Down conversion from HD (720P) to 720X480 letterbox

[Chris Borjis]

there is an anamorphic setting in compressor to flag
the stream 16:9

Also, I prefer quicktime conversion for any down conversion HD to SD, it does a much better job resizing than compressor can on its best settings.

It also allows you to letterbox non-anamorphic to SD which is perfect for making broadcast dubs since the stations don’t usually take or want anamorphic dubs.

[Gary Adcock]

“[David Roth Weiss] “As I’m sure you know, the proper dimensions for DVDs are 720×480, not 486. Probably caffiene related.”
shane Really? How can this be? SD is 720×486…always has been. DV introduced the 720×480 dimensions. “

All NTSC mpeg content is 720×480
even the over the air content.

gary adcock
Studio37
HD & Film Consultation
Post and Production Workflows

[Shane Ross]

Well then, color me “informed.”

thanks guys.

Shane

Littlefrog Post
http://www.lfhd.net

[Seawild]

Hi Folks,

What would be the resize(scale?) setting if I wanted to drop a 16×9 in a 4×3 timeline and letterbox.

Thanks!
Chris

[Chris Borjis]

it should do that automatically just like still images do.

import your 16×9 footage, make a new 4×3 sequence
check the anamorphic box in the settings for the 16×9
clip then drop it in the 4×3 sequence.

[Seawild]

Thanks!

But, I’m dropping a 16×9/Full Frame/1.78 sequence into a 4×3 sequence.

I would like the 4×3 sequence to be 1.78 letterboxed(top&bottom) but when I drop it in, it shows 4×3/full frame/anamorphic(i think).

I’m just wondering what the numbers are to scale it and perserve the original aspect ratio…

Thanks,
Chris

[Alexander Kallas]

[gary adcock] ”
“[David Roth Weiss] “As I’m sure you know, the proper dimensions for DVDs are 720×480, not 486. Probably caffiene related.”
shane Really? How can this be? SD is 720×486…always has been. DV introduced the 720×480 dimensions. ”

All NTSC mpeg content is 720×480
even the over the air content.”

When Compressor is fed a 720×486 file to transcode to mpeg2, it automatically crops lines off the top and bottom to create the 720×480 mpeg2 file

Cheers
Alexander

[Chris Borjis]

It should be doing just that.

have you right clicked your clip and gone into the
settings and marked it as anamorphic?

[Lewwwws]

hi, just noticed this post while browsing. I dont use apple, I use liquid and it seems some contradictory info from the mods at Avid.
They say that Liquid’s 720×486 (which is as close to 720×480 as Liquid gets) supports all national standard of NTSC. But if I am outputting to DVD, which is 720×486, am I really getting a quality reduction with Liquid?

[Dean Kuhnlein]

David, would you walk me through the process? I have been converting my HD timeline to DV/DVCPro 50 NTSC and inputing into a 4×3 timeline with a -33.33 resize. I then output via compressor to an M2V. Is this wrong. Could I drop a step in this process and lean on DVD SP to do the letterboxing for me?

I seem to get a good deal of moire and I am trying to avoid this. The footage was shot on a Panasonic HDX900 960/720 24p.

Thanks for your help.
dk

Drive Right. Pass Left.