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Exporting Widescreen or Letterbox Format
Hi folks:
I’m new to this, so detailed responses are greatly appreciated. I am trying to get the widescreen ‘letterbox’ effect for both web and DVD, but every time I export, there’s either a black border around the video, or the video is squished and distorted. This has resulted to me using the default export settings, which still places a black border around the video.
I shot video w/ a Sony EX-1 camera in 720p 30p. I created a new document (XDCAM EX 720p 30p) in Premiere Pro CS4. I imported the in Premiere, edited it and exported using these settings:
Format: Quicktime
Summary: 720×480, 29.97 [fps], Lower, Quality 100
48000 Hz, Stereo, 16 bit
Video Codec: DV/DVCPRO – NTSC
Aspect: D1/DV NTSC(0.9091)In addition to these export settings, I am getting the same results in After Effects. If anyone could offer any suggestions, it would be greatly appreciated.
Best Regards,
Quincy -
3 Replies
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You will need to change your export settings to 854×480, “square pixels”, and fields set to none.
Vince Becquiot
Kaptis Studios
San Francisco – Bay Area -
Hi Quincy,
I had to re-read your post a few times, but I think I understand now. You say that you WANT the letterbox effect, then say you don’t want the black borders, which leads me to believe you may not be using the term “letterbox” correctly.
Letterbox means that a 16:9 widescreen video, played on a 4:3 display, has the black bars top and bottom. I think what you’re looking for is native widescreen 16:9, no black, correct?
In that case, when exporting to DVD, you need to specify WIDESCREEN. It will still be 720×480, but pixel aspect ratio changes from 0.9 to 1.2, this is called “Anamorphic widescreen”. DVD players WILL letterbox the output to a 4:3 display, but will fill the screen for 16:9 displays.
For web output, you need to specify SQUARE PIXELS (1.0 aspect) at whatever resolution suits your needs, keeping in mind that size should still reflect the original 16:9 dimensions, such as 640×360. This will give you a natural 16:9 display for the web.
Also, not sure why you chose an export preset of DV NTSC, since you said you wanted to export for DVD and web. A “DV” file is far too large for web viewing, choose a web format such as QuickTime, Windows Media, H.264, etc., and for DVD, export to “MPEG-2 for DVD”.
I hope this clarifies things for you
Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor -
You rock! It fixed the issue with my web export, however, I’m testing out the DVD export right now. Thanks for you help and thanks for correcting my misuse of “letterbox.”
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