "none". Edit your XDCam HD Quicktime into this DV PAL Sequence. If you work with Final Cut Studio 2 the program will ask you if you want to change the sequence's settings to match those of your clip. Click "no". Now you should have a letterboxed SD version of your Sequence. For playing it out over FW you'll have to render the sequence.
If your HVR-M25E is set to HDV 1080i 50, turn it off, unplug the FW cable from your mac, turn the deck on, change the settings to DV in the deck's menu ("auto" doesn't work correctly) and plug it into your Mac again. Now you can choose "the "edit to tape" function in FCP.
What is your usual workflow for creating DVDs?

[Kalunga Lima]

Thank you very very much Christian.

I really appreciate your help. This is exactly the info I needed. The DVD part is simple now that I have a letter boxed sequence.

[Christian Hoffmann]

You're welcome. I wouldn't recommend using the letterboxed version as source for your DVD, though. If you do and someone watches the DVD on a 16:9 screen, he'll see the letterbox bars plus black bars left and right of the picture. He'd have to zoom in manually to have a full screen picture.
The following workflow assumes that you're using DVD studio Pro for DVD creation.
You go through the same process as described above but use the "DVcPro50 PAL 48khz anamorphic" easy setup instead. As soon as you have rendered your DVCPro50 sequence, export it as a self contained quicktime. If you watch your File in the Quicktime Player it should be 720x576 pixels in size and persons should have "egg heads" (meaning the picture should look as if squeezed from the left and right). Take this Quicktime file to the "Compressor" application and use one of the 16:9 presets to encode your video to mpeg 2 and AC3. It is important to use a 16:9 presets as the encoder sets a flag in the mpeg2 stream that tells the DVD player how to handle your material. If someone watches the resulting DVD on a 16:9 screen the picture will now be accurately shown full screen with no bars.

Christian

[Uli Mors]

I am wondering if there is any way to get a letterboxed signal, too.

(for previewing SD on a non-16:9-CRT monitor)

?

Thanks

ULI

[Kalunga Lima]

I knew there was a reason for joining this forum...

thanks again Christian
k