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Compressor (?) for HD->SD 14:9
I need to go from a 16:9 HD original to a slightly cropped (but still letterboxed) 14:9 SD. The destination is a video loop that will play out on a monitor. I need to supply the video as a file, because someone else will be making the DVD.
I’m puzzling over using Compressor for this task. My first efforts are resulting in no letterbox, just a squeezed image. Is Compressor capable of (a) applying a slight crop; and (b) creating a 14:9 letterbox, going from HD to SD at the same time?
Looking at the Inspector/Geometry section, in the Cropping area, the Europe Standard (1.66:1) looks promising, but I don’t see how to relate that to the next section for pixel dimensions.
Thanks for any advice! I tried doing this inside FCP (resizing the HD file inside an SD sequence), but the results were a bit soft.
Bob C
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5 Replies
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Hi Bob
Are you going from a 1920×1080 source to a 14:9 SD NTSC target? If so, try setting:
Source Inset (Cropping) to Left: 120 & Right: 120
Output Image Inset (Padding) to Top: 34 & Bottom: 35Cheers
Andy -
Thanks, Andy. I’m still stumped.
I’m having two issues. First and foremost, I can’t seem to get a good-looking SD output from Compressor. The file is actually larger than the high def file I’m inputting, and the image is not crisp.
Andy, your settings gave me a predicted 2+ hour render. I stumbled onto a “European 1.66” output and tried that, as follows:
Source Inset (Cropping) set to Europe Standard 1.66. (No details about how much this crops)
Output Image Inset (Padding) set to Europe 1.66, which automatically sets Top: 50 & Bottom: 50.This setting seems to give me the result I wanted (reducing the size of the letterboxing when putting a widescreen show into a 4:3 format).
But, as I said up top, the main difficulty is that the output file is large yet ugly. When I make DVD files they actually look crisper.
Any tips on how to use Compressor to make decent SD files from HD? I’ve read earlier threads on this topic, and I have the Kona LHe, not the Kona 3, so that direct option is out.
When I use my SD monitor, fed by the LHe card, to look at the HD files on the FCP timeline, they look so much more detailed than the SD files from Compressor. Is there any way to approach that quality with an output file?
Bob C
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Disappointed that this thread is so short. In working with 720p (960×720) footage and for my workflow, I’d like to do the conversion in compressor for 14:9 for the same sort of reason that Bob gave. In my case, I have programing for the web, which is 720p, but I also need something that looks better on 4:3 public access channels, both for old sets and for flat screens.
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Here are the settings I am using in Compressor to convert my 720p 960×720 footage to NTSC 14:9:
Under Video format:
(1) Change Video format to NTSC
(2)Change Aspect Ratio to 4:3
(3) Leave field dominance Progressive (why introduce interlacing on progressive footage?)Under Geometry:
Source Insert (Cropping)
Crop to: Custom
Left: 45
Right: 45Output Image Inset (Padding)
Padding: Custom
Top:34
Bottom:34The source cropping was based on 720 pixels across (NTSC) rather than 960 (HD 960×720). So, if my video looks streched out when the compressor job is done, then I will need to recalcultae based on (960/720) * 45 = 60 pixels. I should have run a test clip but I felt confident so I didn’t. I’ll be back to say if I was right or wrong.
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Best I can tell, the video is not distorted and the 45 pixel crop is correct.
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