Widescreen

[Aharon Rabinowitz]

You didn’t mention if it was PAL or NTSC

OK, the 9:5 ratio is based on the square pixel equivilent of the non-sqaure pixel aspect ratio.

You see widescreen and non widescreen have the same dimensions, but a different pixel aspect ratio – meaning the pixels are actually a different size. That’s why you get that number in partheses like (1.2) – it’s an indicator of pixel aspect ratio – the difference between the hight of the pixel vs. its width.

The 9:5 ratio should be 864 x 480 – 9×96=864, 5×96=480
Also, 864/1.2 = 720

That’s how you end up with 720×480 for both widescreen and non widescreen.

Personally, I prefer to work in square pixels. If you use the sqare pixel equivilent in building your art or animation, you don’t have to work with squished or stretched images, and you get to see what it will look like when it is actually on your TV. If you work at the square pixel equivilent in either photoshop or AE (and you make sure AE or PS is working at the square pixel aspect ratio), then, when you are done, you can just take everything (pictures or full AE compositions) and drop them into the DV widsescreen sized project, and AE will automatically adjust them to fit properly.

AE has a tool for looking at non-square comps as square (it will streach or squish to show you eaht it looks like) but everything is jagged and a little distorted, and may later give you some bad surprises on your TV screen. Also, there are setups that allow you to view it properly on an NTSC or PAL Monitor, but most people don’t have that available to them.

That being the case, Here are the non-square project sizes, followed by the sqaure pixel equivilent sizes.

NTSC/DV widescreen 720 X 480 = 864 X 480
Pal DV Widescreen 720 X 576 = 1024 X 576

Hope this wasn’t to confusing. There’s an article here called Dr. Strangepixel which explains this in a lot of detail, but the forum search isn’t working for me, so I can’t find it. Also, I disagree with the author on some of the square pixel equivilents, but then I’m no expert on this, and while the numbers I gave you work, there might be better ways to do it. You should play around and see what works.

Aharon

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Aharon Rabinowitz
aharon(AT)yahoo(DOT)com
http://www.allbetsareoff.com
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