16:9 adapter and letterboxing

AtomStream wrote on 11/20/2001, 8:48 AM
I got one of those nifty 16:9 aspect ratio adapters from Century Optics to go on my nifty Sony VX2000.

It projects a "squished" 16:9 aspect ratio image onto the 4:3 CCD, so when the tape is played back on a 16:9 TV, it should look great. Right?

Well, I don't have a 16:9 TV, and I love the expanse of 16:9 for my travel-oriented video packages, so I used Vegas Video 2.0 to letterbox the image.

I used track motion and the 16:9 template to get it to look right, but upon render the image quality is dreadful. It's got blocky artifacts and a really soft look to it. I have tried this with Resampling on and off, and I have tried it with "Do not letterbox" on and off. It all comes out pretty much the same.

I am hopeful that I am missing something subtle (or obvious) for that matter. It just doesn't make sense to me that this would not work. Anybody else using this adapter or have any hints to provide? I am hopeful that VV3.0 might also handle this better, but I have not tried it yet.

Thanks very much for any help.

Will

Comments

Spot|DSE wrote on 11/21/2001, 7:23 AM
Which version of Vegas are you using? 2.0 what letter afterwards? Do you have DX8?
Also, what are your project settings? Your description sounds like a codec problem. (All the more reason to own Vegas 3.0, it has it's own codec that BLOWS Microsoft's codec outta da water!)
AtomStream wrote on 11/21/2001, 8:25 AM
I had been using VV2. I got VV3 yesterday.

I guess it seems a little strange to me to use Track Motion dialogs to squeeze the video to the right shape, but I didn't see another good alternative. The templates for aspect ratio on the track itself just cropped the image.

As for settings, it was highest quality everything for DV output.
AtomStream wrote on 11/27/2001, 2:59 PM
With some of the hubbub about VV3 out of the way, may I repose the question:

To take "squished" video produced by a 16:9 aspect ratio conversion lens and letterbox it onto a 4:3 aspect ratio in VV3, is Track Motion the correct way to go?

To restate, I have a Century Optics lens that projects a 16:9 image onto the 4:3 CCD. It completely fills the frame, so it needs to be converted to a letterboxed format. The images as converted by the lens look tall and skinny, so the image needs to be squeezed from the top and bottom to look right.

Is there a better way to do this than using the Track Motion 16:9 aspect ratio preset? Is there a way to ensure the downsampling goes smoothly?

Thanks for any help that might be forthcoming.

Will
mwtroxell wrote on 9/3/2002, 10:09 PM
I'm not sure if you have tried this but...
I have the Century Optics 16:9 adapter that I use on a Canon GL-1. After you capture your video, you need to right click on the clip and go to properties, media and set the pixel aspect ratio to NTSC DV Widescreen. Instant letterboxed video.
SonyDennis wrote on 9/4/2002, 11:30 PM
mwtroxell's solution is the correct one, set the media to be "16:9". It will automatically letterbox in a 4:3 project. Don't use Track Motion for this. If you are making Widescreen DVD's, then set your project to widescreen and work in widescreen too.
///d@