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aspect ratio exporting question
Hello all,
this footage Im using imported into FCP as 720 x 480 regular ntsc footage. In final cut the video displayes with a letterbox. Unfortunately I went ahead and edited everything before asking questions about this letterbox. So now im running into problems, I know Im doing this after the fact, but I cannot recapture and re-edit (although my suspicion is that the black bars were generated in the camera and thus were captured as part of the footage). Im am trying to build a dvd with this edited sequence in DVDSP.
I figured out that the actual footage (not including the black bars) is 720 x 360, which is very weird, I know. So to have my movie display correctly on a wide-screen and 4:3 tv, it would have to be at a 16:9 aspect ratio.OK, Ive tried so many things, but I cant get it right.
1st, I made a new sequence in FCP changed this sequence to anamorphic. Then I copied my regualr sequence and pasted into new sequence, then I right click and choose remove all attributes/distort. It removes the letterbox but it sqeezes the footage vertically since my footage is 720 x 360, not 720 x 404… So this wont work…
Then I exported from FCP directly into compressor and I chose a 16:9 NTSC preset and crop 38 of top and 38 of bottom. The footage is now not sqeezed in any way and only a small letterbox remains (which I can live with) but the problem is, no matter what setting I use: DVD 90 minute best quality or increase bit rate, change gop, the footage looks aweful. Any time there is just a slight movement it has horizontal bars through it. Now, Its not the cropping, because it does it without cropping as well.My questions are:
Is compressor just not that good? because when I ue a reference quicktime and let DVDSP do the encoding it looks great.
If I cant use compressot to crop how can I get a final m2v file that has a aspect ratio of 16:9 and doesnt get sqeezed…Im sorry for this long post, just wanted to be clear on everything, please help!
Thank you! DanielleIm using FCP 5.1, compressor 2 and DVDSP 4, footage came from regular dv camera (obviously set to some weird widesreen format) and I captured it directly into FCP
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9 Replies
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It sounds like the footage was shot with that letterbox. It is 4:3 with a letterbox. Just encode it as 4:3 and on a 16:9 set, it can be “zoomed” so it fills the screen. On a 4:3 set it will simply letterbox.
Jerry
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Thank you for your fast reply!
I dint think about that, but one thing though, if they zoom on widesreen set, wont it zoom in to crop off the sides (that will have video not black bars) as well? and if they dont zoom in, it will have double letterbox..?
Danielle -
No it won’t… at least it wouldn’t on my plasma… it simply removes the black bars and pulls up what’s between them full screen.
Jerry
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OK, sounds like a great solution then!
I will burn the dvd now and test it all out
thanks so much!
D -
Hi Danielle,
To start with, your post is confusing. At the end it seems you are trying to do a widescreen DVD, is that correct?
If you’re getting letterbox, either your footage is anamorphic or flagged as such. If you’re using a regular DV camera it may be set to record anamorphic, most likely in the squeeze mode. Only a few more expensive cameras record true anamorphic without an adapter. There’s is nothing much else besides regular 720×480 the camera could do. Was your footage exported from QuickTime at a some point? Can’t think of any other way you could have such a strange size.
Yes, Compressor is that good, you need to take the time to learn it. DVDSP is doing what you want to get from Compressor, which is what you should use. I would never let DVDSP do this.
So again, you’re trying to do an anamorphic DVD? You would have to have shot it that way or cropped 33% of it from NTSC footage to do that. Maybe some more info would help…
Have a wonderful day.
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If the film looks good in 4×3, just change the sequence to annamorphic. Them remove the atributes. Dont need to copy and paste nothing. The 16×9 will crop the most of the black. If you don’t want any black, the only way is to distort vertically the picture or blow the full image but this two ways will make your picture loose quality.
Now you are distorting your movie twice. One in FC and another in Compressor. This prior to the MPG2 conversion. No good at all. Try to do everything in FC and give to Compressor a picture that don’t need to be croped or resized again.
Compressor the same that FC do the things right if you know how they work. They don’t make miracles.
cheers,
rafael -
Thank you for your reply,
I just did exactly as you said, I checked anamorphic in the sequence settings then removed attributes. It took away all the black and streched the video vertically. For my video to not be streched i still need a little bit of black bar, but it took it all away, strange…
as for your other idea to scale the video, I dont want to do that because like you said i will lose quality as well as video from the sides…
Any other ideas??
I appreciate the help
Danielle -
Hi Chris, thank you for your reply,
I have no idea what setting the camera was on, I didnt shoot it, I got the camera after the fact and just connected it to computer and caputered from inside FC. The footage never left FC, it just is this strange size.. most likely the camera added the letterbox, so its part of the footage and its showing up in FC as 720 x 480, but why the letterbox is 60 instead of 38 I dont know. If it was 38, i could just make the sequence anamorphic and be done… but now when I do that it streches the footage vertically..
So yes I want to make an anamorphic DVD, since then it will be full screen on wide screen tv and letterboxed on 4:3 tv, but as Jerry proposed in earlier reply I could just make a 4:3 DVD and have people with wide screen sets zoom in…
But if you have any idea on how I could avoid this and make a anamorphic DVD without distorting the footage?
About compressor: If I select a preset of DVD best quality 90 minutes, it shouldn’t come out with these horizontal bars and this is a preset, I didnt change anything! Now when I do change things, like open/closed GOP/IBP instead of IBBP or increase bit rates, it still looks bad. If I could make it look good in compressor I could just crop the 38 top and bottom in the geometry pane and be done with it as well..
But anyway, sorry again for long post, if you have any suggestions I can try, I would really appreciate it!
Thank you
Danielle -
Danielle,
Sit down, get a cup of decaf, and relax. Now, open up the camera’s menu and see what it’s set to play. Start with NTSC DV at SP speed. Play back the tape and see what it looks like on the camera’s lcd, or better yet, feed it to a TV monitor. Is it letterboxed? Squished but regular? Regular NTSC DV? Once you are sure what’s on your tape, then you can use all the swell advice above to do this right. Start over, it’s worth it.
Have a wonderful day.
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