16:9 to 4:3

Apple Final Cut Pro Legacy

16:9 to 4:3

Posted by Mullennix on February 6, 2006 at 7:36 pm

Hi,

I’ve been shooting stock footage in the HDV format so that at some point I can go back and make use of the full quality output. However, in the short run I need to deliver this work as Quicktime .mov files in the 4:3 aspect ratio. I’ve been using Compressor (within FCP) and expected it to crop content from the right and left sides to reach the 4:3 ratio. Instead it is squeezing the whole 16:9 frame into the 4:3 frame. Obviously, this is creating distortion to the image. Are my settings incorrect? How can I go about this while keeping the highest quality?

Thanks very much,
Bryan

David Battistella replied 20 years, 3 months ago 3 Members · 3 Replies
3 Replies

Matthew Brunn
February 7, 2006 at 2:55 am

Full frame or cropped 3X4 you will have to put it into a timeline and render out a version of it. Set your timeline to the format you wish your .mov file to be.

Hope this helps-
Matthew
Quad 2.5 G5
OSX 10.4.X
Ram 4GB
FCP 4.5/AE 6.5/DVDSP3
Mullennix
February 7, 2006 at 3:47 pm

Thanks for your reply! Not sure that I understand though. I’m using FCP5 so it can edit HDV in a native format. I just want to be able to convert the 16:9 HDV material into 4:3 SD without squeezing the image to fit in the frame causing distortion. Cropping sounds as if it might be right. How can I crop a 16:9 image in FCP into 4:3?

Thanks,
Bryan
David Battistella
February 7, 2006 at 4:02 pm

Create a new sequence: Name it 4X3 Letterboxed Version

Apple key zero to open sequence settings

Load an SD sequence preset (DVCPRO50, DV, Uncompressed, whatever you want.

Deselect ananmorphic if it is checked in the new sequence (it should not be checked as a default)

Take your final HDV sequence from the browser and drag it into the new sequence you created, It should automatically be placed in the correct aspect of the new sequence, if it does not do this:

select the HDV sequence in the in the SD timeline and right click to “OPEN IN VIEWER” once it is open in the viewer the go to the motion tab and set the aspect to 33.33. This places it in the correct aspect for 4X3 Viewing.

Read this carefully, follow the steps and render the new timeline and you will have a correct 4X3 version in SD of your film.

David

Peace and Love 🙂

Reply to this Discussion! Login or Sign Up

Creative Communities of the World Forums