Capture setting for HDV to DV iLink converter

[Simon Hustings]

This can either be your camera settings or FCP capture settings. Some HDV cameras give you options on how to handle the down convert, whether it letter boxes it or crops it etc. Make sure you have the right option selected.
If that doesn’t do it, make sure your FCP capture setting are correct. You need to capture DV PAL 48KHz Anamorphic. The anamorphic part tells FCP that your DV footage is widescreen and not 4:3.

Simon

[Bram Vergeer]

Thnanx Simon,
I put the capture settings on anamorphic and the sequence settings normal dv pal. That works
Now the editting. My viewer window in FCP has the image in 16:9. My Canvas window (of the sequence) has the image also in 16:9 but with the black bars. I want to export the film eventually as 4:3 but full screen, so without the bars. That means a part on the left and a part right side will fall off. In this situation I have to rescale every single file I edit individually by enlarging the wireframe. That of course is a lot of work. Is there a more easy way out??

Many thanx again!
Bram

[Simon Hustings]

Hey Bram,
Yeah there is an easier way. You change the scale of your first clip by using the scale option in the motion tab (basically creating a centre cut of your 16:9 image to fill the 4:3 canvas- Be aware centre cutting will reduce the quality of the clip)
Then copy the clip. (Cmd+C)
Select the rest of the clips on the timeline that you wish to change and right click on any of the selected clips to bring up the context menu.
Select Paste Attributes, and from the next menu, check the Basic Motion box and hit OK. (Basic Motion includes parameters set for scale, rotation, centre & anchor point as per the Basic Motion section on the Motion tab)
This takes the parameters you set on your first clip and applies them to all highlighted clips. Paste Attributes is a great time saver.
Hope this helps.
All the best,
Simon

[Bram Vergeer]

Many thanx simon, that would really save me a lot of time!!
I hope it won’t affect the quality of the film too much…Then I’ll lose the quality I a gained by filming in HD instead of DV….I was also thinkin to edit in 16:9 anamorphic and then export to DVD 4:3 in compressor, i wonder if it’ll cut the image left and right or sqeeze it….if it just cuts I wont lose any quality…I’ll try that out todat!
Again many thanx!
Bram

[Simon Hustings]

Hey Bram,

If you shot in HD or HDV and down rezed to DV, and then centre cut the 16:9 to fit 4:3 screen you will notice a dramatic difference in quality compared to the original footage.
Can you not deliver your film in 16:9 or even 4:3 letterbox? If you deliver in 16:9, then you will have the maximum quality available to you for the DV footage (assuming you compress it correctly). Or if it has to be 4:3, then letterbox the image. The image will be smaller, flanked by black bars top and bottom, but at least you won’t lose footage from the left and right of the screen.
Consider that most DVD players, if not connected to a widescreen tv will letter box your 16:9 image anyway. But for the rest of those watching on widescreen, will see your film in all it’s 16:9 glory.

Ultimately, taking a 16:9 image and making it “fit” a 4:3 screen will result in some form of visual loss: Either cropping of squeezing. Keeping things 16:9 (if possible) would be the best option.

S.

[Bram Vergeer]

Hi Simon,
thanx again!
Yes I was afraid I would lose some quality if I resize the 4:3 image. But “a dramatic difference in quality” doesn’t sound good….
Thing is it’s a project for a Dutch NGO about their projects in Malawi. It’ll be shown in primary schools and here children TV is mostly still in (fullscreen) 4:3. To make the kids feel it’s like normal they want it in this format….I know, it’s my first time like this as well..:)
Would you advise to film in DV and choose the 4:3 option. My camera has the option to shoot in DV as well. In this way no need to resize anything….
Thanx!!!!

[Simon Hustings]

Hey Bram,
A couple of thoughts:
For something like this, 4:3 may be your best bet. As you said, there would be nothing to resize, and what you see is what you get. If 4:3 is the requirement of the client, then 4:3 would probably be your best shooting format. Will make post a lot less painful too! Your workflow would be much easier. Shoot 4:3, edit 4:3 and compress to DVD as 4:3. Assuming your film is going to be less than 90 mins, then you will still get the best compression options in Compressor too.
Something for you to consider however: Check the down convert options on your camera, if it allows you to crop your HDV footage and output at 4:3 as opposed to 16:9 then this may be a better solution. When you shoot, shoot HDV but keep all you action centered, so when the camera crops your image and down converts it to 4:3, you don’t lose any of the important action (this down convert usually happens in realtime so your render times are drastically reduced). Plus this means your tapes are still HDV and this gives you the opportunity to reuse the footage for future HiDef projects. But as I said, this depends on your camera. Could be worth testing!?
Cheers,
Simon.

[Bram Vergeer]

Hi Simon,

thanx again! No special output settings in the camera, just the ILink converter which makes it possible to capture the HD material in DV in a simple way. I was thinking to edit the project in 16:9 and export it in Compressor as 4:3. But I’m figuring out how to put the settings. I choose Best Quality 90 minutes 4:3 and then the image is squeezed which of course is not good. It’s possible to choose under the Geometry tab in settings the Source Inset (cropping). You can choose left, right, top en bottom settings but I don’t have a clue how….

Do you have any idea???

Thanx!!

[Simon Hustings]

We’re kind of going round in circles here!! When you output from FCP, you are either looking at a 16:9 image, 4:3 cropped, 4:3 squashed or 4:3 Letterbox image. Changing options in Compressor, if you don’t know what you’re doing, isn’t recommended. And something like this you should decide on in FCP. There should be no need to change any geometry settings, as all this is doing, is something you can do in FCP before hand.

You said the client doesn’t want 16:9 so we strike that off the list. The remaining 4:3 options, all of which can both be done in FCP are:

4:3 letterbox : Will give you black bars top and bottom, but proportionally, your image will look correct. You can then finesse these options within the motion tab, by using the distort and scale options to reduce the black bars top and bottom and fill a little more of the screen. (But at the expense of losing a little of the image on the left and the right) Almost a 14:9 look.. half way between a centre cut and 16:9

4:3 cropped: As we discussed before, which takes a centre cut from the 16:9 image and effectively enlarges the centre portion of the image so you don’t get black bars top and bottom of the image but fills the 4:3 screen and proportionally everything is correct, only larger and softer.

4:3 squashed: Takes the 16:9 image and vertically squashes your image to fit the 4:3 screen, making people look longer and thinner.

The last option isn’t really an option, as your image will look obviously disproportionate.
If you decide one of these three options, then Compressor is easy.. just choose which DVD preset you want to use (DVD Best Quality 90 mins etc).

When I have to take a 16:9 image and make it fit a 4:3 screen, I always go down the 4:3 letterbox route. Good luck!! 🙂

[Bram Vergeer]

Hi Simon,

many thanx again, this is clear, I’ll make a choise between the options now!

Thanx for clearing it up!

Bram