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Widescreen matte
Hi,
I was wondering what the advantage of using the widescreen matte in FCP is. Is it just to add a kind of fake widescreen appearance to 4:3 footage? I have footage shot in 4:3 and was hoping that there is some way to allow viewers to see the DVD in letterbox format on 4:3 TVs, and in full widescreen on 16:9 TVs. Will the widescreen matte help me to achieve this, or will it merely put black bars on the top and bottom of 4:3 footage and stretch the whole screen (with black bars) to fit on a 16:9 TV, creating black bars all around the screen?
Sorry, I hope I’m explaining this clearly enough. Basically, what I’m asking is this: Is there any way to output 4:3 footage to DVD in such a way that 4:3 TV users see it as letterboxed and widescreen viewers see it as full widescreen? Is this wishful thinking?
Thanks in advance for all your help!
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6 Replies
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Well, the widescreen filter gives the look of 16:9 but all it’s really doing is cropping the 4:3 image.
Some 16:9 sets will expand a 4:3 signal though, and that should fill the screen, however at the cost of resolution of course. It may be acceptable.
To really get this to work right, you have to have shot anamorphic or 16:9 footage in the first place I’m afraid.
Jerry
Apple Certified Trainer
Author: “Jerry Hofmann on Final Cut Pro 4” Click here
Dual 2 gig G5, AJA Kona SD, AJA Kona 2, Huge Systems Array UL3D
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Thanks very much for your helpful reply. Is the only option now to work and output everything to 4:3 as this is the aspect ratio it was shot in? Is there any way I can cater for the widescreen crowd in this case?
Thanks again!
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Sort of… if you setup a 16:9 sequence and put the 4:3 material in it, you can expand it (using the scale slider in the Motion tab) to fill the 16:9 area… problem is though, that you lose some quality doing this. Then just export it as a 16:9 file to DVD SP etc…
Jerry
Apple Certified Trainer
Author: “Jerry Hofmann on Final Cut Pro 4” Click here
Dual 2 gig G5, AJA Kona SD, AJA Kona 2, Huge Systems Array UL3D
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Thanks again.
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“Is the only option now to work and output everything to 4:3 as this is the aspect ratio it was shot in? Is there any way I can cater for the widescreen crowd in this case?”
Does depend on what your expectations are, or what you perceive your audience’s expectations to be, but my preference would be to always see all the original frame of the 4×3 footage.
I would do this by putting the 4×3 Source into a 16×9 Sequence and leave it at 100% size so you see all your image plus black on the sides (Pillarboxed) with no loss of quality.
Prepare it for DVD SP as 16×9 and when in DVD SP force this footage to Pan&Scan when in 4×3.
This way, on a 4×3 TV the DVD will play full screen because you’re only losing the sides which are black bars anyway, and on a 16×9 setup, it will be played Pillarboxed so every viewer will see all the frame at best quality.But someone has to decide how the footage should be viewed, and balance that against any trade-offs.
Hope that helps.
Neil.
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Hi,
Thanks very much for your help. It may very well be a viable option but I think the widescreen viewers will still feel a bit neglected 🙂 However I feel this is maybe preferable to using standard 4×3 in this case as for widescreen viewers to see it pillarboxed (at the correct proportion) is better than them seeing a stretched image, right? Am I right in assuming that ALL 16:9 TVs will stretch a 4:3 image horizontally to fit the screen?
Also:
“When in DVD SP force this footage to Pan&Scan when in 4×3”
I couldn’t find this setting, only the general aspect ratio setups in preferences. Could you tell me how to do it?
Thanks very much again for your help. Much appreciated.
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