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help with aspect ratio and pixel ratios…
OK,
maybe another painfully obvious question, so free cigar to the one who answers first 🙂
We are shooting green screen on DVCPRO HD and editing in the resolution since it gives us cleaner keys. The issue we are having is burning to SD DVD via DVDSP. I know you can click the track in DVDSP to specify 4:3 or 16:9 or whatever, but the client wants the final key to be in traditional 4:3 (no bars top and bottom). So I don’t think (correct?) I can just just toggle the track settings (4:3 would make the sequence anamoprhic I think).
the logical step would then be to just change the settings in the HD sequence to 720×480, but were dealing with different field order preferences (Hd is upper, dv is lower) and different pixel ratios (hd vs. CCIR 601). We’ve tried to simply resize and crop into a native DV sequence and have gotten interlaced edging on the subject.
Any ideas on how to better approach this? Are we fighting an uphill battle? Should this be done in Motion instead? What are the realities I’ll need to tell my client?
Thanks in advance.
Rick
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6 Replies
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Rick,
When downconverting from widescreen HD to SD you have just three choices:
1. 16×9 letterboxed in 4×3
2. 16×9 widescreen
3. Centerpunched (cuts off both right and left areas of the 16×9 frame)
In your case #3 sounds like what the client wants. I experimented with Compressor and found an easy way to create a centerpunched output but just changing two settings, but keep in mind that if the cameraman wasn’t framing for the centerpunch you will lose lots of your image. Let me know if you decide to go centerpunched and I’ll tell ya how…
David
David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los AngelesPOST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™
A forum host of Creative COW’s Business & Marketing, and Indie Film & Documentary forums.
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David,
thank you for responding. Yes, #3 is what we’re facing. Feel free to tell me the best way.
Rick
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Rick,
If you are familiar with Compressor this should be easy, if not a little harder…
First, export either a reference file or a self contained QT of your completed HD timeline (without titles and such as they will be cut off).
Next, import that file into Compressor.
Then, select the Settings preset for Best Quality 90-min DVD and drag and drop on top of the imported video.
Here’s where the Centerpunch comes in:
There will now be two things the Compressor window, one is audio and one is video. Click on the M2V (video) to highlight it. That load is parameters into the Inspector window. Over to your right. Its has four tabs. Hover over the icosn to see the text that IDs them. Click on the one that indicates “Encoder”
Under the “Encoder Tab” – change “Aspect Ratio” to 4:3
Now click on the Geometry tab.
Under the “Geometry Tab” – change “Crop” to 4×3 1.33:
That’s it, this will export a centerpunched 4×3 output and an AC3 audio file ready for DVDSP.
Hope this makes sense… If not, use the Compressor manual to get yourself more familiar with the app. Its easy once you know your way around it.
David
David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los AngelesPOST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™
A forum host of Creative COW’s Business & Marketing, and Indie Film & Documentary forums.
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David,
thanks so much. That is simple for me to do. No worries.
While I do have your ear, let me ask you one more thing- My creative director is curious as to why we don’t just ‘scale’ the image down into a dv sequence. My thinking is you can but between the DVCPRO HD pixel aspect (versus CCIR 601) and the difference in field preference (upper for hd, lower for sd), you would be dealing with more edging issues along the keyable source. Am I correct in assuming this? Is there a preferred methon to downconverting that is relatively foolproof? A codec? sequence setting? maybe doing it motion and exporting back out? Your thoughts and expertise are appreciated again. Thanks!
Rick
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Rick,
Sure, just drop everything into a DV sequence if you choose and scale until the video fills the frame top to bottom. You may have to apply the reverse fields filter and it may not be as clean as Compressor either. If you weren’t simply asking for a DVD I might have suggested that route. BTW, you might want to use another codec other than DV, as DV will put a fairly big compression hit on your graphics.
David
David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los AngelesPOST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™
A forum host of Creative COW’s Business & Marketing, and Indie Film & Documentary forums.
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Hi David,
Using FCP 6.0.3
footage is 720p or 1080iI have been searching for a simple answer to a different aspect of the above question.
My clients do not prefer a center punch. Instead, I am trying to get my 16×9 HD footage into a letterbox 4×3. I know the “quality” drawbacks of doing so.
The goal is to take the footage to “re-purpose” it for DVD Studio (and iDVD — I suppose) and Web “intranet” delivery.
Every time we try it, the results are not letterboxed.
Do you have a formula for highest quality output of 16 x 9 in a 4 x 3 letter boxed wrapper?
Thanks,
– Bryan A.
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