capturing letterboxed footage

[Gunleik Groven]

Just capture to a standard non-anamophic timeline in whichever SD format you prefer.

Sounds actually that you’ve been capturing right, but that your sequence settings are set to anamorphic…

Gunleik

[Afmeck]

thanks for getting back,

I’ve tried capturing both with anamorphic and standard presets as well as working with both types of sequence presets and the result is always the same. I did try outputing to tape from a standard (non-anamorphic) sequence preset again and instead of getting the sides of the frame cropped with black the top and bottom are squished down more than the original letterboxed image. I don’t understand this. The letterboxed image looks fine in the log and capture window but as soon it’s captured it becomes stretched horizontally and the size of the frame is squished vertically no matter what presets I use. I suppose I could try trashing my preferences but I just started this project and I’m already getting behind on time because of this issue so I’d hate to waste more if it’s not necessary.
Any suggestions would help at this point.

thanks.

[David Smith]

Is this behavior exhibited in the Canvas window or only on your video monitor? Have you looked in the Sequence>Settings menu and double checked that anamorphic is NOT checked? That would sure letterbox your letterboxed footage.

Otherwise, I’d post exactly what settings you are capturing with and outputing with. That would make it easier for someone here to figure out what the problem is.

Regards,
David

[Afmeck]

Hi David,

Yes, this is happening in the Canvas even when the anamorphic box isn’t checked in the Sequence Settings.
Here’s the rundown of my Capture and Output settings:
I’m capturing footage from a mini DV tape that was printed to video from an anamorphic sequence (hence the letterboxing, right?). The original source was mini DV shot in 16:9 and then captured with anamorphic presets (if that helps). I’m trying to recapture the letterboxed footage because, tragically, the original source tape was lost and I have to revise the finished product with some new footage also shot on mini DV in 16:9. The problem, in addition to the horizontal stretching, is that the frames don’t match up between the old and new footage when printed back to video. I’ve tried outputting from both anamorphic and standard 4:3 Sequence Settings but the results are the same.
I could probably live with the horizontally stretched images if I had to as long as the frame sizes matched up but I’d really like to know what’s going on here to try to prevent it from happening in the future.
I hope I’ve been specific enough.
thanks for your help.

Adam

[Gunleik Groven]

If you check/uncheck the anamorphic settings in the sequence after you put the clip in the sequence, things might not work out well.

Here’s what I’d do (if I was 100% certain that the image is actually letterboxed):

1.) Capture with standard (not anamorphic) preset – I gues this is what you did. -;)
2.) Check in the bin that the clip looks right in the viewer. If not: Right click clip an doublecheck that it is not flagged as anamorphic.
3.) Create a _NEW_ sequence
4.) Rightclick that in the bin and doublecheck that the sequence settings correspond to the clip _before_ putting the clip in there – ie: Sequence is not anamorphic.
5.) Open the sequence and visually veryfy that this is in fact a nonanamorphic sequence-
6.) Drop the clip into the sequence.

If this comes out stretched _or_ with black bars on the side, you most likely put a standard clip into an anamorphic sequence.

I guess this is more or less what you did, but try check’ing everything slowly before you step further.
Sorry if this sounds over tedious -;)

Gunleik

[Afmeck]

I’m happy to report that all is well.
Not exactly sure what I was doing wrong but I went back and recaptured the footage with a non-anamorphic preset which resulted in the same distorted image in the viewer and then dropped it into a non-anamorphic sequence. It looks fine now. I also thought that changing the sequence settings once they contain media would yield strange results but I tried this too and it works despite the manual’s warnings. The one caveat I should add is I haven’t viewed it yet on a standard consumer tv but I’ve printed it back to tape and it looks fine in the log and captue window.
I guess I can chock another one up to operator error.
Many thanks for helping me work this out!

Adam