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after effects video preview preferences
Hi…I am using AE 5.5 on mac..powerbook G4, 2 gig ram, 1ghz processor. I understand I can connect through firewire and output via my video camera into an external monitor. My question is… if I preview the composition window during rendering on the monitor say a regular tv..will it give me the correct aspect ratio…I know the color will be off but will it show the final out put for tv and whats in the title and motion safe zones?
thanks
that might have been confusing… -
4 Replies
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yes, it should show you the output in the correct aspect ratio for that screen… if it is 4×3 then a standard 4×3 comp will look correct, if the screen is 16×9 then it should show a standard 16×9 comp correctly.
i think your firewire monitoring will be limited to dv, so may get the best results using a dv comp preset…. but i’ve never tested this.
Kevin Camp
Senior Designer
KCPQ, KMYQ & KRCW -
hey kevin thanks for your input
yeah I am using a dv widescreen comp preset in AE 720×480 .I dont currently have a wide screen tv that I will be using to monitor at the moment so do you think some of the video will get cut off?…I really just need to see what will be on the actual screen for final product in terms of my title and action safe zones set up in my comp instead of going thru the hassle of testing output formats in a rendered project of a dvd authoring program.
thanks -
[chris mclaughlin] “yeah I am using a dv widescreen comp preset in AE 720×480 .I dont currently have a wide screen tv that I will be using to monitor at the moment so do you think some of the video will get cut off?”
how a widescreen comp is displayed on a 4×3 screen should be manipulated by the aspect ratio settings in the video preview pref…
– if you set the external monitoring to 16×9, it should squeeze the preview so it will look anamorphic in 4×3
– if it is set to 4×3 with the letterbox option, it will maintain the 16×9 aspect ratio and letterbox the preview
– if it is set to 4×3 w/o the letterbox option it should crop the sides to bring the preview to full screen height.if you are trying to gauge safety from a single set, you will only be setting you safety to that specific set… not all tvs have the same amount of overscan. and lcds and plasmas and such are quite different than most crts. so if your destination is a widescreen lcd type screen, then viewing on a 4×3 crt to gauge the safe areas may not be the best way to go…
i think i’d just go by ae’s safe area lines, if you needed to make sure that it looked good for center-cut 4×3, then i’d create a new comp that was a 4×3 dv preset, turn on safety, create a layer and draw rectangular masks at the safe area lines, apply stroke (all masks), then bring that comp into your 16×9 comp to see how things look within the 4×3 safety lines…
Kevin Camp
Senior Designer
KCPQ, KMYQ & KRCW -
hey kevin…thanks for your help its much appreciated..I was running some tests last night on a 4:3 tv and follwed the safety lines and seems pretty accurate..I still will output to my plasma to check the actuall widescreen..unfortunatly I am using AE 5.5 and it does not have the aspect ratio settings in the video preview settings unless I am not seeing it…I will have to upgrade soon…One thing I did notice while previewing was a lot of interlace lines in some of the graphics I am using…seeing the image distort with horizontal lines..Is this normal for AE to output like that? It just looks much clearer on my powerbook monitor….is there a deinterlace setting..I know I have seen that in render options and output options while adding to render que..but like I have heard I would rather render uncompressed for best look…since I will compress in compressor in final cut…any help would be great.
thanks
chris
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