-
4:3, 16:9 – What settings should I use?
Usually i shoot in 16:9 so I haven’t had this problem before, but now I’m editing a movie shot in 4:3 and I can’t figure the right settings out. I’m european so everything is in PAL. I have Vegas pro 8 and DVD architect 4.5.
What I would like to achieve is for the movie to look good on my widescreen TV, with black bars on both sides of the movie and the proportions of the original movie intact (I don’t want everything to look streched out). Also, I don’t want to loose the edges of the movie.
I have tried 2 different strategies:
Strategy 1: Under “Preferences” in Vegas, I always use Match Media Settings. I render the movie in Vegas using MainConcept Mpeg2, DVD PAL template. In DVD arhitect, I use PAL (720×576) as project video format. When playing the DVD after burning, my TV shows the movie without any bars, and everyone in the movie looks streched out. Then i set my TV to 4:3 mode and everything looks good at first. The black bars are there on the sides. BUT, I can see that the edges of the actual movie, especially the right one, are cut. I guess this is due to overscan, but I don’t know…In my opinion, far too much of the right edge is lost.
Strategy 2: Under “Preferences” in Vegas, I always use Match Media Settings. I render the movie in Vegas using MainConcept Mpeg2, DVD PAL template (but I “modify” the template and change the settings to 16:9). In DVD arhitect, I use PAL Widescreen (720×576) as project video format. When playing the DVD after burning, the black bars are there right away when I look at my TV using 16:9 mode and it looks great at first. There are no edges lost to the left and right, perhaps I loose a tiny bit at the top and the bottom of the movie, but thats all right. The problem is that when I look closer at the picture, I can see that the black bars to the left and right are much smaller (thinner) than they were using strategy 1 and looking at the TV in 4:3 mode. Even though I’m not sure, this has made me think that the picture might be streched out a bit on the sides. Or could it be that the proportions are actually intact, but this has something to do with overscan as well?
I would be grateful for any suggestions.
-
4 Replies
-
Project “Template PAL DVD”.
Render “Template DVDArchitect PAL”.
odd magne nilsen
newbie
-
It sounds like the Match Media settings might be throwing things off. If I understand you correctly you do not want to match the media. You want 4:3 media in a 16:9 project (which does not match). In that case, create the project using the PAL DV Widescreen template and render using the PAL DV Widescreen template and your 4:3 media should stay as a center cut with black pillar boxes on the sides.
~jr
http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com -
I can’t find “PAL DV Widescreen” as a template when selecting how to render the movie – I guess you mean DVD PAL with 16:9 selected, or “DVD Arcitect PAL Widescreen Video Stream” (with the sound rendered separately).
Well, the result is the same even after skipping the Match Media settings. I guess it’s my TV that overscans the picture when playing the DVD. I can see that some parts on the top and on the bottom of the picture has been lost…
What do you think – generally speaking – is it a bad idea to use 4:3 media in a 16:9 project, even if you don’t have a 4:3 TV anymore?
Thanks for your help!
-
It is quite possible that your TV overscan is loosing some of the picture. Since a computer monitor doesn’t have overscan, how does it look when played back on your PC? If all of it displays correctly then it’ your TV. If it is your TV, the 16:9 media would also be loosing the same amount of picture. Is that happening?
Also make sure that your TV is set to show the full frame. Most HD TV’s have at least two zoom modes in addition to full and normal mode and you will only see the whole picture on full mode.
There is nothing wrong with using 4:3 media in a 16:9 format. You can use it as 4:3 and add an image underlay that fills the black bars with something interesting or you can crop it as we have discussed here. It’s all personal preference.
~jr
http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com
Reply to this Discussion! Login or Sign Up