HDV to Animation Alpha loses alpha

I'm very very frustrated (sorry to start so abrasively). I've searched and searched these forums for about a week. I've rendered test after test after test. I’ve read as much in the manual as I could find. And, I've gotten nowhere. Someone please impart their wisdom to me...
I'm using a 3rd party filter to do a chroma key on HDV footage in an HDV sequence. It keys great. I can see the checkerboard in the canvas clearly where it should be. I’m trying to take that keyed footage to Motion to manipulate it. When I render using the Animation Alpha setting in Compressor, the alpha channel disappears. There is no transparency. The keyed area is solid black.
Any clue? Thank you.
MacBook Pro Intel Core Duo   Mac OS X (10.4.9)  

I used the "Animation NTSC Alpha" setting in Compressor.
In case you haven't, try this: Alter the Compressor option in your current timeline's sequence settings - prior to export from and/or rendering in Final Cut - to Animation and, under Advanced, set color depth to Millions of Colors+, as mentioned.
Now, when you render and/or export, you'll actually have an alpha channel that QuickTime understands. (When working in any other codec within Final Cut, even after keying, you can't actually generate an alpha channel during any kind of output or conversion)

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