DVD PAL 16:9 Workflow (par,reso,etc..)

[Darby Edelen]

[Cache] “Am i doing it right to import the HD footage, and interpret it as D1/DV PAL 1.07 PAR in the project window?
This bothers me the most, as I dont want to end up with horizontally stretched footages in the end, as the Footage contains peoples, faces.”

I’m not sure if these questions are specific to AE, but I’m going to assume that they are since this was posted in the AE forum:

Do not re-interpret the footage!

Your footage should be interpreted as what it is, this includes the native pixel aspect ratio of the footage. AE does not want to know what you want the footage to be, that’s handled later, it wants to know what the footage is.

Create your After Effects composition to have the desired output resolution and settings (PAL DV 720×576, 1.07 PAR, etc). This is what you want your footage to end up being.

Drag and drop your footage into this composition and use the Fit To Comp Width command (Command+Option+Shift+H for Mac, or Ctrl+Alt+Shift+H on PC). This will preserve your footage’s native aspect ratio and fit it to the composition.

The last step is to put a black solid behind your footage just to make the letterbox officially exist.

[Cache] “Should I turn on PAR correction display in order to see what the client will see on a TV connected to the DVD that contains the final material ?

If i do the last, the faces/people will grow fat, will stretch horizontally. right ?”

You should turn on PAR correction, this will show you what the footage will look like on a native (PAL in your case) display.

Darby Edelen
DVD Menu Artist
Left Coast Digital
Aptos, CA

[Eric Steinberg]

The client wants the letterboxes on the final output, and wants to get 720×576 final output

Just to make confirm: The client wants a 4:3 final output with letterbox? It’s pretty common to output 16:9 anamorphic, which also is 720×576. The difference is the pixel aspect ratio, which is 1.07 vs. 1.42. But if it in fact is 4:3 with letterbox, here’s how I would suggest your workflow:

1. Import your footage and interpret it just as it is: 1920×1080, non-interlaced, square pixels (and whatever frame rate the footage is.. probably 25fps).

2. Edit your piece in a composition that is the same: 1920×1080, square pixels, etc.

3. When your done, drag that composition into a new composition which is set to regular PAL: 720×576, PAR 1.07, and scale the footage down to fit (I think it’s 40%).

4. Render.

There is more than one way to do it, but that’s how I do it anyway.

Should I turn on PAR correction display in order to see what the client will see on a TV connected to the DVD that contains the final material ?

Yes, in the final comp you’re rendering. This is only for previewing, and doesn’t affect the render.

Hope this helps.

Kind regards,
Eric

[Cache]

Eric and Darby!

Many-many thanks for lighten me up, both of you hepled a lot!

I love this forum and the helpful people here.
hopefully i can give it back to the community in the future.
I had to tell this 🙂

thanks again,
cache

[Erik Pontius]

You can add your 16×9 comp to a 4×3 comp, then hit ctrl-alt-shift-h (command-option-shift-h on the mac) to have AE, fit the width of the 16×9 image into the 4×3 space, creating your letterboxing at the top an bottom.
I’d try strongly to convince your client that letterboxing your footage is the wrong way to go. You will further reduce the quality of your image since you are effectively losing a good portion of vertical resolution with the black bars. You might have well have shot the film on DV.
DVD players have settings in which you tell them what type of TV you have connected: 4×3 or 16×9. When the DVD player encounters 16×9 anamorphic content on a disc and it is connected to a 4×3 set, it will automatically add the black bars. The advantage to anamorphic is when dealing with 16×9 sets as the image will fill the entire scene utilizing as much of the vertical image resolution as possible. Letterboxed material on a 16×9 set will have black bars on the top AND the sides of the screen.
4×3 sets are becoming a dying breed and you don’t see to many of them in the stores anymore.
If he has requirements from a festival or something that is out of his control and the film must be letterboxed, so be it.
You may also consider outputting a letterbox version and an anamorphic version.

Erik