16x9 sequence is getting squeezed to 4x3 when I export from Compressor

Question

My usual Final Cut to Compressor workflow is producing an unusual result. I am starting with an anamorphic DV NTSC sequence in Final Cut, but when I export this from Compressor using the Uncompressed 10-bit codec in a Quicktime wrapper, the video is squeezed to 4x3.
Here is my process in depth.
These are the sequence settings shown in Final Cut.
720 pixels x 420 pixels. The pixels have an aspect ratio of 16:9 and so the sequence is displayed widescreen. (My one question about this section is what do the QuickTime Video Settings mean? This is not something that I have ever adjusted... can it affect how Compressor interprets the sequence?)
Then I export a reference Quicktime.
Then I bring this Quicktime reference movie into Compressor and apply the QuickTime Uncompressed 10-bit settings provided with Compressor. Now, I don't normally adjust the geometry at all with this workflow since I thought that this format automatically used the current frame geometry settings from the sequence. However, having no luck with this I attempted to fix the problem myself by adjusting the geometry to match my sequence settings in FCP.
Unfortunately, my attempted manual override of the compressor export failed. The quicktime that I got from this was squeezed to 4x3 just as before!
Using QuickTime Conversion directly from FCP I was able to get the appropriate 16x9 quicktime, but I really need to figure out how to do this in compressor since I have to process a lot of sequences and need to keep FCP available and Compress in batchs. So, any suggestions?

Answer 1

Your problem is one of the most common suffered by people new to editing or new to the anamorphic scene.
It starts with a misconception. DV anamorphic video is NOT 16x9. The camera that shoots anamorphic 16x9 is actually shooting squeezed 4x3 video. If you note the sequence settings in your first picture, you'll see that your actual frame size is 720x480 which is a 4x3 frame size (3x2 actually, but it's essentially the same thing). The anamorphic check box is merely to let FCP know that the footage was squeezed when shot so that it displays it properly to you.
Though FCP can most times recognize anamorphic footage upon capture, QT player does not. All it sees is the 720x480 frame, so that's why it looks squeezed.
To get it to look correctly in QT, you have to actually change the frame size in Compressor to a 16:9 frame size. For DV, that is 854x480. Go to your Geometry controls and choose Custom 16:9 from the drop down menu. Then type 854 in the horizontal box. Then save that as a preset for you.
When Compressor does it's thing, the finished movie will open up as a 854x480 clip in QT which will be the proper aspect ratio for your video.
On another note, I'm not sure why you're going from a DV/NTSC sequence to compressing in Uncompressed 10bit. Because the video was captured and edited in DV, it'll never be of higher quality than DV. You might as well keep it that way, unless there's something else about your workflow that I don't know/understand.
I hope this helps you understand how anamorphic works.
Andy