Mixing 23.98 and 29.97 footage

OK, first off, convert all your H.264 footage to ProRes 422. FCP and H.264 don't mix.

Second...since most of your footage is 23.98, I suggest cutting at 23.98, and converting your final at the end. I do this all the time. Many many projects are shot and edited at 23.98 and then converted to interlaced 29.97 when they deliver...very common practice. Your only sticking point will be the already shot 29.97fps footage. You'll need to convert that to 23.98, but then it might look odd when you go back to 29.97. Do some tests to make sure.

So...edit ProRes 422 at 23.98, output a 23.98 ProRes 422 master...FILE>EXPORT>QT...self contained. And then take that into Compressor and convert to 29.97 this way:

1. Drop clips you want to convert into Compressor

2. In Compressor, select your video then right click and choose NEW TARGET WITH SETTING > APPLE > FORMATS > QUICKTIME > APPLE PRORES 422 (HQ). Or pick whatever codec you like to work with.

3. Click on that newly created compression setting to open it in the Inspector window. Click the Encoder tab. Click the Video: (Settings…) button. Make the frame rate 29.97. Check the interlaced box. Set it's drop down menu to Bottom field first. Click OK.

4. Click the Frame Controls tab. Set Frame Controls to On. Set Output Fields to Bottom first. Leave Deinterlace on Fast. Leave Adaptive Details checked. Leave Rate Conversion set to Fast. Leave the Set Duration to: on 100% and make sure it's radio button is selected and NOT the "so source frames play at 29.97 fps" button.

5. Make changes to the Filters or Geometry sections as needed. Those settings listed above are the ones critical to getting the proper 3:2 pulldown added.

6. Submit the compression, then bring the resulting video back into Final Cut Pro. Place it in a 29.97 timeline and make sure you watch it on an NTSC monitor to verify that it looks good. If you step through it frame-by-frame you should see the familiar pattern of 2 split/interlaced frames followed by 3 whole frames. This is a very important step. I tried many solutions that looked OK playing back on the computer monitor, but looked terrible on the NTSC monitor.

Is there a reason that you set everything to Bottom field first?

I had always gone on the assumption that everything was top field first except DV.

MtD

Whoops...right. That's for making 24p into DV. Yes, upper field first.

It looks like you not only have differing frame rates but also differing frame sizes.

Sequence 10 is set up for DVCProHD (perhaps from a Panasonic P2 camera?)

Sequence 7 is set up for h.264 at 1920x1080

In what format is your main (most important) material?

If you are keeping the DVCProHD frame rate, convert it to 1280x720 square pixel as ProRes. LT is ok for this source material.

Then, convert the h.264 to the same format, image size and frame rate.

In compressor, turn on frame controls to Better (size and retiming). The conversion may take a while.

x

Sorry, but every single sequence you show is wrong for this. You should NEVER have an H.264 sequence setting...ever. And when you mix formats...you should never use an HDV nor XDCAM setting. Actually, when you are editing anything BUT native HDV or XDCAM you shouldn't have those settings.

Your sequence setting must be 1920x1080 23.98. Odd thing is that FCP doesn't offer that unless you have a hardware IO card like AJA or Blackmagic design. Not unless you first convert your footage to that. So the first thing you need to do is convert the H.264 to 1920x1080 ProRes 422. Then, take one of those clips, drop it into a new sequence, and click YES when FCP asks if you want to make the sequence match the clip. Then you can drop in the HDV and XDCAM just fine...they'll scale and work fine. You'll get a green render bar, but that's fine. Render later.

Never edit with H.264 footage...never ever. Convert first. Don't edit mixed footage in an H.264, HDV or XDCAM timeline. Never ever.

Sequence 10 is wrong because it's the wrong frame size. That's not a broadcast frame size, and FCP needs it to be. 1920x1080 ProRes 422 is what you need.

Sorry, one of these other fine gentlemen might have to do that. I no longer have Compressor installed because it doesn't work with my current OS. I do know that in the INSPECTOR you need to go to the encoder and click on the VIDEO SETTINGS and in there change the frame rate.