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Anamorphic Flags and Display
Is there a way to flag anamorphic files in CatDV so that they are displayed ‘visually’ correct?
For example, FCP7 has a flag on ingest for Anamorphic files that seems to not relate to Quicktime 7 in anyway. Hence a 720 x 576 file with anamorphic flag (display aspect ratio?) ticked will display as ‘widescreen’ in FCP7. This flag does not seem to carry across to Quicktime, Premiere or CatDV. Even the deeper properties section of quicktime7 has no aperture display option for anamorphic.
I know CatDV uses quicktime player but I was wondering if CatDV had a similar feature to FCP7 to be able to display the file per the correct ‘display aspect ratio’ or any anamorphic flagging meta.
An interesting note, when creating a 16×9 proxy of anamorphic footage with a square pixel setting the proxy will be displayed in the same pixel aspect ration as the master file when it is in fact square, for example 640 x 360 from an anamorphic 720 x 576 will become . It was of interest because it shows that CatDV can alter the display of the ‘display aspect ratio’.
Scott Goddard
Neo Verite Limited
https://neoverite.com -
4 Replies
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I find when I make low rez (20:1) SD copies of DNxHD footage for Media Composer, or CatDV Proxies of either the DNxHD or Low rex SD MXF, I always have to go in and set the aspect ratio in CatDV to 1.78. I’ve just gotten used to always doing it. Of course I am switching the 16:9 HD shots to SD 20:1 (saves me a lot of space on the system). So that actually seem appropriate. But going to mp4 CatDV proxies from the HD you’d think the system would figure it out for you.
Non-linear: all the time and nothing but.
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It seems that the field ‘Aspect Ratio’ (ASP) is actually the display aspect ratio setting. Changing this will affect the display aspect ratio. I just wish this flag could be carried across from FCP or other ingest tools into CatDV. It’s one of those grey areas that has always bothered me with quicktime.
Scott Goddard
Neo Verite Limited
https://neoverite.com -
It gets a little weird when one copy isn’t actually anamorphic but square pixels in the correct number.
Non-linear: all the time and nothing but.
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Yes, the way I always deal with it is that you are only ever 720 x 576 for PAL SD broadcasts, anamorphic or not. The rest is just display information. Applications all seem to have a different approach to it.
Capture square pixel CCIR601 PAL in FCP and it will give you a ‘display’ pixel count of 768 x 576 when in fact its encoded pixel count is really 720 x 576.
For anyone wanting to go deeper:
https://www.animationpost.co.uk/bitmaps/aspect-ratios.htm
https://community.avid.com/forums/t/59843.aspx
https://library.creativecow.net/articles/gerard_rick/pixel_madness.php
https://lurkertech.com/lg/pixelaspect/
Don’t even get me started on people calling NTSC 60i when in fact its 59.97…
Scott Goddard
Neo Verite Limited
https://neoverite.com
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