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Help: Aja Kona LH with no 16:9 analog out??
Situation: Analog shop with a new Kona LH betacam RGB in/out. Full screen 4:3 is great. 16:9 curveball.
DV footage from analog source shot 16:9. Played from VTR the image is stretched vertical.
OK, then I capture and edit in anamorphic FCP. On the computer canvas/viewer, it looks anamorphic 16:9. Letterboxed with correct aspect.
However, the output of the AJA Kona (analog betacam) is still stretched full screen (vertical), like it was sent out of the DV player.
What can I do to pull an anamorphic (16:9) RGB Betacam (we have no SDI machines) signal from the AJA Kona?
Is this a Final Cut Pro issue? -
9 Replies
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That’s anamorphic material. Are you saying you need to letterbox it?
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Thanks for the reply.
Getting my terms down, so correct me if I am wrong.
Anamorphic material = shot in 16×9 aspect ratio. Shot on Canon XL2. When played out of our ol’ DVCAM VTR, looks stretched vertically to fill the 4:3 screen.Goes analog “into” our AJA like that. Under settings in FCP I can select capture anamorphic and edit anamorphic. What comes out of the AJA is full 4:3.
By letterbox do you mean overlay of black mattes top and bottom?
Or distorting the aspect ratio to 16×9 with black top and bottom?Workaround: I solved it (sort of) by capturing in anamorphic and editing in not-anamorphic. FCP has to render the footage in the sequence timeline. I was hoping to avoid that.
I hope this helps.
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YOu have it all correct and by letterbox I mean you/FCP will distort the footage, don’t add mattes.
SD anamorphic footage (commonly referred to as 16×9) is footage that is recorded 16×9, but squished down to 720×480 to fit into the SD DV spec. You tell FCP that the footage is anamorphic and edit in an anamorphic timeline to preserve all of the information. If you capture anamorphic and edit in a non anamorphic timeline, FCP will do the letterbox conversion for you and you will be editing at a reduced vertical resolution.
What’s you final output?
Jeremy
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Smart question; “final output?”.
We are all analog. Betacam component machines. No SDI or firewire. Final out is to a Beta machine from the AJA component out. Product should be 16×9 letterboxed in a 4:3 raster/screen.
Best analogy: Looks like down converted HD as seen on SD cable TV. I hope this helps.
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Then you can edit exactly as you are. Bring in Anamorphic and edit in a non-anamorphic timeline. This will produce a letterbox image.
Jeremy
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10-4.
I was hoping for a renderless timneline but I can make do.
Thanks for the reply.I saw that AJA has a anamorphic coverter, but I think that’s only SDI, correct?
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AJA does provide SD to SD conversion for this purpose, but it an all reality, it was a feature that was added later at the request of users. Personally, I find it soft. It should work with analog inputs/outputs as well. As a matter of fact, I didn’t know it was enabled on LHs, i thought it was a kona 2 or kona3 thing, but perhaps I am wrong.
The other thing you can do is edit in an anamorphic timeline and do a final letterbox conversion at the very end (nest your anamorphic timeline in a 4×3 timeline). This is will dave the major render times until the very end. For monitoring, all you do is punch the 16×9 button on the monitor to correct the aspect ratio.
Jeremy
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You are right Jeremy, SD to SD conversions are Kona 3 and ioHD only.
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Word ’em up.
I had a feeling.
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