Exporting issue

Question

Long time lurker first time poster. You guys have solved almost every problem I've ever had with FCP. I've been searching for an exact answer and honestly I'm sick so I don't feel like reading through a ton of close answers to find exactly what I need. Here's what's going on.
The company I work for has been filming in 16:9 for a while now but has been still editing and exporting in 4:3. We decided recently to change everything to 16:9. We are filming on a XL2 in 24p 16:9. Editing on various machines but using FCP 5.1.4. Having issues exporting. None of us have had training we just learned by doing and I want to check what I've done and see if I'm missing something.
My process:
Import with DV NTSC 48hz Anamorphic
Sequence setting is 720x480 NTSC DV (3:2), Anamorphic is checked.
I edit as normal and have always exported as a Quicktime move in the past, would like to keep doing this. So now when I am exporting, tried current settings and it came out 4:3, tried the DV NTSC Anamorphic and it came out 4:3. But when I export using compressor I get 16:9 no problem. If it was just me doing the work I wouldn't care but I have people I work for that can't figure out compressor and I want to try and keep what they are use to for my sanity.
Anyone have any ideas as to why everything exports to 4:3 directly from FCP when I tell it not to?

Answer 1

Perhaps this will help. Here's a brief description of the two output formats:
DV NTSC
720x480 pixels
10:11 (0.9090) pixel aspect ratio
resulting picture size 4:3
DV NTSC anamorphic
720x480
40:33 (1.2121) pixel aspect ratio
resulting picture size 16:9
As you can see, both types of video have the +same resolution+. The only difference between the two formats is the pixel aspect ratio. Pixels on your computer monitor are square (1:1 pixel aspect ratio). A square 720x480 video actually has a 3:2 picture size (720/480 = 1.5). In a square world, a 4:3 picture would actually have a 640x480 size, and a 16:9 picture would have a 853x480 size.
When you play a movie on your computer, QuickTime can see that the file is 4:3 or 16:9 or whatever and compensate for that on your square-pixeled monitor. For 4:3 it will horizontally squish the video. For 16:9, it will horizontally stretch the video. To demonstrate this, click the oval at the top of your canvas window in Final Cut Pro where you select your view size %, and at the bottom of that pull-down menu, check and uncheck "correct for aspect ratio". It will squish and unsquish the video horizontally.
Your files are probably compressing and outputing properly as 720x480 from your quicktime export, but are just not being 'stretched' properly in QuickTime playback. You can open the movie in QT, as Nick suggested, change the display settings, and save the movie again. From there, the movie should display properly
All of this depends on what your delivery format is. If you're going back to DV tape, I would leave it DV NTSC anamorphic, and ignore what you see in quicktime. If you're going to post on youtube, or deliver the file by computer, I'd recommend recompressing as a square pixel movie.
Read about pixel aspect ratios here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pixelaspectratio
Also, read QuickTime Player Help topic on "Saving a Movie with Specific Playback Settings". If you change the default playback settings and then save the file, it should play back properly.