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Pixel Aspect question that has been driving me nuts
So, I just did a Larry Jordan tutorial, and he reiterated what the FCP manual says: graphics designed for broadcast SD should be designed at 720×547, not 720×540. Both Mr. Jordan and the FCP manual claim that 540 is for designing for DV. Ok, I believe it. But here is the problem, I freelance for some of the top motion gfx companies in the world, and all the designers still seem to design at 720×540. I don’t know why, maybe they learned this in school when they were working with DV and never adjusted their workflows for broadcast. I don’t think I can just roll in and tell everyone they have been doing the wrong thing for years.
On top of that, I just created a perfect circle in Photoshop 3 different ways. First I used the 720×486 setting, then I used the D1 720×540 setting (so Adobe apparently doesn’t believe in this 547 thing either), and finally I created my own setting of 720×547. I brought all three of these tiffs into a 10bit 720×486 timeline in FCP. The best was the 720×486, which filled the full frame and gave me a perfectly round circle (with the pixel aspect correction on). Then I droped in my 720×540 tiff, which also gave me a perfect circle, but as with all the stuff I get from designers, there were black lines on the top and bottom of the frame (I assume of 3 pixel height on both top and bottom). Then I dropped in my 720×547 image (which is supposedly the correct dimensions to design at for broadcast SD). Now here was the only test that did not yield a perfect circle. The circle was stretched whether the pixel aspect correction was toggled on or off (though much more stretched when toggled off of course).
So…I don’t get it. Two reliable sources say the last test is the correct procedure for creating gfx for SD, but it does not seem to yield the results it should…so I sure don’t want to go around telling everyone they are doing it wrong if in fact it doesn’t work. What is going on here?
I know I have posted about this in the past, but have never got a satisfactory answer from anyone. Hopefully I will this time.
Thanks,
Eli -
24 Replies
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Eli,
IGNORE all the nonsense in the manual. It is extremely dated and totally unnecessary. If you create square-pixel graphics, do it at 540. If it’s non-square capable create them at 480 and make sure FCP knows that it’s non-square (by changing the pixel aspect item properties in the FCP Browser).
Sean
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[Dave LaRonde] “I use 720×540 artwork all the time. For example, it’s great for After Effects, from which I can then make 720×480 OR 720×486 or even 640×480 with the absolute minimal loss of quality.”
480 should never be scaled to 486. It’s pointless since the 6 extra lines are well within the overscan area. The proper workflow is to simply add 4 lines (of black) to the top, 2 lines to the bottom. FCP 6 handles this automatically when you place 480 footage in a 486 sequence.Sean
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I agree with you guys that I should probably just stick to the standard of 540. I just questioned it because Larry Jordan made the same claim that it should be done in 547. Also, there is still the issue that if you drop a 720×540 graphic into a 720×480 (ie DV) timeline, then yes, it will perfectly fill the frame on the conversion from square to non-square pixels. But if you drop that same graphic into a 720×486 (ie broadcast) timeline, you will notice that the graphic does not entirely fill up the frame…there will be black lines at the top and bottom of your frame. Which sounds to me like the conversion does not REALLY work for both the 720×480 and 720×486 formats. So, should I just ignore those lines because they are out of action safe (though they will be visible if viewing the movie on a computer), or should I blow the graphic up by 1% to make up for that not-so-perfect pixel conversion (which I am not thrilled about doing)?
Thanks,
EliEli Mavros
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[Eli Mavros] “So, should I just ignore those lines because they are out of action safe”
Action safe? I think you mean overscan area. Yes, you should ignore them.
[Eli Mavros] “should I blow the graphic up by 1% to make up for that not-so-perfect pixel conversion”
Absolutely not. The time to do that, if desired, is when you (or someone else) encodes for the web.
Sean
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Eli,
Here’s something else to consider. Nobody’s ever going to see 720×486 video. It doesn’t exist outside of the production world. All video that gets sent to consumers, like DVD and broadcast MPEG, is 720×480.
Sean
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That is a good point. It’s more the designers seeing it I’m worried about. A dangerous combination can sometimes be someone with a good eye and little technical knowledge. I can tell them that nobody will ever see that, but whether they believe me is another question. When you deliver an SD format like digibeta to a station, do they just crop those six extra pixels?
Thanks for all the great responses,
EliEli Mavros
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[Eli Mavros] “When you deliver an SD format like digibeta to a station, do they just crop those six extra pixels?”
Yes.
You should look at the overscan area of any SD broadcast. At the top you’ll see a bunch of garbage (VITC timecode, closed captioning data, etc.) far worse than a solid black line.
Sean
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For creating the proper aspect ratio using sq. pixels create PS docs at:
720 x 547 for SD
720 x 540 for DVFCP’s pixel dimensions for non-sq. pixels are slightly different than Adobe’s.
Read about it here:
https://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=36836Kevin Monahan
http://www.fcpworld.com
Author – Motion Graphics and Effects in Final Cut Pro -
Thanks a lot guys…finally some great input on something that has been bothering me for a long time. Having no engineering background, and having never worked at a broadcast station I’m always just nervous about these particulars…and sometimes it is difficult when you get conflicting answers or theories like in the FCP manuals.
Thanks again,
EliEli Mavros
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So Kevin, you agree with the FCP manual and Larry Jordan that graphics should in fact be created at 720×547 for SD projects? But why when I do this and then bring that graphic into FCP the graphic is stretched regardless of whether I have pixel aspect correction on or off?
Thanks,
EliEli Mavros
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