[Jeff Pulera]

Hi James,

Please tell us the make/model/format of the camera giving you the issues. Hard to help when we don’t know the situation. Hopefully, you have access to the original camera and tape.

It’s possible the camera DID record 16:9 video, but the letterboxing was adding during output, since you say you dubbed to another camera. Most cameras are NOT going to actually record a letterboxed clip.

Looking forward to your reply

Thanks

Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers

Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers

[Jeff Pulera]

Hi James,

Different people will have different ways of doing this, but my method would be to use the audio effects “Fill Left” and “Fill Right”, which plays the Left or Right audio ONLY through both channels.

Just put duplicate audio clips into the sequence with Fill Left on one, and Fill Right on the other, to have two unique stereo clips basically.

Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers

[Jeff Pulera]

Digital8 recordings are IDENTICAL to miniDV, simply using a different tape stock. Digital8 cameras have Firewire 1394 outputs, therefore skip the “capture device” and capture as DV using 1394 for best results.

Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers

[Jeff Pulera]

Hi James,

Can you please clarify – is the SD footage truly letterboxed; in other words, is it a 4:3 recording, with black bars permanently in the image? Or is it a 16:9 recording, with black bars just being added on playback?

And what did you want to shoot as – both 1440×1080? Do you NEED to edit as SD or HD (going to DVD or Blu-ray)?

Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers

[Jeff Pulera]

Well don’t “experiment” too much with MPEG-2 settings – DVD is an official specification with narrow parameters, so you can’t burn just any MPEG-2 file to a DVD. As mentioned, choose an “MPEG-2 for DVD” preset, and for a beginner, the data rate is about the only thing you should touch. That’s another story in itself, figuring out the correct data rate!

Regarding the H.264 clip, where is it going? You’d probably want something smaller than the 1024×576 for the web, and for data rate, use short samples and experiment to find a happy medium of quality and file size that suits you.

Jeff

[Jeff Pulera]

H.264 is an excellent codec, but you have to have the right settings.

As for DVD, forget all you’ve heard about changing frame sizes and aspect ratios! If PAL is like NTSC, then the standard 720×576 is the correct sizing for DVD. In Export settings, choose “MPEG-2 for DVD” and choose a “PAL Widescreen” preset.

Jeff

[Jeff Pulera]

Hi Stuart,

The choice of delivery formats is really dependent on where the video is going…what is the intended purpose or audience?

If for the web, then you’d want some type of H.264 most likely to get the best compression and quality.

Please let us know your intentions for the output

Thanks

[Jeff Pulera]

I can’t see the Aspect Ratio settings, they are hidden down lower on the Video settings. And I believe you need to choose SOME kind of codec for the QT file besides none, but I’m not a QT expert.

Thanks

Jeff

[Jeff Pulera]

Well, let’s test my math skills and I hope this is correct for PAL then – I’ll do 576/9=64, and 16×64=1024, so I’d say to choose a “generic” QT preset rather than the DV preset, then you will be able to alter the settings, and do 1024×576 with 1.0 PAR to get the 16:9 aspect ratio.

Hope this does it for you

Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers

[Jeff Pulera]

Most media players do not account for any pixel shape other than square, in other words Pixel Aspect Ratio of 1.0

Some formats like HDV use anamorphic (stretched) video with a PAR of 1.333

With DV NTSC, the video is ALWAYS 720x 480 whether standard or widescreen! PAR makes the difference.

So for instance, whether starting with HD, or DV widescreen, and wanting to export to an SD format for the web, use square pixels (1.0) with frame dimensions of 854×480 then you will get the correct widescreen look in the players. If exporting for the web/computers, make sure the video gets deinterlaced if starting with an interlaced source.

Whatever dimensions you wish to export at, just use PAR 1.0 and make sure the X and Y divide out at 16:9 (854/54 and 480/54 = 16:9)

Thanks

Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers