FCPX final product has been exported but it is choppy and seems like its missing frames

The Problem: FCP X .mov finished product is choppy in its play back (i checked through different programs, itunes, vlc, windows media player, QT, Also different computer platforms and operating systems. same choppy playback) so its a problem on FCPX's rendering etc.
Also there is a green screen for a brief half second in some parts.

What I know: The input file is a ripped DVD I own thats been handbraked to mp4. Its a clean rip and convert, I can play it through any media player on any platform/OS and its very smooth just like the DVD.

My project settings are for SD DVD video. They are NTSC SD, 720x480 DV Anamorphic and 23.98p fps settings. During the editing process I have not touched the video so all those setting are default or should be anyways.

The only things i can think of now out of the ordinary are:

1. The settings of DV Anamorphic, should it just be 720x480 DV or 720x480 in the settings for resolution- I don't know what DV or anamorphic means.

2. The mp4 file input (the harry potter dvd rip) is resolution 720x360. Does that factor in?

3. This is the trial version. I figured I'd give it a go and evaluate it through this project. I dont know if that changes why the output is choppy.

Background Info: I'm taking the harry potter DVD and matching it with the audio from Brad Neely's soundtracks. The timing is perfect, the sound is ok. Now I was hoping the finished product would be good to go, but its not.

Any idea of why the FCP X output file is choppy (like its missing a few frames here and there and skips from frame to frame so its not smooth) when watching the final product?

system specs:
Mac OS X (10.7.4)
2.5 GHz Intel Core i5
4GB 1333 MHz DDR3
How can I render the final product smooth just like the DVD input file?

Thanks in advance for any help

DV = digital video
Anamorphic = widescreen squeeze (FCPX doesn't handle this flag and it's not in any settings within the app, so not sure where you see it. Maybe compressor?)

Choppy playback could be for a number of reasons, but my guess is that you encoded with too high a bitrate for smooth playback on all but really powerful computers.

Open your video in quicktime and open the movie inspector. Report that data or attach a screenshot of the inspector data for that finished quicktime movie file.

Hi Dan,

FCP10 does handle the anamorphic flag. There is a broadcast anamorphic preset and a DV anamorphic preset in the PAL and NTSC SD Project preferences. When you drop an anamorphic clip (squished 4:3) in an anamorphic timeline the Viewer will correct for the aspect ratio.

Unfortunately the Filter and Transition templates do not fill the entire width of a clip in an anamorphic Project. That's because these templates have been created using square pixels whereas anamorphic SD uses non-square pixels.

@odn08:

All Harry Potter DVDs are protected against ripping by a number of spells that make the ripped video unusable for editing. If you have an official Magic Wand you can un-do these spells by pointing the Wand at the ripped video and pronouncing "Finite Incantatem". This spell negates many spells or the effect of many spells.

If you don't have a Magic Wand: mp4 is a lousy format for editing, especially on a slower system like yours. Convert your DVD video to a decent editing format such as ProRes, then import the ProRes file in FCP10 and see if the edited video plays better after rendering or exporting. The 720 x 360 frame size is not a problem. FCP10 will fit it into your SD project setting adding black borders on top and bottom. Just make sure that you never publish any ripped video material on DVD or the internet, as this is illegal.

Thanks for clarifying Ronny....I never noticed those presets before, but I am usually working in 720p.

I think most people hardly ever edit in SD anymore. But as we work for international television we do get SD projects every now and then. The sooner these anamorphic SD formats will disappear, the better

hey thanks guys for the help.

Ronny,
I think the harry potter and the sorcerers stone is good to edit and copy. On my dell windows laptop I made a solid copy hand braked vob into mp4. That mp4 is identical to dvd playback.

So then is it a question of hardware? Does my dell laptop have better hardware than this mac and could that be the difference.

I rendered the mp4 into prores4444. It solved the green screen problem but it did not solve the choppiness. In other words when i hit play on the prores4444 rendered file it is still choppy.

Only solution i can think of is to somehow get fcpx onto my laptop and render it there but i don't think its windows compatible.

Again thanks for any help.