How to remove 3:2 pulldown properly from 24p SD 16:9 NTSC footage (After Editing)

Question

Hi,
I'm currently editing a full length feature film and originally imported all the footage directly into final cut making the timeline become a 29.97 timeline, when the pulldown should have been removed before the fact. After much research I know that you can properly remove the 3:2 pulldown from the 24p footage after editing and can be done in compressor. I've tried a number of different compressions and seem to have the dimensions correct which is good. But the 16:9 footage when brought into iDVD or dvd studio pro it seems to want to make the footage 4:3 which is quite confusing and frustrating. I need to be able to get my compression settings correct so that i'm able to put this on a dvd properly. I originally exported the footage from final cut as DV/NTSC and made sure it was 16:9 coming out of final cut. The resolution is 720x480 but comes out as 853x480 as its dimensions and has a squeezed look to the video as it did on its timeline unless the preserve aspect ratio button was unchecked. The only way around getting the squeezed look to go away is to go through compressor and make sure that letterbox is turned off so that its a full screen. Even though its a large file size I compressed using apple pro res to get the best resolution I could, but I need the best results with the lowest file size since the running time is roughly 1:43:00. The footage looks good coming out of compressor, but for some reason even though its full screen 16:9 everytime it is brought into iDVD or dvd studio pro it wants to make it 4:3? what is the reason for this! I recently read an article on this problem and the reverse telecine option within compressor is used to remove the extra frames that final cut adds, and makes the video of better quality relieving the horizontal lines that are caused by the extra frames. I need help on this and I know it can be done because people have proof that it works but I can't seem to reach a solution myself. Thank you to all who reply much appreciated!

Answer 1

What happens when you drop a 4:3 clip - with its anamorphic flag cleared - into the 16:9 sequence ?
I have not been doing exactly this, but I have been going the other way, to produce letterboxed 4:3 footage from 16:9 HDV.
I found, when dropping the clip in, FCP automatically set a scale and distort, to correct for the differnce in aspect ratio - does it do this for you for 4:3 SD on a 16:9 SD timeline ?
Remember, you have to re-open a clip, from the sequence timeline, to see its motion settings in that timeline - I keep forgetting this, drop a clip on, then wonder why nothing I change on the clip happens in the sequence!
Regarding the final output, it all sounds fine, except for the possibility of the 4:3 TV output - the 16:9 footage would be okay letterboxed, but the original 4:3 footage would be better 1:1 - if you had to pillar box the 4:3 in the 16:9 (probably what FCP would do by default) and then letterboxed that when making the 4:3, you'll end up with a box in box, plus interlacing problems from the rescale.
I would consider making a second 4:3 sequence, once you have finished the edit on 16:9, try copying all the 16:9 edits (Cmd-A, Cmd-C) and pasting them into the new 4:3 (Cmd-V) - then its a case of leaving the 16:9 letter boxed, or zooming and panning it for 4:3, and removing the scale / aspect from the 4:3 sequences alltogether, so they play normally.
Messy - isn't it ?
Good luck!
PowerBook G4 Mac OS X (10.4.4)