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Quality loss in 16:9 export of anamorphic video
Editing video in a timeline with sequence settings that match the anamorphic master video resolution (2880×2160) with the Pixel Aspect Ratio set to 2.0.
When I export with settings that match the source clip the quality is lossless in my eyes. But…
When I export to a 1920×1080 with letterbox it is slightly less sharp and muddy – clear to the eye.
I am guessing it is something to do with the Pixel Aspect Ratio having to be turned to Square when exporting to 1920×1080.
How should I export this anamorphic edit to 16:9?
I am cutting a fundraising teaser for a doc and only have a few days before delivery eod…any advice regarding anamorphic workflow in Premiere would be appreciated. I have scoured the forums and am still trying to figure this out.
Thanks in advance.-Kurt
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4 Replies
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what are you exporting for?
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YouTube/Vimeo.
I will also need to export a high res version for colorist working in DaVinci.
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It just occurred to me – is the loss in sharpness in the 16:9 simply from the smaller resolution?
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its a big reduction in quality. you can upload 4k to youtube as youtube will automatically letterbox.
as you have surmised, going from anamorphic to 16:9 won’t be pretty.
Since:
Aspect Ratio = (Horizontal Resolution / Vertical Resolution) × Pixel Aspect Ratioso your AR = 2.66666 square
and 16:9 = 1.77 squareTo fit the player perfectly, encode at these resolutions:
2160p: 3840×2160
1440p: 2560×1440
1080p: 1920×1080but if you had to keep AR, 2.6 square would be 1920/720 square pixels or 2880×1080.
anamorphic videos will be letterboxed in both 16:9 and 4:3 players. The player can only do this if the native aspect ratio of the video is maintained – i.e. don’t add black bars to the video itself.
Note: If you add letterboxing to a video before uploading it, the widescreen player will add vertical bars, resulting in black bars all around the video and a bad viewing experience.
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