Aspect ratio help !!

[Stephen May]

Rajarshi,

First, I don’t know what 16:9 letterbox is, but if your documentary is for broadcast, it’s likely going to be NTSC, and not HD. Your best road out then is to cut in the native 4:3 NTSC sequence, and letter box those clips but the 16:9 Z1 clips will likely be HDV 1440×720 and they will need to be dropped in and in the motion tab (not Motion application) -under ‘distort’ you will need to move the aspect to get the proper aspect ratio; possibly to -20 or so, and fcp will likely adjust the ‘scale’ to to a small enough size as to fit the left and right edges of the clips inside your 740 pixel wide frame. The HDV will be unrendered.

You’ll do all of this because it is more forgiving in quality loss to take the higher resolution down than attempt to scale up the regular DV footage, especially because your going to broadcast.

-s

Stephen May
Keystone Media Productions
Freelance Videographer

[Stuart Simpson]

Hello once again! Did you manage to create your DV master?

I can tell you what the terms you are asking mean, but there will be other considerations if you’re working towards broadcast – and with all due respect you might be getting out of your depth here… What tape format are you delivering on? Are your colours broadcast safe? Is your film 16×9 or 4×3?

Anyway:

4 x 3 Full Height Anamorphic – This sounds wrong, you probably want 16×9 FHA. That would be widescreen 720×576 (or 720×480) with the Anamorphic box ticked.

4 x 3 Letterbox – This also sounds wrong, it probably just means 4×3.

16 x 9 Letterbox – This is 720×576 (or 720×480) with big black bars at the top and bottom of frame to preserve your 16×9 aspect ratio.

You should really look at something like the BBC guidelines:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/guidelines/dq/contents/broadcasting.shtml

-Simmie
4 MacPros – Kona 3 & Kona LH
2 G5s – Kona LH
xbox360, Wii, PSP, PS2
https://www.speak.co.uk

[Tod Hopkins]

[Rajarshi Basu] “Can somebody please help me put with this ? Whats a 16:9 letterbox ?”

A mistake? 😉

Possibly. Ask. It’s either a mistake or the spec does not presume that the original is 16:9.

For instance, a feature film. Feature films are generally closer to 2:1 and may be letterboxed even in a 16:9 raster. So a feature film might be delivered in those three croppings. Since you are cutting a full 16×9 raster, the third deliverable would simply be not applicable.

In either case, don’t be shy about asking. Whether it’s your ignorance or their mistake, it’s always better to ask the question than to do it wrong.

Tod

Tod Hopkins
Hillmann & Carr Inc.
todhopkins-at-hillmanncarr.com

[Rajarshi Basu]

Hi,

Thanks for your suggestions. All my tapes are standard DV. All of them are 720/ 576 PAL.

1. The footage that was shot on PD 170 is 4:3 native.

2. Footage shot on Sony Z1P is 16:9 native.

3. Both are DV CAM

So I just have to change my 4:3 image mainly…either to 16:9 or letterboxed 16:9 The broadcast requirement is on Digi Beta.

I found this article really helpful.

https://support.apple.com/kb/TA26788?viewlocale=en_US

Thanks

Rajarshi

[Rajarshi Basu]

hi Todd,

I have uploaded 2 photos, one is DV Pal Letterboxed

https://www.flickr.com/photos/31464191@N07/

and the other is DV PAL ANAMORPHIC…which is looking squished and elongated. Will it play as 16/9 on a true 16/9 monitor or a HDTV ?

Please suggest…

Rajarshi Basu

[Tod Hopkins]

Yes, it will if the monitor has been told to display the signal as 16:9. Remember that a monitor can’t actually tell if the signal is meant to by displayed 4:3 or 16:9. You have to tell it (assuming the monitor can do both). There is no “flag” or marker in the video itself. The change from 4:3 to 16:9 happens only at the display. The question is whether the image in the signal is meant to be displayed as is, or to be stretched out to 16:9.

This gets a bit trickier with file-based playback, dvd, or dtv broadcast because these formats do have a variety of flags and parameters that control playback, but a simple NTSC analog video signal only comes in one form.

Cheers,
tod

P.S. One warning. I’m not as familiar with PAL as I am NTSC. I believe the two are the same in this particular regard, but I might be wrong.

Tod Hopkins
Hillmann & Carr Inc.
todhopkins-at-hillmanncarr.com