Resize an image for 16:9 pal brodcasting

[Dylan Reeve]

There are two approaches that I’d use.

If I know I just want the still the size it is and don’t want to scale or pan it, then I’d create a Photoshop document that is 1024×576, paste the image into it and resize to an appropriate size to fit within the confines of the frame. Then I’d resize the image to 720×576 and import that into Avid as a 601-size image.

Otherwise, if I want to move around or scale the image in Avid, I use the ‘Avid Pan and Zoom’ plugin. You can simply cut filler and apply the effect, then use the properties button in the Effect Editor to point it at the large source image. But I prefer to import the image as a clip (not really caring to much about aspect ratio) and then applying the Pan and Zoom effect to that clip on the timeline, as it provides a second reference to what it meant to go there if the image gets unlinked for any reason.

With the Pan and Zoom effect the image will fill the frame properly, and you have good control over the movement and scaling of the image. Look at the various scaling technique options to find what works best for you.

[Miron Auslander]

Hi Dyln,

first of all thank u.
what i did if i used movement i used the pan & zoom plug in, but when i needed a fix frame i used the crop with 1600 px X 900 px then i imported the PSD to avid Maintain and Resize.
for most of the images it worked fine i think, and for the one which the hight was to large for 900 px i scaled it a bit more and left the sides with black(maskes).

anyhow im going to test youre way(1024×576 / 601 size image) and see what i can come up with.

miron

[Dylan Reeve]

1027×576 is 16:9 Square Pix – I find it easier to then resize to 720×576 in Photoshop before importing to Avid as I presume Photoshop has better scaling abilities than Avid.

I always ensure that any media (image or quicktime movie for example) is the correct pixel size (so 720×576 non-square for PAL) just to eliminate any little quirks on the resizing on import.