Using lots of mixed aspect ratios in an SD project

[Fred Jean]

So I guess you are going to a 4:3 sd project?
There will be cropped involved anyway and you are not only mixing different aspect ratio but also different
Resolutions. And what about
Framerates?
You are going to have a drastic lost in resolution if you zoom-in, unless you
Establish your Project to sd, wich is your plan
If I understand well, and reduce
Your hd material.
If you do the opposite, you’d have to degrade on purpose your hd footage so there is no visual jump between the different sources.
Probably the best bet is that you
Lock your project to your sd specs,
Then create a 720p project with all
The hd material included The 1080
In the case they all match framerate
Otherwise you’d have to create
A 720 project for each,
and bring the bin, Or bins
Into the sd project, then crop your
Hd clip saving the effect into a bin
So you can reuse-bring the effect on each hd
Segment you used.
Lots of little manips but it will
Work fine.

Fred.

[John Pale]

I wouldn’t do it in one fell swoop.

I’d separate the source material by its original format. Capture or AMA/Transcode into projects that match the original formats. Then move the bins into the main project.

Let Avid Mix and Match do the conversion on the fly in your main project. You’ll have the option of how to handle the aspect ratios, if you make the Reformat column visible in the bin (its not visible by default)). You can set lots of clips to letterbox or center cut AAF once with a pull down menu.