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Note: Final output is letterboxed 16:9

This procedure will convert an anamorphic 16:9 DV-PAL video to a letterboxed 16:9 DV-NTSC 4:3 video using FCP and Adobe After Effects. The quality is excellent, but rendering takes a long time. (A similar procedure will convert NTSC to PAL, or non-anamorphic PAL to NTSC but I'll leave that to you to figure out.)

Instructions

1. Open your Final Cut Pro (FCP) DV-PAL 16:9 project and check that all your preference settings are correct. Next, bring up your sequence to be converted, pick your in and out points on the sequence (optional) and choose File, Export, FCP Movie. Give it a filename and location. Setting: Current Settings, Quality: Hi resolution, Include: Audio and Video, Re-compress All Frames: Unchecked, Make Movies Self-contained: checked. Save. Allow to write. Close FCP.
2. Open Adobe After Effects. First we're going to bring into the project the FCP Movie file we've just created and let Adobe After Effects know it's anamorphic DV-PAL footage. Click File, Import, File and choose/open the FCP Movie file you just created with FCP. The file appears in the project box. Make sure it's highlighted and choose File, Interpret Footage, Main. Set Separate Fields to Lower Field First. Set Pixel Aspect Ratio to D1/DV PAL Widescreen. Click OK.
3. Next we're going to set up a composition that's in the final format we're converting to, i.e. DV-NTSC with a 3:2 aspect ratio. Choose Composition, New Composition to open a new composition. Set up this composition as NTSC DV, 720x480. Lock Aspect Ratio to 3:2: Yes. Pixel Aspect Ratio: D1/DV NTSC. Frame Rate: 29.97. Duration: (here set the exact duration of your FCP clip - this info is available in the Project window if you expand it a bit to the right). Click OK.
4. Next we dump our PAL footage into the composition we just created. Drag the FCP movie clip from the Project window to the Time Layout which has appeared. (The footage will appear centered in the Composition window.) Click on the triangle to the right of the clip name to expand the choices underneath and click on the triangle before Transform to see the choice Scale. Click Scale and in the pop up window set Scale to 60% (or 62% if you want the right and left edges to bleed off the NTSC frame). Preserve Frame Aspect Ratio: Yes. Click OK to close the Scale pop- up box. The footage will still show in the composition window, but will now appear letterboxed.
5. Next we get ready to render our final output. Click Layer, Quality and set to Best (or Draft if you just need a quick low resolution copy. Best quality takes about 1 hour per minute to render and Draft takes about 1/10 that amount of time to render). Click Layer, Switches, Frame Blending to set frame blending on. This minimizes interlace artifacts in the conversion.
6. Click Composition, Add to Render Queue. The Render Queue window pops up. Beside the words Output to, click the words "not yet specified." In the pop up box, specify a location and name for the file you're about to render and click Save.
7. Next beside the words Output Module. click Lossless. Click Audio Output on and change the Audio Frequency to 48 kHz. Click the box Format Options under Video. Change Compressor to DV-NTSC. The Frames per second should read 29.97. Click OK, then OK again to close the Output Module Settings box.
8. Now click Render. Go away for a long time.
9. When you come back and After Effects has finished rendering, go into FCP. Set up a new project and change all your preference settings to reflect the fact that this footage will now be DV-NTSC, 3:2 aspect ratio. Choose File, Import and import the rendered file created by After Effects. Drop this rendered file onto your sequence and edit normally. Output to NTSC tape.