• Apple Final Cut Pro Legacy

  **16×9 Anamorphic vs. 4×3 letterbox problem..PLEASE HELP!!**

  Posted by Ryan Stegman on March 26, 2008 at 6:17 pm

  So, here’s my issue. I’m working on a project that will ultimately be shown in 16×9 AR (aspect ratio) via an anamorphic beta master. I’m working with a mix of 16×9 HDV footage (downconverted to anamorphic dv), and also, standard-def 4×3 DV footage.

  From my point of view, I have 2 paths I can go down:

  1) Edit in 720×480, 4×3 AR, and letterbox everything.
  The downconverted HDV footage will drop into the sequence already at the correct 16×9 AR, and the 4×3 DV footage (maintaining a 100% size), will fill the screen horizontally, and will be cut off on the top and bottom by the letterbox.

  2) Edit in 720×480, anamorphic 16×9 AR.
  Again, the downconverted HDV footage, which was brought in via “stretch” downconvert, edits into the anamorphic 16×9 sequence perfectly. The 4×3 DV footage, however, drops in at 100% size, filling vertically, but with space remaining on the left and right. The only way I know of to fill horizontally is to blow up the size to ~133-134, which allows the 4×3 image to fill horizontally, while cutting off some of the top and bottom.

  Of course, I’m fine with cutting off the top and bottom of the 4×3 footage in either case, since that is the nature of the beast when trying to use 4×3 clips in a 16×9 space…you’re gonna lose some of the video! I just slide it up and down to get the best framing. My issue is, what is going to work best for my final output? Am I going to lose noticeable quality by going down the 2nd path, and scaling up my 4×3 footage? If I go down the 1st path, aren’t I going to need to stretch the image vertically in the end, to “cut off” the letterbox and create an anamorphic master, losing quality in the process?

  Thanks to any and all who give me some feedback on this, I really appreciate the help!!

  Aaron Neitz replied 18 years, 4 months ago 2 Members · 1 Reply
• 1 Reply

• 

  Aaron Neitz

  March 26, 2008 at 11:29 pm

  It’s tough with DV because you’ll need to 1) chop off some picture to get a widescreen video and 2) blow it up so there’s no letterbox and 3) squeeze it on the X axis to make it anamorphic.

  It won’t look as good as the HDV, but there’s really not a whole lot you can do. Keep FCP in “best” render, work in “none” fields with all your clips set to “none” fields and it will blow up OK.

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