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Mixing PAL, NTSC, 4:3 and 16:9
I have been given two sets of tapes of the same show – two cameras were used – one left wide-open on the stage and one for close-ups. The idea is to create DVDs for the show.
Both sets of files imported fine into VP10. The wide-open was .MTS from a canon HG10, set for NTSC, wide-screen 1440*1080 (16:9) and the close-ups are AVI, 720×576 (4:3), PAL, DV. SO, I have a mixture of PAL, NTSC, 16:9 and 4:3
Both imported fine – my question arises around output format. I want to deliver DVDs of the show that can be played on conventional DVD players and PCs.
My questions is around output conversion. I wanted to issue standard 4:3 DVDs, but having played around with cropping I loose too much. Am I correct in saying that any attempt to deliver 16:9 on standard 4:3 format will either need cropping to fit (thus loosing a load of picture) or else fitting the 16:9 into the 4:3 but having a set of letter-box bars at the top and bottom?
I decided to deliver the DVD in a widescreen format, on the basis that the majority of the footage being used (the .mts files) are in wide-screen.
For editing, I set the project-properties to 1440 x 1080, PAL (25 FPS). This meant the wide-open aspect looked fine, and then when adding the PAL/4:3 events to the timeline I set to ‘match output aspect’, and it looked fine – did not stretch it.
When I went to render I set the template to MainConcept MPG2, DVD Architect PAL widescreen to get it all to fit into the 720 x 576. I did not change anything in the template.
So, now to the questions:
1. Will Vegas look after all the frame-rate conversions and interlacing conversions for me? For example the field order between the PAL and NTSC formats seem to be different, as do the pixel ratios.
2. Should I be doing any sort of interpolation or blending on either the NTSC or PAL events – there seemed to be some interlacing artifacts on a couple of the PAL clips, but not that many.
3. Are there any ‘gotchas’ that I should be aware of when mixing formats like this? Vegas seems to handle everything OK (which is amazing) but if anybody has had experience mixing formats like this I would appreciate any comments.
4. Did I choose the correct template to ensure that the DVDs will be able to display on both 4:3 and 16:9 TVs?
Sorry about the length of the post…
Many thanks,
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3 Replies
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Having worked through things a bit more I had some questions about DVDA.
One the mpeg and ac3 have been rendered, do I need to set the aspect ratio in DVDA from its default of 4:3 to 16:9? In other words, do these preferences override the settings taken from the source footage?
I created a small test mpg2 by rendering a region in VP (VBR, max 9, min .192, average 6)but when I try to prepare in DVDA it tells that the bit rate is too low – even though media info reports it as having an average of approx 6.1 mbps…
Thank you for any suggestions.
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I assume you are in a PAL country and want to produce a PAL DVD which is why you set everything to PAL. Vegas will take care of everything for you. To crop the 16:9 footage just open Pan/Crop, then right-click on the frame and select Match Output Aspect. That will make your footage conform to the PAL 4:3 project. You need to do this for each 16:9 event on the timeline.
~jr
http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com -
The settings for DVD Architect only affect the DVD menus and any footage you allow DVD Architect to render. Select 4:3 if you want 4:3 menus and 16:9 if you want widescreen menus. If you pre-render all of your video (and I recommend that you do) Vegas will not re-render them (as long as you used the DVD Architect templates in Vegas) so it will not affect them. This way you could have 4:3 DVD menus with 16:9 videos. If you let DVD Architect render your final MPEG2 file, it will use the project properties of 4:3 or 16:9.
~jr
http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com
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