Lost in compression- 16×9 and 4×3…

[Jerry Hofmann]

It opens that way in QuickTime because QuickTime can’t deal with anamorphic 16:9.

AVI’s can be exported directly from FCP using “QuickTime Conversion”.

Jerry

[Russell Lasson]

It really isn’t a problem that QT doesn’t display your PAL anamorphic file as 16:9. They key is to change your setting when you’re compressing your WMV or AVI file to 16:9. (In NTSC land, it would be changing it from 720×480 to something like 640×360. I don’t know exactly what it would be in PAL).

So just change the compression settings to 16:9.

-Russ

[Aine Ni fhaolain]

Hi,

I had this exact problem myself and it took me a very long time to figure out. If you are using FCP which i presume you are the problem is with the default setting in your options after you go into export-using quicktime conversion – options – size. The problem is that for some reason FCP sets this to a 4:3 as default. I figured out through a friend that if you go into dimentions here at the bottom of the list is custom. click on this and change the dimentions to 704×400. DO NOT tick the preserve aspect ratio or the deinterlace source video.

This should work for you, to be honest im not a computer whiz so i dont know why, but i hope it helps.

[Jay Wolf]

Thanks, Jerry. It’s the first time I heard this. Is this because anamorphic 16×9 is not ‘true’ 16×9? I guess I can deduct from this that I need to export DV PAL anamorphic and not Current Settings? And is it right to assume then that any transcoding afterwards will be in the right proportions?

I realized AVI’s can be exported directly from FCP, and I did so, but the results seems very ‘soft’ and unacceptable for my purposes, (but maybe that’s just the codec… a client asked for it )
Furthermore, like a good student I just watched Aharon Rabinowitz’ Cow tutorial on compression (first complementary chapter)for the web and he specifically discourages the viewer to compress directly from NLE software.

So I try to compress using Compressor 3 and I can’t find an option to compress to avi. I thought maybe that would render a better quality file.

Wolf

[Russell Lasson]

[Imagine Video] “And is it right to assume then that any transcoding afterwards will be in the right proportions? “

It all depends on what you tell the program that you’re using to compress to set the output size to be.

-Russ

[Jay Wolf]

So Larry is saying: export from FCP using Current Settings and change the settings in the settings editor in the Compression application, while Aine is saying to edit the export settings in FCP.

Both can work, I guess, but which is better? After seeing Aharon’s tutorial, I assume exporting using Current Settings would be the appropriate way. Agree?

(Btw, out of curiosity- did you both know QT can’t deal with 16×9 anamorphic?)

[Jay Wolf]

Sorry, Russel- I just reread my post and noticed I called you Larry…

[Russell Lasson]

[Imagine Video] “(Btw, out of curiosity- did you both know QT can’t deal with 16×9 anamorphic?) “

QT can deal with anamorphic video. I have DVCPROHD files that playback widescreen, most of the time. DVCPRO resolution is 960×720 or 4×3, but QT usually knows this and plays it back at 1280×720 or 16×9. But then again, sometimes it doesn’t.

I don’t know why it does sometimes and doesn’t others, but I haven’t every really cared because it doesn’t change the fact that anamorphic video is still 4×3 and needs to be stretched before you deliver.

-Russ

[Jay Wolf]

That’s what kept me confused, Russ- there is no apparent logic to the way QT deals with and displays 16×9, anamorphic or not.

Jerry Hoffman says it can’t deal with anamorphic 16×9, you say it can, be it now and then…

I was looking for logic there, which was a silly thing to do, I guess. This is a clear matter of ‘what you see is not what you get’.

Most important is that I export using Current Settings and then when I convert/compress to .wmv for instance, I tell the Compression software to use a 16×9 image proportion setting so it will be displayed correctly, right?

One more question: I either set my own 16×9 settings or check ‘constrain proportions’ but never both, right?

[Tom Brooks]

704×400 is a workable size. It doesn’t exactly stay 16:9, but very close and the dimensions are divisible by 16. That’s a good thing for Windows Media, from what I read.

How to get there is another question. If you do a Quicktime conversion, you will recompress your video. You don’t need to do that to get to Windows Media. For that, I would export a Quicktime Movie (not Conversion) using current sequence settings. Then take that Quicktime file into Compressor and export to Windows MEdia via Flip4Mac. In Compressor, you can set the output size to 704×400 with square pixels. The end result should be 16:9 (almost) and everything should look right on a computer screen.

What type of AVI do you want to end up with? That’s an old format that is mostly used for editing and intermediates now. It’s rarely used for delivery. The AVI codec choices are very few from Quicktime or Compressor. For the Web, there’s no good reason to go to AVI.