Apple Final Cut Pro 7 - Manual (Page 1479)

2 Choose Sequence > Settings, then click the Video Processing tab.
3 Choose Best from the Motion Filtering Quality pop-up menu.
4 Click OK.
Tip: To decrease rendering time during your edit session, you can choose a lower-quality
motion filtering option; just remember to set the quality to Best before you output your
final sequence.
Mixing 720 x 480 Footage and 720 x 486 Footage
When you add a DV NTSC clip (720 x 480) to a Rec. 601 SD sequence (720 x 486), the DV
clip is not scaled. In most cases, the top and bottom three lines of the sequence will
appear black—the default background color of the sequence—because the DV clip does
not completely fill the 720 x 486 frame. This is considered the best approach because it
preserves the pixel aspect ratio of the DV footage and doesn’t require scaling. However,
you can also scale 720 x 480 footage to 720 x 486 footage. For more information, see
“Scaling Images and Video Clips to Match a Sequence.”
Mixing Frame Rates
Clips with any Final Cut Pro-supported frame rate can be added to a sequence and played
back in real time. Depending on whether the clip frame rate is faster or slower than that
of the sequence, Final Cut Pro skips or repeats frames of the sequence clip.
Nonmatching frame rates are handled in three ways.
• If a clip and sequence have matching frame rates: Each frame of the clip’s media file is
played back in the sequence. No frame rate conversion occurs, even when the clip and
sequence codecs don’t match. Ideally, your clip and sequence frame rates should always
match.
• If a clip’s frame rate is slower than the sequence frame rate: Final Cut Pro repeats frames
of the clip’s media file as necessary to create the appearance of playback at the sequence
frame rate. The repeating pattern is not necessarily compatible with standard pull-down
or frame duplication patterns of other formats. In cases with interlaced footage (such
as a PAL clip within an NTSC sequence), fields are sometimes doubled (instead of frames)
to avoid field stuttering.
• If a clip’s media file frame rate is faster than the sequence frame rate: Final Cut Pro drops
frames of the clip’s media file as necessary to create the appearance of playback at the
sequence frame rate. Because frames are skipped, you won’t always be able to trim
these clips with frame accuracy. In those cases, you may want to open the original clip
in the Viewer to set a specific In or Out point before editing the clip into the sequence.
1479 Chapter 86 Working with Mixed-Format Sequences