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4×3 stills in a 16×9 SD workflow?
I’m cutting in an SD 23.98 NTSC project, with anamorphic footage, and monitoring to a 16×9 monitor through my Mojo SDI. When I edit, I have my source and record monitors set to to 16:9 video display, and everything is great – I can edit and monitor my sequence all in 16×9, the way god and my DP intended. BUT – when I add a still image to my cut, the still understandably, yet frustratingly, displays stretched out. I get why this is happening – my sequence isn’t “true” 16×9, but rather a 4×3 sequence that’s displaying as 16:9 on my computer and on my monitor (thereby showing me my anamorphic footage correctly).
Is there no way to work with stills so that they display correctly in this workflow? I know I can resize the images to essentially “squeeze” them so they display correctly on my monitor. But that’s a huge manual hassle, as I’m working on an archival-heavy documentary.
Anyone familiar with Final Cut knows that regardless of the aspect ratio of the sequence, stills, FX, and other video formats automatically adjust to display correctly in the cut and black-fill unused areas of the frame. Anything like this is Media Composer?
Suggestions?
My system:
MC 5.0 OSX 10.6.5
Mac Pro 2 x 6-core 5.66 GHz, 8GB RAM
Mojo SDI -
3 Replies
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Before you import, flip your project format to 4×3. Then flip it back. MC5 should then pillarbox 4×3 images inside your 16×9 canvas.
If you don’t want to import again, go to your bin, and display the columns ‘reformat’ and ‘aspect ratio’ and change them so that the image is being displayed in the right size (not at my system now, can’t tell the exact settings).
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Two more thoughts:
You can also use a picture viewer application, hit Copy, then go into the Title Tool and hit paste.
In versions prior to MC5, you could also flip the project to HD, import, and flip the project format back to SD. That would also maintain the right aspect ratio, IIRC.
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Omry,
All SD is the same number of pixels – 720×480 (486).
There’s merely a flag to say “hey, anamorphic”. In Avid, you do this by right click on the composer monitor and choosing 16×9.
Avid ‘owns’ any media you import. It gets made into video media – regardless if it came from a 10megapixel picture – inside of your avid, it’s about a megapixel. How you import it (and how the import settings are adjusted) makes a huge difference on how it’s displayed.
So, you’re running into both of those issues. In your avid, you want to be in SD, but have your monitors set to 16×9…and could you tell us what the import settings were?
Best,
Jeff G
Apple Master Trainer
Avid Cert. Instructor DS/MC
Avid & Color Videos Vasst.com
Compressor Essentials Lynda.com
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