Exporting edited scanned family films and videos: What frame rates and resolution?
I’m editing a large number of home videos and 8mm films that were digitally scanned to MP4 by a professional company. I’ve edited several dozen at 30 fps, the default for the export at 620x480. I was somewhat clueless about frame rates until I needed to do custom settings for Hi8 which I found was 29.97. In the videos I’ve edited and exported already at 30 fps, I don’t see any difference in audio sync. Many of the videos were degraded so there are glitches and not sure I would notice a frame drop. Do I need to re-edit and export to the original fps? Complicating this fact is that some VHS and Hi8 was scanned at 29.93 fps, some at 29.97, one at 29.83 (?). FCP only offers an option for 30 fps and 29.97. Should I export all at 30 fps and check the frame drop button? Should I re-import the 30 fps and export again at 29.97 or instead 30 fps and check the “frame drop” button?
Adding to my confusion has to do with the original resolution scans, that are all over. For instance, the Hi8 scans show in “get info” "Resolution: 720 × 480 (655 × 480)" and "Current Size: 655 × 480". What do the parens mean? in the finder, the video size is 654 x 480, again different. How should I export this video in FCP? Should I be using the exact resoluton or at a higher? I don’t care if I have black bars around the video. Because my TV has such high resolution, having a smaller, higher quality video on the screen would be better than a pixelated image.
Thank you all in advance for your support!