difference between NTSC video stream and NTSC widescreen video screen

[John Rofrano]

[Larry Cole] “As best I can tell, the only different is the pixel size. I know my project uses 1.333 but the only options here are 1.212 and 0.909. I’m not sure I understand these relationships. “

The relationship us to the frame size. The Pixel Aspect Ratio (PAR) is used with the dimensions to determine the true square pixel size. For example. Your 1.3333 PAR is on a 1440×1080 frame and 1440 * 1.3333 = 1920 which is where your 1920×1080 size comes from. NTSC widescreen has a PAR of 1.2121 on a 720×480 frame and 720 * 1.2121 gives you 873×480 size in square pixels. Like wise NTSC 0.9091 * 720 gives you 655×480.

Since your HD video is widescreen (16:9) you want to use NTSC widescreen (16:9) to keep the same overall aspect.

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com

[Larry Cole]

So if I have a 16:9 project and try to use the regular (non widescreen) template, my aspect will be off? Basically all my talent would look tall and skinny using the normal template?

[John Rofrano]

[Larry Cole] “So if I have a 16:9 project and try to use the regular (non widescreen) template, my aspect will be off? Basically all my talent would look tall and skinny using the normal template?”

No, it would not look tall and skinny. What would happen is the 16:9 video would be letterboxed into a 4:3 frame with large black bars on the top and bottom. I’m sure you’ve seen this on old 4:3 SD TV’s that are playing widescreen movies.

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com

[Larry Cole]

Your description sounds like what I would have expected if I pushed my 16:9 video into the widescreen template. I would have thought the render would insure that the aspect was correctly accompanied by adding the bars at the top and bottom. Unfortunately, now I’m really confused.

if I play my 16:9 video on a 4:3 set, how does the widescreen vs. normal templates look different?

Unfortunately I don’t have any 4:3 sets at my disposal any more but I know my project will be playing on a 4:3 projector so I really want to get this right.

Thanks for the help by the way!

[John Rofrano]

[Larry Cole] “Your description sounds like what I would have expected if I pushed my 16:9 video into the widescreen template.”

No, I would expect 16:9 source rendered to a 16:9 template NOT to have black bars. Black bars indicate that there is an aspect ratio problem between the video’s aspect and the playback device’s aspect.

[Larry Cole] “I would have thought the render would insure that the aspect was correctly accompanied by adding the bars at the top and bottom. Unfortunately, now I’m really confused.”

Perhaps your confusion comes from watching 16:9 material on a 4:3 device. If you have a widescreen TV with properly prepared widescreen video you should never see black bars. The video should simply fill the screen. If you are trying to specifically render 16:9 video for a 4:3 device that’s a different story. Then you would use the NTSC template to add the black vars to the video.

[Larry Cole] “if I play my 16:9 video on a 4:3 set, how does the widescreen vs. normal templates look different? “

It depends on the set and the device that’s playing the video. Some playback devices (like DVD players) will add the black bars on-the-fly to conform the 16:9 to the 4:3 set. However, if you misconfigure the DVD player and tell it that the 4:3 set is 16:9, it will not add the black bars and you will see the tall squished picture (this may be what you were referring to earlier). Don’t get this confused with rendering. This is purely a playback configuration issue.

[Larry Cole] “Unfortunately I don’t have any 4:3 sets at my disposal any more but I know my project will be playing on a 4:3 projector so I really want to get this right.”

Now we’re getting to the heart of the problem. You are trying to prepare 16:9 footage to be viewed on a 4:3 device. Why didn’t you say so in the beginning? 😉

The answer is: It depends on the playback device!

If you are going to use a DVD player on and 4:3 projector, then you can render to the NYSC Widescreen template and the DVD player will add the black bars as long as you tell it that the projector is 4:3.

If you are going to use a PC and a 4:3 project then you need to render to the regular NTSC template and let Vegas add the black bars because your PC media player isn’t smart enough to do that for you.

Note: If you use the regular NTSC template and burn the black bars into the 4:3 video and then watch it on a 16:9 TV, you will get a”postage stamp” effect because the video is 4:3 the TV will add “pillarboxes” to it (i.e., black bars on either side) and the video will already have black bars on the top and bottom so your video will be a little postage stamp in the middle of the screen with black bars on the top, bottom, left, and right.

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com

[Larry Cole]

Thanks John. Yea… I knew I was talking about publication to a 4:3 device but I sure didn’t say that. Lesson learned. Now that my frame of reference is corrected, everything makes sense. Again, thanks.