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Widescreen Complications
I’ve done a couple projects now in widescreen format using Premiere Pro 1.5 because it just looks so much more professional – I’ve even switched over my video cameras to be shooting in 16:9. But I’m having some trouble when it comes to the finished project. It looks great on my computer, but some DVD players it seems have different interpretations of 16:9 as some players cut off sections on the left and the right.
When I first ran into this problem it was on a project I wasn’t working on and when I began work on my most recent project I assumed that the “box guidelines” that the Title Designer provides were accounting for that discrepency, but I just heard from a client who said on her TV, some of the text on the left and right was cut off again. I had warned her of this possibility and provided a CD with the movie on it so it could be played on the computer if she has the same problem on the actual DVD player that the project will be shown on.
However, I’m currently working on a project that’s pretty high profile and will be sent out to a book author and I don’t want her to play the movie only to find out that some of the image and/or title overlay text is cut off as this would look very bad! I don’t have any contact with her – I’m working through another party so the best I would be able to do is send a note explaining the problem, but that’s not really a solution.
I was hoping someone here would be able to explain what was going on and why and possible ways to avoid the problem?
(As I read through the archives, I’ve come up with a theory that maybe it’s the widescreen TVs that are having the problems. Given that Premiere exports the movie as a 4:3 with black bars, would a widescreen TV just zoom in on the middle in order to fill out the entire screen? That seems to make sense to me, kinda)
Thanks
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10 Replies
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Jeff,
What camera are you shooting with and can you describe the problems in little more detail? Also, does this problem happen only with generated text and/or elements or does it happen with footage as well? Also, have you tried this on your DVD player? Does the same thing happen? What is the model # of your DVD player?
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I don’t know the model of the camera right now, but it doesn’t matter. The project I did as I mentioned above where the person talked to me about the problem was done in premiere just using still images and title designer files. It worked fine for me, but on two DVD players that she tried it on it cut off edges and tops.
I’m not sure how to describe the problem more. I render the file directly on a DVD and I go play it – on the player I have/tested it on it works fine and looks just like it does on the computer when I made it. But on some DVD players, it’s cropping left and right and apparently the top and bottom as well. For example, I have text at the beginning that reads “Happy Anniversary” across one line, but sometimes it cuts off the “Hap” and the “ary” and she just mentioned that “some heads were cut off” at the top of the pictures.
Thanks
-Happy Holidays -
Jeff,
– I assume that you have positioned the text inside the title safe area for 16:9? I believe the title safe area for 16:9 is even higher % than it is for 4:3.
– On the majority of widescreen TVs, there is an option to play video back at 4:3, 16:9 (stretching 4:3 content or displaying 16:9 at the proper aspect ratio) and zoom mode (which will zoom a 4:3 image to make it fill the entire 16:9 display). If this display setting isn’t set correctly when your DVD is played, this could also cause the problem you have reported.
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“- I assume that you have positioned the text inside the title safe area for 16:9? I believe the title safe area for 16:9 is even higher % than it is for 4:3.”
When I go into title designer, there are gray box outlines – two of them. I assume these constitute the “title safe” area? I have placed all my titles so they fit within the smallest of the two boxes but they’re still getting cut off.
“- On the majority of widescreen TVs, there is an option to play video back at 4:3, 16:9 (stretching 4:3 content or displaying 16:9 at the proper aspect ratio) and zoom mode (which will zoom a 4:3 image to make it fill the entire 16:9 display). If this display setting isn’t set correctly when your DVD is played, this could also cause the problem you have reported.”
I’m going to have her look into this and see. Is it something that the people will have to switch back and forth when they want to watch this project compared to a regular DVD?
Thanks
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“When I go into title designer, there are gray box outlines – two of them. I assume these constitute the “title safe” area? I have placed all my titles so they fit within the smallest of the two boxes but they’re still getting cut off.”
Those gray box outlines do sound like they are providing you with the title/action safe area. However, due to the fact that your titles are still being cut off, I’m wondering if the outlines are actually correct…
“I’m going to have her look into this and see. Is it something that the people will have to switch back and forth when they want to watch this project compared to a regular DVD?”
This could quite possibly be the case. I had experience with 4 different LCD TVs, and each one gave me options to go into different display modes with movies – “Standard” which was 4:3, “Wide” which would stretch 16:9, Zoom, which would zoom my 4:3 signal to fill up the screen, and a few other “zoom” type display modes which would zoom in the signal even further. As long as the display is on a “Wide” type setting for a 16:9 signal, it *should* display correctly.
A good test is to play back your 16:9 DVD at 4:3 mode first. Take note of what is being cut off on the sides (if anything) and then switch to the 16:9 display mode. If anything is cut off, the only thing you could do is move your titles in even more (unfortunately)… as the problem lies with how the TV was manufactured (not all TVs display the signal quite the same).
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I’ve been on the phone back and forth and we found the option – it wasn’t on the TV, it was actually on the DVD player. Her setups were on 4:3 pan & scan and when she changed it to 16:9 it worked perfectly! My setups are on 4:3 letter box, but I think those two are the same thing.
Thanks so much to both of your for your assitance!
Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays!
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Glad it was the DVD player (much easier to fix!). I forgot that most DVD players now have settings for aspect modes…well glad that fixed your problem!
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Actually, this is not the first time I have seen this problem. I remember sometime ago, we sent out a copy of a recent production for previewing to our client and we got similar complaints.
The fix? Put in a little disclaimer before the video starts stating that the DVD player has to be set to the correct format.
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Aspect ratio issues have been the biggest complaint I have had over the last year (it used to be non-playing discs – but that’s gone away since most folks have newer players.)More and more folks want their video in widescreen, yet don’t seem to have the proper settings on either their display or DVD player. I actually include an instruction on the DVD label itself now. “This DVD is formatted to display 16:9 aspect ratio. Your display equipment may require adjustment to show the proper aspect ratio.”
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Just to add to the fun, there are some domestic camcorders which record 16:9 as a cropped image with black bars top and bottom, rather than as a “squeezed” image filling the frame with tall, thin pixels – which some might thing it’s misleading to describe as widescreen.
So it can matter what camcorder / settings were in use …!
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