Adobe Encore spontaneously switching from 16:9 to 4:3 during Build

[Jeff Pulera]

When preparing assets for Encore, I will ALWAYS go straight to MPEG-2 DVD, with the separate .m2v and .wav files. That is the optimum workflow for Encore. I NEVER import any other video format into Encore.

Without re-reading the whole thread again, I believe I’d only suggested an intermediate codec since I didn’t know if AE actually offered the MPEG-2 DVD export preset. If it didn’t, then you could export to the DNxHD or other high-quality codec instead. But then still, I would then transcode that file to MPEG-2 DVD using Premiere or Media Encoder and would not use the intermediate clip directly in Encore.

I haven’t tested this theory myself, but a lot of users claim that the Encore transcoding does not look as good as doing it from Premiere/Media Encoder, so that’s another reason not to feed Encore anything but .m2v video.

Thanks

Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers

[Jeff Pulera]

“I’m a bit fuzzy on the square vs. rectangular pixels matter I’m afraid.”

A Pixel is a Picture Element. Every digital photo or frame of video is made up of tiny pixels, the small dots that when combined form the larger image.

With a STILL image, pixels are normally square-shaped with a 1.0 Pixel Aspect Ratio (PAR). The width and height of each pixel is the same. Therefore, if a picture is 1000×1000 pixels (or any number of pixels where the X and Y dimensions are the same) then the resulting image is also square.

At the beginning of computers being able to play video clips decades ago, those were usually 640×480 pixels, which provided the same 4:3 ratio as televisions of the time. Or 320×240 was used to create smaller clips, while keeping the same 4:3 image aspect ratio.

In the late 90s, digital video was introduced and for some reason, they decided 4:3 video would now be 720×480 pixels…except that is not 4:3, is it?! So they made the pixels taller than they were wide, with a Pixel Aspect Ratio (PAR) of 0.9 which obviously is no longer a square pixel.

Remember MiniDV camcorders? That is where the 720×480 thing started. And DVD uses the same 720×480 size for SD video, as do all editing applications.

If we do 720 * 0.9, we get 648. Yes, I know that’s not exactly 640, but that’s pretty close and that’s how they basically maintain the 4:3 aspect of the video image. The interesting thing is that with DV video, whether you are working with 4:3 footage or widescreen 16:9 footage, the frame size remains the same 720×480 pixels!

So how do we get a 16:9 aspect ratio from footage that is only 720×480? Change the shape of the pixels – the PAR – to make them wider, which results in the final video appearing wider! The PAR for widescreen DV is 1.2, so the pixels are wider than they are tall, resulting naturally in a wider image then when all the pixels are put together into an image.

We just need to be careful to realize that the aspect ratio of the VIDEO and the aspect ratio of PIXELS are two entirely different things. With 720×480 pixels, we can end up with a video having a 4:3 aspect by using a PAR of 0.9, or we can get a widescreen 16:9 video aspect by going with a 1.2 pixel aspect ratio.

When you create a widescreen DVD, the DVD player can sense what aspect the video is meant to be and should display it appropriately as either 4:3 or 16:9, so this pixel aspect ratio “trick” works just fine. However, when you play a video clip on your computer, from the hard drive or online, most software video players don’t pay any attention to the PAR and just ASSUME that the pixels are SQUARE (1.0 PAR). So what happens to that 720×480 image that is supposed to be widescreen? It gets played as if it is a 4:3 video and everyone gets tall and skinny!

So that is why the video you downloaded was 854×480 pixels – because using 1.0 PAR, that is the correct size for widescreen video “online”. But we want 720×480 for DVD, with a 1.2 PAR. That’s why I suggested placing that 854×480 video into a 720×480 DV Widescreen sequence in Premiere. Premiere should realize what’s going on, taking into account the difference in PARs and should fit the clip properly into the DV widescreen frame. Then export as MPEG-2 DVD widescreen using 1.2 PAR and you then have an .m2v clip ready to author to DVD in Encore. No funny business with size will happen at that point. Encore will not be confused.

As an aside, the first consumer HD cameras that came out used the HDV format, recording HD video on the same MiniDV cassettes that had been used record much smaller standard definition (SD) video clips before. That would require a LOT of compression to squeeze HD video onto a tape designed for SD video!

HD video is 1920×1080 pixels with a PAR of 1.0 (square pixels). To compress HD files smaller to fit MiniDV tapes as HDV, the resolution was compromised, down to 1440×1080 using a 1.333 PAR. That’s a lot less pixels to have to record!

Check this math out – 1440 * 1.333 = 1920, so when HDV video is played back with the HDV camera or VCR, the output is then 16:9 as meant to be viewed. Video editing software also respects PAR, so for instance a 1440×1080 HDV clip can be dropped into a 1920×1080 HD sequence in Premiere and will fill the screen properly – automatically.

I’ve seen folks edit their HDV footage as 1440×1080 and then export the same dimensions, and guess what? When they play the video on their computer, or upload it somewhere, it looks like a 4:3 video since the players take the 1440×1080 size literally and do not adjust for the 1.333 PAR.

Moral of that story is that if editing HDV footage, when you export then use 1920×1080 with 1.0 PAR so it comes out correctly for the viewers. And if editing DV widescreen footage and exporting for upload, then use 854×480 with 1.0 PAR. But don’t give that size to Encore, as it’s not what it expects and your mileage may vary.

Hoping this is now clearer. Do a Google search on video pixel aspect ratio. For your reading enjoyment, maybe check out https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pixel_aspect_ratio

Thanks

Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers