[Ryan Walker]

Trying to get it to a DVD. Sent this to Dave a few moments ago.
“The other question I have is about putting this 1920 x 1080 4:3 video onto a DVD. Majority of TV’s these days will take a 4:3 video and by default stretch it to fit 16:9. Therefore compressing it directly for MPEG2 will leave me with a 4:3 scenario. I don’t want that stretch, and black bars are fine. How would I go about prepping this video for conversion to MPEG2 for DVD burning while working with the pixel situation? Will I lose additional quality with a h264 master?”

I am interested in what the process would be to return the project to square pixels?

[Ryan Walker]

Hey Dave –
Thanks for the insightful explanation. I was fairly confident 4:3 was possible, but the pixels seemed so oddly shaped that I started questioning my findings. These pixels are more like skyscrapers than squares. I do have a couple follow up questions if you wouldn’t mind. They aren’t 100% After Effects, so feel free to pass.

I am trying to wrap my head around how this file was even created. I’m assuming the file was originally a square when it was digitally transferred from film. So how was the creator able to take that square, put it in1920x1080 instead of a 1440×1080 and lock it at a 4:3 without having black bars on the side? I would think that would be done in AE, but I’m not understanding how they selected 1920×1080 and locked it for 4:3. Seems like AE defaults to 16:9.

The other question I have is about putting this 1920 x 1080 4:3 video onto a DVD. Majority of TV’s these days will take a 4:3 video and by default stretch it to fit 16:9. Therefore compressing it directly for MPEG2 will leave me with a 4:3 scenario. I don’t want that stretch, and black bars are fine. How would I go about prepping this video for conversion to MPEG2 for DVD burning while working with the pixel situation? Will I lose additional quality with a h264 master?

The project was filmed in 1967 in San Francisco.

[Ryan Walker]

Tero – I’m assuming you’re referring to the “Toggle Pixel Aspect Ratio Correction” button. Yes, that seemed to do the trick as far as viewing this piece in a square format. Thank you for the input.