16×9 DVCPROHD to 4×3 (non-letterboxed) SD

[David Roth weiss]

You’ll need to explain precisely how you exported Henry, otherwise we’ll just be guessing at how to help you.

David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los Angeles

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[Hector Berrebi]

hi Henry

a little more info would help, but

a way you could do it.

edit your sequence on a timeline that matches your original clip’s settings. then export it as a QT using current settings, ie you are still 720 16:9 DVCproHD.

then create a timeline with your final required settings, import your exported DVCproHD, and dump it on the new timeline, this time forcing timeline settings. now, scale it up just enough to crop the sides and fill the frame (some info has to be lost or squeezed…), set your motion filtering quality to best in sequence settings, render and export.

i use this workflow in some of our DVCproHD projects for various exports, (web tends to be forgiving) i find it quick and satisfying. i do work in PAL world, so frame rate adjustments in NTSC are yours to deal with.

hope it helps

Hector Berrebi
Schibber Group
prePost Consulting

[Walter Biscardi]

If this is for the web only, the easiest thing to do would be to create an SD timeline, I would recommend a 720×486 SD Uncompressed timeline.

Grab the DVCPro HD Sequence and drop it into the SD timeline.

Now change the Distort settings on that DVCPro HD sequence to stretch it back out horizontally. DVCPro HD is an anamorphic format, thus the “squished” look on your original attempt. The Distort settings in the Motion tab will correct for this, set this so the video stretches back out horizontally.

You then want to Scale the DVCPro HD sequence so it fills the 4:3 frame, cutting off the left and right sides of the original HD image. You’re essentially cropping off the excess image from HD to make a full screen, 4:3 SD image.

Once you have the Distort and Scale set so the video looks correct both in aspect and fills the frame, export a Self Contained Movie using Current Settings.

From there you either deliver as is, or you can now run the video through Compressor for more options as far as bit rate and file size.

hope that helps!

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Biscardi Creative Media
HD and SD Production for Broadcast and Independent Productions.

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[Henry Harrison]

Ok. Thanks for the help. I managed to figure it out late last night, and as usual, it always seems simpler after you’ve figured it out.
What I did was create a timeline with Frame size of 640×480 (ntsc 4:3) and pixel aspect ratio of square.
I used apple pro ress 422 compressor.

I dropped in the HD clips and selected NO to the prompt to change sequence settings, resized the clip to fill the 4:3 frame with the unwanted bits off screen.

Here’s where I got it to work. Instead of trying to export it as different aspect ratio, I just used the current settings and it used the sequence settings with no squishing.

Thanks for the input.

H