Well guys, I just started getting into this materia bussines, and I have 2 big questions:

1) Does the level of the item/gear affect the level of the materia we get from it? Because I extracted quite a few from range lvl 10 through lvl 40...and all I'm getting is lvl 1 materia???? Is this is normal or the stats are completely random?

2) I know that lvl 1 materia are for lvl 1 -10 gear, etc....but if I have a lvl 38 armor, can I use a lvl 4 materia or only lvl 3 materia? I mean if the armor has enough high lvl to try the next level of materia.

Thanks in advance for all your help, pals!