Final Cut Express - Edited for 2 weeks in wrong "preset" how do I change it

[Chrushev]

So, I have 4 hours of footage that I was working on for two weeks, i must have done couple hundred cuts, transitions etc.... a lot of work.

This was my first time using FCE so I didnt know that I had to set the preset ahead of time....

so now my video looks all funky, wrong size with black bars, because it is still set to the old preset or something. Changing preset to 720p does not change the video; however if I put any new videos in they look great.

So I need to replace the videos or fresh them somehow... it wouldnt be a problem if the footage didnt consist of 300+ individual videos that were cut in random places etc...

How do I make it use the new "preset" settings with the old (edited) sequence?

Thanks ahead of time for any help.

[edDV]

I've only used FCE in HDV, AIC 1920x1080, DV wide and DV project modes.

What project settings are you using and what are your clip properties?

In Vegas and Premiere, you can override clip properties if you right click on the file on the timeline. For example, you can change 4x3 letterbox to 16x9. I don't recall doing this in FCE but I could set up a test project if you give more details.

[Chrushev]

The video is recorded with FLIP HP (its a 30fps 1280x720) so 720p footage
here is a screenshot


And I am not sure what FCE was set to originally, i believe it was just default or something..

but this is what I need it set at:


The way it is now, is when i switched it to that setting (second screenshot) it shows the video in the center of a HUGE black box... i dont need to blow it up (zoom it).. i need it to take the natural size of hte video and apply it to the frame.

As I mentioned before, if I put new clips in this same timeline now (after the settings have been picked) they look great, fill the whole thing and stuff...

so I just need to convert or refresh or whatever those 300+ clips that are in my sequence already.

Thanks for taking a look

[edDV]

It sounds to me like you had FCE set to a 720x480 DV project and rendered a timeline preview. That caused the 1280x720p clips to be downsized to 720x480. I'm not certain how to reverse that when changing project settings mid project.

The original files wouldn't have been touched, the downsized versions would be in tmp files.

If nobody chimes in before, I may have time tomorrow to simulate a re-render.

[Chrushev]

It sounds to me like you had FCE set to a 720x480 DV project and rendered a timeline preview. That caused the 1280x720p clips to be downsized to 720x480. I'm not certain how to reverse that when changing project settings mid project.

The original files wouldn't have been touched, the downsized versions would be in tmp files.

If nobody chimes in before, I may have time tomorrow to simulate a re-render.

yeah that sounds about right... i wonder if i deleted the temp files it would solve it somehow? lol

i mean, what if I made a video for BluRay 720p, then i wanted to make the same video for a DVD 720x480 or whatever DVD resolution is... then what? There is no way id have to redo the whole project just to change formats? and if thats the case then this is the crappies program ever.. lol

im crossing my fingers that thats isnt the case.

[Chrushev]

ok i am making a tiny bit of progress... i can go into each individual clip (sorry i dont know my terms but) you know how there are 2 screens? 1 on right is like timeline preview, and one on left is like for editing settings? And you can get it to the one on the left by double clicking a clip?

Anyways, if I double click a clip in timeline and go to Motion tab, click the red X next to Distort and Scale then it goes to the size i need it to be...

so I fiured out how to fix it for 1 clip... i really dont want to do that 300+ maybe even like 600+ times, I have 300 or so clips with a ton of cuts in them...

so if there is a way to do that globally for all clips that would be awesome

[edDV]

First save your project. Then rename it something else. Then you can experiment with re-render, etc.

Don't delete the tmp (scratch) files, just move them to a different folder. It my then ask to re-render.

I haven't done this before in FCE. I'd need to experiment.

You can ask in a Final Cut Forum. Someone would know.

[Chrushev]

WOOT!! solved it..

what i needed to do is change one manually, then copy it.. then CTRL + A to select all, and go to EDIT -> Paste Attributes then select checkboxes next to "basic motion" and "distort"

woot

ahah sweet sooo happy right now

[edDV]

Good work.