Down conversion gone wrong?

[Walter Biscardi]

Was your tape properly labeled? Sounds like somebody letterboxed it again during ingest.

I’m always careful to properly label each tape with the Format, fps, and Letterbox/anamorphic if applicable. I also all this information in the tape slate.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
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[Jim Carswell]

Walter,

Thanks for chiming in. Your perspective is always appreciated. You know, I was wondering if that might be the issue. I am trying to set up a meeting at the stations to see first hand how they handled the tape on ingest. If it’s as simple as they letter-boxed it a second time than the remedy is simple and not an issue on my end. Other than perhaps more explicit labeling.

Thanks again,
Jim

Jim Carswell
Spyhop Productions, Inc.
Savannah, GA
http://www.spyhopproductions.com

[Jeremy Garchow]

Is this on HD televisions? If you watch a 4×3 SD image on an HD TV, it’s pillarboxed. Add to that a letterbox, you then have a letterboxed 4×3 image that is then pillarboxed in the 16×9 TV. The result is a smaller image with black on all sides.

[Jim Carswell]

Jeremy,

I expect the image to be pillar boxed since it is an SD image on an HD television. But should it appear to be pillar boxed twice? As if there’s pillar boxing inside of pillar boxing?

Jim

Jim Carswell
Spyhop Productions, Inc.
Savannah, GA
http://www.spyhopproductions.com

[Jeremy Garchow]

Twice? No. Sounds like they botched the upconvert, but in my head I can’t work out what they could have done unless instead of scaling up the image all the way to fill the vertical raster, they simply centered it at the native SD size. That would account for a double letterbox, double pillarbox. Basically, it’s a 720×486 box in the middle of a 1920×1080 frame. Instead the 486 should be scaled to fill the 1080 frame. Hope that makes sense, I can draw it out later if it doesn’t.

Jeremy

[Jim Carswell]

Okay, so I went to the local NBC affiliate to investigate the problem. They played the DVCPRO tape of the commercial for me on one of their decks straight into an SD monitor. And sure enough, the image was pillar boxed and letter boxed. That’s on top of the letter boxing that occurred when I down converted from HD to SD for the tape out. The result is a much smaller image appearing on screen. The image did not look like this when I made the dub in my studio.

I returned to my studio and made another dub using the same process I did before- and everything looks perfect on my SD monitor via SDI. Just the letter boxing that occurred when I down converted the original edit to SD. The image files the monitor on the left and right. No pillar boxing.

A little more background: I edited the spot in HD 720 24p. I down converted to tape via the Kona 3 card and than logged and transfered that tape version to a Kona 525 29.97 timeline. I did this in order to insert a telephone number in the lower/right portion of the letter box. I than did a tape out of the final piece to DVCPRO via my Kona 3 card with SD to SD turned off so that there would be no vertical, horizontal, pillar boxing or letter boxing adjustments.

I’m going to take this latest dub I made back to the television station to see if it plays any differently than the first. But, at this point, I am really at a loss.

Is there some fault in my process?

Any insight is appreciated.

Thanks,
Jim

Jim Carswell
Spyhop Productions, Inc.
Savannah, GA
http://www.spyhopproductions.com