Aspect Ratio import issue

[Tero Ahlfors]

TV’s have a setting for how they deal with the aspect ratio. Most default to strecthing but you can set it to “native” or what have you and you’ll get pillarboxed 4:3 image. That said you can’t control how people have their own TV’s set up.

[Ryan Walker]

I do realize that I can’t control another viewers TV. This project is geared to the 60 year old and up crowd who probably won’t be well versed in aspect ratio. The man who directed this is in his 80’s and doesn’t like the quality when the video stretches. I agree, it looks much worse. Therefore I am thinking my best bet is to create a 16:9 version so when the average viewer plays it on a wide screen TV, quality isn’t lost in potential default stretching. In general testing on HD TV’s, stretching seems to be the rule, not the exception. The 16:9 version will have black bars on the side, but it won’t lose quality based on a TV manufactures decision to default stretch a 4:3 DVD.

My thought was to create an AE NTSC DV Widescreen comp and scale the video accordingly. Am I off in my thinking?

[Walter Soyka]

[Ryan Walker] “In general testing on HD TV’s, stretching seems to be the rule, not the exception. The 16:9 version will have black bars on the side, but it won’t lose quality based on a TV manufactures decision to default stretch a 4:3 DVD. My thought was to create an AE NTSC DV Widescreen comp and scale the video accordingly. Am I off in my thinking?”

If you manually pillarbox a 4:3 image inside a 16:9 frame, and your viewer is watching on a 4:3 screen, the 16:9 iamge (pillarboxed 4:3) will be letterboxed to fit in the 4:3 frame. You’ll end up with a litterboxed image: black bars on all four sides of the image.

Walter Soyka
Designer & Mad Scientist at Keen Live [link]
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
@keenlive   |   RenderBreak [blog]   |   Profile [LinkedIn]

[Ryan Walker]

Wasn’t so worried about 4:3 screens as they are hard to come by. But oddly enough I am getting a litterbox on some widescreen HD TVs and even Windows Media Player when the 16:9 AE comp DVD is used. Sounds like you guys were right, a 4:3 DVD is the best way to go. I simply have to suck up the potential stretch issue.

[Ryan Walker]

Dave, Tero and Walter I thank you much for the quick responses and help.