[Jeff Pulera]

Hi Philip,

What you CAN do with TriCaster, depending on the model, is use the “IsoCorder” function to record 4 or 8 video channels (cameras, program output, etc.) and then drop those clips into Premiere for a multi-cam edit. This would allow quick fixes for mistakes in the original switch, or a complete re-edit of the source footage from scratch.

I understand what you’re asking, but nothing like that exists to my knowledge and would not be practical to implement.

Thanks

Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers

[Jeff Pulera]

Hi Mike,

Please post a screen grab of what you’re seeing, will help us to help you. There will be some distortion just going from 720×480 to 640×480, but maybe what you’re seeing is more extreme?

And is the HD source DVCPRO HD? Curious about the 1280×1080 dimensions, not very common.

Just thought of something – right click the nested sequence and choose “Scale to Frame”, see if that helps. You may not have “right-click” option on Mac, but do whatever Mac guys do 😉

Thanks

Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers

[Jeff Pulera]

Hi Darren,

Just because the footage came from a DSLR doesn’t mean you must use a DSLR preset, the presets are just listed that way for convenience.

There are certainly existing 720p30 (29.97) presets, just look under AVCHD or XDCAM for instance and use one of those.

Thanks

Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers

[Jeff Pulera]

Hi Zach,

I think this thread gotten off point.

First, NTSC can certainly be widescreen, not sure why 4:3 keeps entering the discussion. NTSC DVD is always 720×480 regardless of being 4:3 or 16:9, only the Pixel Aspect Ratio changes (864×480 with 1.0 PAR is correct for web viewing though).

Next, why does the client want the DVD as 29.97? You CAN make an NTSC DVD using 23.976 progressive, which would match the frame rate of the original footage, avoiding any consequences of changing the frame rate.

Edit the footage in a 1080p 23.976 sequence, then Export to “MPEG-2 DVD” and use the “NTSC 23.976p Wide” preset. Above the output preview, change “Source Scaling” to “Scale to Fill” to eliminate the narrow black pillar boxing on the sides. Check the box in AME for “Max Render Quality”, as that helps with the downscaling.

If the client absolutely must have a DVD as 29.97, still edit the footage natively as 1080p 23.976, and when exporting to MPEG-2 DVD, choose “NTSC Widescreen Progressive”, which is 29.97. But staying with the 24p will look best.

Hope this gets you dialed in. Do NOT use “Interpret Footage”, as already mentioned. If you have that enabled, put it back the way it was, you do not want/need that applied in this case and it will cause problems.

Thank you

Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers

[Jeff Pulera]

ProRes should work just fine in Premiere on the PC, that has been my experience, but you do need the free QuickTime player installed to have the codec. If you do, and it still doesn’t play, then I can’t say what the problem might be.

As for mixing 29.97 and 24p (23.976?), that is your call. What makes up the majority of footage? I think that would make the determination for me, but I have no experience mixing those two. Either way, the two frame rates are going to have different “looks” to them. Do a few experiments and export samples and choose the what looks best to you.

Thanks

Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers

[Jeff Pulera]

You asked for free, but time is money. I bought ProShow Gold a couple of years ago and no regrets. Toss in a few hundred photos and in a couple of minutes have a completed, amazing video. Many preset styles and tempos, try different options until you like it, then export.

About Premiere, are you aware that in Preferences you can check the box for “Scale to Frame Size” so that all imported clips are auto-scaled to the sequence? Sounds like you did each pic manually. Using auto scale, you could then just set some Motion keyframes on first clip, Copy, then “Select All” and Paste Attributes to have that same motion applied to all clips. If you had manually changed the scaling for every clip, then I believe pasting effects attributes would override the manual scaling you had done unfortunately.

Thanks

Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers

[Jeff Pulera]

Hi John,

Looking at the chart you referenced, in the right-hand column regarding aspect ratio, you’ll notice that the 1050×576 format does not come out to 16:9, so I would not worry about that one, stick with 1024×576.

I believe what the writer is getting at is that DV PAL doesn’t start with a PAR of 1.0 – PAL is 1.09 and NTSC uses 0.9, so what he’s saying is that since the starting point is NOT a square pixel with 1.0 PAR, that changes what the wide conversion ought to come out to, if one wants to get technical about it. So if for instance there is a graphic of a perfect circle in the original clip, it may be slightly off after converting to square pixels.

You’ll find that 720×1.4587 does come out to 1050, so that’s where that figure comes from, but for simplicity let’s just say 1024×576 provides a 16:9 result and that is close enough without over-analyzing it all.

At the urging of the BBC, Adobe did change some aspect ratio calculations starting with CS4 – https://www.mikeafford.com/blog/2009/03/pal-d1-dv-widescreen-square-pixel-settings-in-after-effects-cs4-vs-cs3/

Thanks

Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers

[Jeff Pulera]

Agreeing with Steve. Premiere edits AVCHD natively, so why convert? Having others downloading and copying/converting my footage would give me nightmares. So easy to mess up and then that video could be gone forever! Best practice is to copy the ENTIRE contents of the SD card to the hard drive, and then also make an immediate backup on another drive. Then edit the AVCHD in Premiere, importing using the Media Browser. By the way, converting the footage will also have the side effect of making the clips MUCH larger, increasing storage needs.

Good luck

Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers

[Jeff Pulera]

Hi John,

Glad to help. DV widescreen is not a true widescreen format – it is “anamorphic” 16:9, basically meaning “stretched”. Note that whether shooting in a 4:3 or 16:9 record mode, PAL DV is always 720×576, right? So how do we arrive at widescreen? Easy, just change the shape of the pixels, known as Pixel Aspect Ratio, to accommodate.

By using rectangular pixels, this makes the image wider when played back. The problem is, the player has to understand and respect the PAR. If the player assumes square pixels (1.0 PAR) as many do, then the video looks distorted on playback.

So for computer/web viewing of anamorphic sources, what you want to do is always create the content using 1.0 PAR and then the video will always look correct.

Divide 1024 by 16 and 576 by 9 and you get 64. Divide both sides of 1024×576 by 64 and you get 16×9. See how neat that all works out? For NTSC DV users, the widescreen export setting using 1.0 PAR would be 864×480. NTSC DV wide uses 1.2 PAR, and 720×1.2 = 864.

HDV is also an anamorphic format, recording as 1440×1080 with a PAR of 1.333, and 1440×1.333 = 1920, putting HDV playback at 1920×1080. Note that 1440×1080 is actually a 4:3 ratio, so for instance if you export a still from an HDV clip in Premiere and open it in a viewer, it looks like 4:3 since square pixels are assumed for stills. In Photoshop, simply change the dimension of the still image to 1920×1080 and good to go then.

720p and 1080i/p formats already use 1.0 PAR with 1280×720 and 1920×1080, so no changes needed there.

Thanks

Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers

[Jeff Pulera]

Export using square pixels (1.0 Pixel Aspect Ratio) at 1024×576 and this will maintain the proper 16:9 aspect when played in other applications

Thanks

Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers