720×480 to 320 width x ? , without black sidebars

[Don Greening]

320×240 would be the down sized version if what you’re displaying is a 4:3 full screen aspect video without sidebars. If you’re trying to display a wide screen or 16:9 aspect then the correct numbers would be 320×180 pixels. Remember that 720×480 can be either 4:3 or 16:9 depending on whether or not it’s flagged as anamorphic. The square pixel version (for the web) of a 16:9 720×480 anamorphic video is 853×480.

Make sense?

– Don

[Malcolm Jackson]

Thanks Don, what you say makes complete sense. And it’s not anamorphic, its regular 720×480 DV.

However its just not downsizing to 320×240 without small sidebars (around 12 to 15 pixels each side). Conceptually I think its something to do with it being DV footage, but I don’t understand it as yet.

[Don Greening]

I see what you mean. I just did a test and exported a 5 sec. 4:3 320×240 clip using FCP>export using QT Conversion. Opened the clip with QT Player and the pillarbox bars were there.

Here’s the fix (maybe):

Open your 320×240 clip in QT Player. Hit Cmd J to open the properties window. Highlight the video track and uncheck “Preserve Aspect Ratio.” Now highlight the box where it says 320 and type in 315. The black bars disappear. Highlight 315 and type 320 back in. Black bars still gone? Me too.

– Don

[Malcolm Jackson]

Thanks for trying that out. It worked for me too! Yea! I don’t get the logic of it though. Like one has to trick it out of constraining itself of something. Anyhow, very much appreciated. Thank you!

Moving Images for Calm People
http://www.deepplanetarts.com/reel

[Don Greening]

No Prob. I don’t get it either. But, whatever works. Now, as long as it holds after you actually deliver it to someone.

– Don

[Rafael Amador]

Hi Malcom and Don,
For I don’t know what reason, whatever picture smaller than 352×288 (CIF?) shows those black side bands.
In QT you can check “Preserve Aspect Ratio: Fit within dimensions”.
Rafael

http://www.nagavideo.com

[Don Greening]

Thanks, Raf. I’ll check out the “fit within dimensions” thing and see if that gets rid of the the pillarboxing as well.

– Don

[George Costakis]

i’ve had this same thing, but the only time i ever go down to 320×240 is when i post to the web. the funny thing is, when you play those same quicktime videos (without any of the properties changed) on the web, the black bars are gone. they are also gone in MPEG Streamclip, so i’m only guessing that it’s once again, another quicktime bug.
-George Costakis

[Alexander Kallas]

Hi Malcom,
I’ll bet you’re using a Canon DV camera,.
Those sidebars are over-scan lines, and are outside the TV safe area,
they won’t show on TV, scaled down for the web they will be unnoticeable.

Cheers
Alexander

[Malcolm Jackson]

Interesting bunch of comments! Thanks all for your input. For the record the bars are not there when uploaded to youtube – however if you want to show that youtube clip on your own site at 320×240 again the bars reappear.

The workarounds were great. Especially the size jiggering in the properties in QT Pro. I have not tried uploading that to youtube and seeing the results when rescaled to 320×240, I’ll try it out sometime.

I don’t think its a camera issue Alexander, i think its to do with the DV size of 720×480, its not true 4×3 is it? true 4×3 would be 720×540, no? And when you give the footage a little extra height ad 320×240 it does indeed expand to the full screen and the bars disappear, so something like this makes sense to me as at least a partial understanding.

Anyhow, problem solved for now. Thanks guys and gals.

Moving Images for Calm People
Oh, just my reel.