Exporting letterboxed DV NTSC as 16×9

[Steve Eisen]

Do not manipulate your footage. Just change the TV to wide screen from normal.

Steve Eisen
Eisen Video Productions
Board of Directors
Chicago Final Cut Pro Users Group

[Andy Mees]

I’d agree with Steve. Chances are good that a 16:9 TV will have a zoom mode for displaying letterboxed images as full screen.
That said, not all of them do, so if you do really want or need to export as 16:9 then you can easily do this in Compressor’s Geometry controls by setting the Source Inset (Cropping) Crop to control to 16×9 1.78:1

[Kevin Monahan]

Any kind of zooming into a 4:3 letterbox will be degraded compared with a widescreen version of the field, no?

I prefer to make a widescreen sequence and let the DVD letterbox for 4:3 TVs.

I copy/paste the clips into a 16:9 sequence, then change the distortion for one. I copy/paste attributes to the other clips and make any other adjustments for non-standard clips. Done.

Kevin Monahan
http://www.fcpworld.com
Author – Motion Graphics and Effects in Final Cut Pro

[Alexander Kallas]

[Andy Mees] “I’d agree with Steve. Chances are good that a 16:9 TV will have a zoom mode for displaying letterboxed images as full screen.
That said, not all of them do, so if you do really want or need to export as 16:9 then you can easily do this in Compressor’s Geometry controls by setting the Source Inset (Cropping) Crop to control to 16×9 1.78:1
“

With either of the above, you will have scaling problems and as the source is DV, resolution loss also.

Cheers
Alexander

[Andy Mees]

snore

[Kevin Monahan]

There is a lot more scaling in a letterboxed sequence than just a horizontal squeeze with anamorphic footage.

Kevin Monahan
http://www.fcpworld.com
Author – Motion Graphics and Effects in Final Cut Pro