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HDV to DV
Ok the footage was shot on a JVC HD Camera.
Frame size 1280 x720
Vid Rate 23.98
Compressor HDV 720p24
Pixel Aspect SqaureI want to pass it through Media Manager to down convert it to SD
Frame Size 720 x 480
Compressor DV/DVCPRO – NTSC.When I do this the video looks squished or elongated vertically.
What is the best way to do this so the video will still look normal in an SD environment?
Steve Cohen
Senoir Editor
O2 Media Inc. -
5 Replies
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Many HDV camcorders and decks will down-convert HDV tapes to DV if you set them to do that.
Then you’d just capture via FW and edit SD.
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Yeah.
My Sony deck will do this, but I asked the guy who shot the footage (who also captured it for me) if he could do that and either he did know how or what but he said his camera couldn’t do that.
Also, I suggested that I would recapture the footage, but he reminded me that the JCV tapes would not play in a Sony deck, which I’ve experienced before as well.
So rather than argue with him, with the producer on the phone I said I would convert it in Media Manager, but it didn’t turn out the way I expected.
Steve Cohen
Senoir Editor
O2 Media Inc. -
Can’t you just put the HDV footage on a SD timeline and RENDER it?
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Does it look elongated on an external 16:9 monitor? or just the canvas. If just the canvas then your sequence isn’t set to anamorphic.
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I’ve had the same thing happen to me, both with HDV footage and DVCPRO HD footage when going down to DV and subsequently to DVD. The picture is slightly squished vertically, so people appear a tiny bit shorter and fatter than they should. Not very much, but enough that having seen the footage so many times that I can notice. I’ve found a workaround for HDV if you’re going to put it on DVD. I think the problem is a square pixel versus rectangular pixel thing.
In your sequence settings, try this:
Frame size – 720×480 NTSC DV (3:2)
Pixel Aspect Ratio – HD 1440×1080 Anamorphic 16:9 checked
Field dominance – Lower
Editing Timebase – 29.97 or 23.98 or whatever your HD project is
Compressor: Uncompressed 8 bit 4:2:2
Click on the Advanced tab under the compressor settings, make sure you’re set to 16:9.
In your timeline, double click on your clip(s) and make sure in the Motion>>Distort setting that the clip aspect ratio is 0.That SHOULD work to get you the right aspect ratio. Otherwise, the quick and dirty fix is to set the clip aspect ratio for all your clips to be -12.5, which will look stretched vertically in your Canvas, but when it goes to DVD or directly to a TV the aspect ratio will look correct. That’s the solution I’ve had to use for DVCPRO HD when going out to DVD for a 4:3 TV where it will letterbox correctly. Unfortunately, I’ve had to make 2 different DVDs to give out to people depending on the display they’ll be using, 16:9 or 4:3. It doesn’t make any sense, setting to Anamorphic and selecting the correct pixel aspect ratio should work, but you still get that slight vertical squishing.
Not to rattle on too much here, but I spent an entire weekend and pretty much a whole spindle of blank DVDs trying to adjust pixel aspect ratios, frame sizes, clip aspect ratios, DVD Studio Pro settings, DVD player playback settings, and pretty much everything else I could think of trying to get one DVD from a DVCPRO HD source that could look correct on a 16:9 TV, a 4:3 TV, and a computer monitor. Couldn’t get it. If it looked correct on a 16:9 display, it was very slightly squished in 4:3 letterbox displays. If it was right in 4:3, it was stretched very slightly in 16:9. I have paper after paper where I was writing down all the different setting combinations I had tried so I didn’t repeat them.
If anyone does know of a way to get DVCPRO HD to look correct on ALL displays I’d appreciate if they could post it.
Sorry ’bout the long post.
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