[Chris Mclaughlin]

hi walter thanks for your help…yeah the more i continued to read up on the usb the more problems it seemed to have…i will look into those products you listed .
thanks again

[Chris Mclaughlin]

Hi Todd…thanks very much…that help has seemed to cure the problem
thanks again

[Chris Mclaughlin]

Hi dave thanks for responding…I have text over a still image both created in photoshop and imported into after effects…so how can I make text to be clear and not flicker in after effects….AE 5.5 does not have a text tool? is there a special save setting I should choose in photoshop.
thanks
chris

[Chris Mclaughlin]

Hi Andy
First I would just like to thank you for your help and communication…I have been stumped on this for a while and everyone on the forum is super helpful and nice.
I am using AE 5.5 and dont see the button to switch over to see what I would see on DVD in the bottom of the comp window…Is that only in newer versions??
So if I use the 720×480 widescreen comp setting just leave the footage squashed looking??..only asking because of the above reason with AE 5.5..if I dont have a way to monitor what it will look like on DVD… so as long the comp says widescreen 720×480 and I use the amamorphic pixel aspect ratio setting then all my stuff should be widescreen anamorphic?? I have experimented alot and last night I rendered out something from AE at 720×480 and then imported into sorenson squeeze and the video showed up 640×320 and in 4:3 even with selecting the 16:9 hdtv DVD smart template. if it was rendered from a 720×480 widescreen comp seting then why does it show up 4:3 in squeeze…when i change a setting in squeeze to raw(square pixels) it only then goes into 720×480…is it just rule of thumb that as long as i create in the right comp setting then the DVD software settings will just take over and make the final output widescreen or anamorphic? just very confusing and frustrating because I have been looking at it as taking something that is 4:3 and trying to put it in 16:9.
thanks again
chris

[Chris Mclaughlin]

Hi Simon thank you much for the help…yes the source footage always looks squashed when i import in the comp screen but what I usually do is enlarge the source video to the edges of the safe areas to bring it to full screen of my monitor when I am previewing because when I dont i get the pillar bars on the sides…by making the source video bigger is that making the pixels bigger and worse?? because when I render out the final size of the video is always 720×480.. should i leave the source video squashed like that…also if i do export in quicktime as 720×480 and then import into FCE do you know if I have to make that footage anamorphic in FCE to get 16:9 result ??????
thanks
chris

[Chris Mclaughlin]

hi ben thanks for the help…now I have after effects 5.5 running now and it came on the mac when I bought it from a friend….can I upgrade from 5.5? I thought i could only upgrade from 6.0 and above…I also am not 100 percent sure that this copy of 5.5 is truly legit with serial number which I am sure I need to provide while upgrading…will it work?
thanks
chris

[Chris Mclaughlin]

hi jan..thanks for responding…thats what i will end up doing its the best way in terms of money…now just another question…will after effects cs4 on an intel mac open after effects 5.5 projects if i need to use any of that footage at another time? I would think not but not sure?
thanks for your help
chris

[Chris Mclaughlin]

hey kevin…thanks for your help its much appreciated..I was running some tests last night on a 4:3 tv and follwed the safety lines and seems pretty accurate..I still will output to my plasma to check the actuall widescreen..unfortunatly I am using AE 5.5 and it does not have the aspect ratio settings in the video preview settings unless I am not seeing it…I will have to upgrade soon…One thing I did notice while previewing was a lot of interlace lines in some of the graphics I am using…seeing the image distort with horizontal lines..Is this normal for AE to output like that? It just looks much clearer on my powerbook monitor….is there a deinterlace setting..I know I have seen that in render options and output options while adding to render que..but like I have heard I would rather render uncompressed for best look…since I will compress in compressor in final cut…any help would be great.
thanks
chris

[Chris Mclaughlin]

hey kevin thanks for your input
yeah I am using a dv widescreen comp preset in AE 720×480 .I dont currently have a wide screen tv that I will be using to monitor at the moment so do you think some of the video will get cut off?…I really just need to see what will be on the actual screen for final product in terms of my title and action safe zones set up in my comp instead of going thru the hassle of testing output formats in a rendered project of a dvd authoring program.
thanks