[Bobby Hall]

Thanks John! That was extremely helpful!

[Bobby Hall]

If you convert native h.264 files to AIC and convert back to h.264 when you export, is the quality of the finished video lower than if you had converted the h.264 files to prores? When you say AIC is a lossy codec, does that mean it’s just lossy during the editing process or also when you export as well? Thanks.

[Bobby Hall]

Yes, that makes sense! Thanks a lot John! I have one other question. If you weren’t going to add titles, effects, etc. to a video you were editing, and you just wanted to do very basic editing and nothing else, would it matter if the files that were converted to AIC or prores were a high bit rate or could they be much lower and achieve the same quality when you convert back to the original format? Example: If my camera records h.264 files with 40 mbps, and I convert them to prores but limit the bit rate to keep it at 40 mbps (as opposed to about 150 mbps when I don’t limit it), then export and convert the video back to h.264, will that exported video be pretty much the same quality as if the prores files had been a much higher bit rate? Thanks.

[Bobby Hall]

Thanks guys!

[Bobby Hall]

I’m just curious why this is happening. When I notice something and can’t figure out why it’s happening, I want to find out the reason. And I like to watch movies how they’re supposed to be shown, in whatever aspect ratio the director intended with no overscanning. I guess most people don’t care about that but I get annoyed when a 1.85:1 movie has slight cropping on the top and bottom to fit a 16X9 TV or any other type of cropping. It seems like most people want their entire TV screen filled no matter what.

[Bobby Hall]

I did a test. I played a nonanamorphic DVD on my computer, took a screenshot, and then played the DVD on my 16X9 TV (black bars on all four sides since it’s nonanamorphic), and I can see more information on the sides of the screen on my computer than I can on the TV. If I’m seeing the entire image on my TV and the only parts that would be overscanned are the black bars, I don’t understand what’s going on! It seems like my computer is “unlocking” more information on the left and right sides of the image.

[Bobby Hall]

John, my TV player is set to HD, 16×9, 1920×1080. Why does anyone here think otherwise? I was doing a test with the different view modes on my TV to see how it displays both anamorphic and non-anamorphic DVDs. And I wanted to test it using a non-anamorphic DVD (with black bars on all four sides) so that I could see what the entire image was supposed to look like without fear that my TV was cutting off any of the sides.

If I can see the entire image with the bars on all four sides, does this mean I’m seeing the image without whatever overscanning my TV is doing? I was under the impression that overscanning occurs when the image is slightly cut off on the top and bottom to avoid black bars or to avoid part of the image not meant to be seen, and you wouldn’t necessarily be aware of it because it’s being hidden by the TV. But when you play an old DVD and it shows the black bars (since I set it to 4:3 mode), does this eliminate the overscanning? I thought there’d be no overscanning in this instance since the image of the movie isn’t extended to the edges of the TV since there are black. Thanks to anyone who can answer this!

[Bobby Hall]

Nick, when playing a non-anamorphic DVD on a 16X9 TV, it’s normal to have black bars on all four sides unless you want to use the zoom feature and lower the quality.

[Bobby Hall]

Thanks Nick.

How come when I play a non-anamorphic DVD on my 16X9 TV the overscan isn’t gone? There are black bars on all four sides so shouldn’t there only be overscanning when the image fills the entire screen?

And if I play an anamorphic DVD on my TV and change the view mode to 4:3 so I can see the edges on the sides, wouldn’t there be more image shown on the sides since there are black bars there and the TV isn’t cutting off the image due to overscan?

[Bobby Hall]

John, thank you very much!!!!!!

So does this mean that when watching a DVD on a modern computer screen, it reflects how the movie was intended to be seen much more accurately than it does on any TV?