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In Final Cut 7, why do images in the timeline look washed out?


I just installed Final Cut Pro 7 and have 3 issues:


The video and pictures I have imported look great in the viewer window to the left of the canvas sequence window. but once they are placed in the timeline they become washed out. They look this way either before or after rendering.


Also, regardless of the size jpeg I import, the image of the picture in the viewer window looks pixilated, in bright colors. It does not become clear until I put it in the timeline, and even then, looks washed out.


Finally, aafter playing back either the washed out video or picture in the timeline, when I hit the space bar to pause, the image becomes pixilated in bright colors.


Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Final Cut Pro 7, Mac OS X (10.5.8)

Posted on Sep 19, 2012 1:58 PM

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8 replies

Sep 19, 2012 5:42 PM in response to MontFennel

#50 - Quality difference between Viewer and Canvas


Shane's Stock Answer #50 - Why is the quality different between what I see in the Viewer and what I see in the Canvas?


Well... the viewer is just that-- a viewer. It will display anything that fcp will recognize as usable video or graphics. The canvas is a viewer too, but at the pixel dimension specified by the settings of your project and sequence.


For example, if your graphic or footage is much higher resolution than your 720x480 DV sequence, FCP is interpolating down your file to fit the settings of the sequence. Usually this makes it look not so hot. DV is a 5:1 compression working with a 4:1:1 color depth. Your pristine picture images and graphics are being crushed.


Same with picture files. HIgh res pics now adopt the sequence settings and will render to those specs, and most likely they are not as high quality.

Sep 19, 2012 6:02 PM in response to Shane Ross

Thanks for your answer, Shane. So what should I be setting my sequence too, if not to DV? THe source files are video from a flipcam and an iphone. Pictures are jpegs that are rather large and I don't have photoshop to scale them down.


I also notice that when I put any image into the timeline, it requires an immediate render to view, which should not be happening.

Sep 19, 2012 7:26 PM in response to MontFennel

Only use DV settings for DV files. I would find the format setings of your source files and have the sequence settings as close to that as possible. To find out the format settings you can either open them in QTX and go to the document inspector. It willl then give you the FPS, res and format of the files, or if in FCP, in the browser window, you will be able to see the info of all the files. …also right click on the files in FCP and choose clip settings near the bottom.


Hope that helps!

Sep 19, 2012 8:01 PM in response to MontFennel

>what should I be setting my sequence too, if not to DV? THe source files are video from a flipcam and an iphone.


Did you shoot HD on the flipcam and iPhone? If so...what dimensions? Did you convert them to an edit friendly codec before you started editing? I bet not...thus why you need to render you stills all the time.


You need to convert your footage to ProRes. Use ProRes settings...

Sep 19, 2012 8:13 PM in response to Shane Ross

there are two video sources from a flipcam and iphone someone else shot:


.mov 1920x1080 codec H.264, aac


.mp4 1280x720 codec H.264, aac


should I be opening these with final cut, or compressor, or something else? Is this what you mean by converting them first to pro res? not sure how to do that. and does that need to be done to the pictures too, since they look pixilated and full of bright colors?


thanks again for your help

Sep 20, 2012 1:25 AM in response to MontFennel

Use Compressor...and the ProRes 422 presets. The result will be...larger files than you have now. A lot larger. That will happen. But now they are in an editable format FCP works with.


Now choose which format you want to be the main format...1080 or 720. Then make a new sequence, drop a clip into that sequence and click YES when it asks if you want to have the sequence settings match.


The pictures don't need to be converted.

Sep 20, 2012 6:55 PM in response to MontFennel

Thanks to all who are helping with this quandry.


I think this is an issue which goes beyond project settings and compression. Today I created text on screen -- a title with a colored matt box behind it -- and both came out somewhat distorted and over-saturated.


I wonder if the problem has to do with the fact that when I loaded the fcp software, I only have the intitial final cut disc -- I can't find the others -- and got a message saying that additional discs are needed to install these functions, and to put in each disc seperately:


  • Audio Content 1
  • Audio Content 2
  • Audio Content 3
  • DVD Studio Pro Content
  • Motion Content 1
  • Motion Content 2



I ignored the message and continued loading the software, which eventually failed to launch. So then I tried relaunching with the disc and unchecked the boxes for these funcitons and the fcp software competed loading. I even have Motion and DVD studio Pros now as apps. But anything I create in FCP (like the text) -- not just what I import -- is pixialted and color-saturated.


Any thoughts?

In Final Cut 7, why do images in the timeline look washed out?

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