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HD Project to SD finish
HI All,
I am working on a project originally created by another editor.
ALl the footage was shot HD though our final output will be SD 4:3.
The way he seems to have worked (not sure why) is to create and HD timeline and place a black bars .png over everything on the sides effectively cropping to a 4:3 view. But obviously the project is in fact still actually in 16:9.
What is the best way for me to output this thing to crop off those black bars and wind up with a nice 4:3 finish?
Is there a way to do it without compressor?
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11 Replies
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What is your FINAL destination? Tape? DVD? If DVD, there are options in Compressor for cropping the sides.
Shane
GETTING ORGANIZED WITH FINAL CUT PRO DVD…don’t miss it.
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def -
My final destination is digibeta.
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Do you have a Kona card?
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Or MAtrox, or Decklink, or Motu. Gonna need one of those if going to digibeta.
Shane
GETTING ORGANIZED WITH FINAL CUT PRO DVD…don’t miss it.
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def -
Well,actually, I’m gonna send it over to another system to be printed to tape.
So I really just need to know how to end up with a 4:3 SD digital file that I am gonna send over to be printed.
Please tell me that can work.
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Send them the HD file and tell them to downconvert it, center cut 4:3, when they output. That is really the best way. Capture cards downconvert in hardware, and in real time.
Shane
GETTING ORGANIZED WITH FINAL CUT PRO DVD…don’t miss it.
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def -
Thanks a lot for the help.
I literally do not know what I would do without this forum (and your help, you have responded to my queries more than once)
However, is there really no way to have compressor or final cut just crop and downconvert in a digital format?
I’d like to know even if that is not the best way in this instance.
(edit to post) Actually, I’d like to know if I could even just crop the file and leave it in HD.
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[Evan Hall] “is there really no way to have compressor or final cut just crop and downconvert in a digital format? “
There is, but it will take longer and not look as good. WHy not do it the easy and better looking way? Not the hard and OK looking way?
[Evan Hall] “Actually, I’d like to know if I could even just crop the file and leave it in HD.”
No, because HD isn’t 4:3…always 16:9. No such thing as HD 4:3.
Shane
GETTING ORGANIZED WITH FINAL CUT PRO DVD…don’t miss it.
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def -
Ok ok I get it.
Still, I’d like to know how to crop the digital file just out of curiosity. Who knows when I’ll be in a bind and need to know this.
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Evan is right, the best way is to use a piece of hardware, but if you are like me on an iMac, then your options are limited. 🙁
My client gave me some HD footage he shot into a TriCaster at 1080i 60i that I had to down convert for SD 4:3 broadcast. As I see it there are two ways to do it,
Do your editing in a sequence set to NTSC or NTSC Anamorphic. However, be careful as I have learned the hard way that a lot of broadcast networks do not like anamorphic and want it letter boxed. If that isn’t your worry and you are just going to DVD then no worries. When you drop the footage in, it will be resized. You will then have the ability to move the frame around to fudge if the talent likes to walk across the length of the frame. This resulted in good results for me and on my SD studio monitor I couldn’t tell a big difference in quality if any.
That is my method and heaven knows it is probably not the best, but it is one way. I am sure Compressor has a way to do it, but I honestly don’t know what that is as I have only just begun to explore it so I would do it with Compressor before doing it in FCP. Now if I only had a couple grand to get an external AJA card. 🙂
Hope this helps point you in the right direction. 🙂
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