Digital Cinema Preview Aspect Ratio Shift

[Naomi F.]

Hi There--

I'm cutting on a MacBook Pro 2.66 Intel Core Duo, with 4GB of RAM, Final Cut 6.0.1 and not using an external monitor, but just using Digital Cinema Preview on my laptop screen. I'm editing RED footage that was shot 4K HD and was transcoded Quarter Res to Apple Pro Res 422, resulting in an aspect ratio of 960x540, which is what my sequence is set to. The image is in the correct aspect ratio when I load the clip in Digital Cinema Desktop Preview, but as soon as I hit play the image gets stretched into what looks almost like a 2.40 Letterbox.

Has anyone else encountered this problem and been able to solve it?

Thanks!

Naomi

[Ben Brainerd]

Check your "Video Playback" settings. IIRC, FCP defaults to Full Screen, which will stretch the video. Set it to "Raw" and it should display at the proper size/aspect ratio.

[Naomi F.]

Thanks for the response. Unfortunately, since I don't have an external monitor connected, my only option is Digital Cinema Desktop Preview--Main. The FCP user manual says that if the screen aspect ratio and clip aspect ratio don't match, that the video will be letterboxed to maintain the appropriate aspect ratio. This is what it does when I load the clip. When I play the clip, it adds this extra, extreme letterboxing resulting in a distorted image. Any other ideas?

TIA!
Naomi

[Nick Shaw]

I'm afraid Digital Cinema Desktop is flaky when working with non-standard image sizes. If you make your timeline 1920x1080 it will work.