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DVX100B Squeeze (‘Anamorphic’) footage to DVD
I’m having trouble getting the aspect ratio I think I’m going to get out of Final Cut Pro to a Quicktime movie into iDVD. All the footage was shot in squeeze mode and was captured as anamorphic, edited in an anamorphic timeline.1)
Here’s what I’ve tried:
1) Export Quicktime movie using ‘Current Settings’
2) Export Quicktime movie, changing the setting to DV NTSC 48kHz Anamorphic
3) Export using Quicktime Conversion: Dimensions NTSC 720×480 16:9, NOT checking Preserve aspect ratio
4) Export using Quicktime Conversion: Dimensions NTSC 720×480 16:9, checking Preserve aspect ratio using leteterbox
5) Export using Quicktime Conversion: Dimensions NTSC 720×480 4:3, Preserve using letterbox
6) Export using Quicktime Conversion: using “Current Size” in Dimensions, which seems to indicate 727×408 by default.In terms of how my Quicktime movie looks:
1, 2, and 6 look exactly the same, I think like a 4:3 image.
3 looks correct
4 is pillarboxed, but the actual picture dimension are the same as 1, 2, and 6
5 is even more square than 1, 2 and 6Now, I only have iDVD on this computer right now, so maybe I’m running into a problem there, but when I dump these QT files into my movie:
1 and 2 are full screen (4:3?)
3,5, and 6 are letterboxed in exactly the same way, but the dimensions are not the same as the original footage.
4 has a square border around it.Maybe the simple answer is that Option 3 would be fine if brought into DVD Studio Pro, where maybe there are some options in the settings for this kind of footage.
But does anyone see anything I’m doing wrong or right within Final Cut?
Many thanks,
Maria -
5 Replies
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Not so sure about iDVD, but when I do 16:9 stuff in DVD Studio Pro I always use anamorphic media, i.e. when you play it back in QuickTime or whatever it looks stretched. In DVDSP, you tell the system that the media is anamorphic and it will letterbox for you. The advantage to this is that if the user has a 16:9 TV, it will actually play back at the original 16:9 size as opposed to 4:3 scaled up bt 133% to lose the letterbox.
However if there’s no 16:9 option in iDVD then I’d probably letterbox it first in FCP and put out a 4:3 quicktime. The way I’d do it would be to create a new, blank sequence called ‘Letterboxed dump for DVD’ or whatever, and set it NOT anamorphic. Then drag in your anamorphic sequence, and it should automatically letterbox for you. You can then export that as Current Settings (or even as a reference MOV I think, if you’re low on disk space) and hey presto, it should work.
Any changes in your original sequence should automatically show up in the ‘Letterbox dump’ sequence, you don’t have to re-insert it every time. -
Are you using iDVD 6? Or another version?
Let us know. The iLife programs all tend to change a LOT from version to version.
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Thank you all for resonding. I tried the letterboxing solution and that certainly works – I don’t have a widescreen TV, but I can at least check what it does on my standard TV.
I’m on iDVD 5.0.1.
It’s true that the footage is not true anamorphic on a DVX100B without an anamorphic adapter. Squeeze mode is a cheat, which is mainly an improvement over letterbox mode for widescreen TV’s. I’m pretty sure that the letterbox is actually better for regular TV viewing, resolution-wise.
But I don’t think the aspect RATIO should look that different. I’m seeing the correct aspect ratio in both my viewer and canvas within FCP (4.5, btw) – it’s just a different widescreen when I export the file to Quicktime to iDVD. I’m must trying to get a handle on what to expect out of the post end, so that I can make wiser decisions while shooting.
thank you!!!
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I don’t use iDVD much, but I’m nearly certain that you need iDVD 6 to make anamorphic DVDs. The Apple website list that as a “new” feature, so I’m guessing 5 can’t do it:
https://www.apple.com/ilife/idvd/features/widescreendvds.html
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Thank you Dave. Just to answer a few questions (and yes, btw, I’m stuck between the film and video worlds, have been shooting DV for a long time, but just editing for a few years, and this is my first time working with footage from the DVX100B):
3,5 and 6 are letterboxed but they still seem stretched vertically a bit.
The suggestion to dump an anamorphic sequence into a non-anamorphic sequence worked perfectly. I am wondering if this is a non-ideal solution resolution-wise.
And in Attempt #6, those ratios were defaulted in the program when I selected “Current Size”. I’m very curious where that came from too. Any takers?
Many thanks to everyone who responded.
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