16:9 and 4:3 Project from same material?

goshep wrote on 5/18/2008, 7:18 PM

Hey all,

Is there a "one-stop-shopping" approach to making a project both 16:9 and 4:3? I created a biography some time ago in 4:3 and am now receiving requests for widescreen versions of the project. I still have the original project files in AVI format. Is there a simple way to change the project settings and render to widescreen? Or is everything going to be stretched and distorted?

Thanks as always.

Comments

xberk wrote on 5/18/2008, 7:58 PM

YOu can change the project properties "file/properties" to any aspect ratio you'd like, including something that's 16:9 .. but this doesn't change how things get rendered, only the preview. If your original material was not shot in that ratio then you'll get black bars to fill the area that doesn't fit the orig material.

You can render an AVI to widescreen and stretch the video to fill. Not sure about other file types -- or just leave the black bars. I'm not that familiar with it but you can't make your orig 4:3 ratio into widescreen without paying a price..... I don't think.

TheHappyFriar wrote on 5/18/2008, 9:06 PM

forcing 4:3 to 16:9 isn't going to look great. I wouldn't do it if it were myself. you'll either loose resolution by cropping 4:3 to 16:9 or add black bars to the side so that on a 4:3 TV it will be a square ~1/2 the size of the screen in the middle with black on all sides.

EDIT: broadcast networks just add frills to the sides of HD 16:9 broadcast for the most part so 4:3 people aren't screwed. Just yesterday I say they put in a blurred version of what was in the 4:3 space, split between each side.

So you could do that. :)

rs170a wrote on 5/18/2008, 9:13 PM

xberk is right in that there is a price to pay.
You set your project properties to16:9 and now have two choices.
1. Leave the 4:3 clip alone in which case you have black bars on the sides or
2. Match it to the output aspect in which case the top and bottom of the source material are cut off.
If you zoom out to show everything, you're back to #1 :-(

Here's one suggestion Spot had for a "black bars" workaround on another forum.

Pitching a second track beneath the 4:3 media that fills the pillar boxes with something interesting is commonly seen. Our typical method of dealing with this is to use the same video, one expanded to fill a widescreen and set to blur, desaturated. It makes for a matching backdrop, and works very well. I've noted ESPN doing this a lot lately with old footage as well.

Mike

goshep wrote on 5/18/2008, 9:43 PM

Ok yes I am very familiar with the blurred border. It is becoming quite popular with HD sports channels that use old 4:3 highlight footage. Weird thing is, I popped one of the old 4:3 DVDs into the PS3 and it auto-stretched it on the 52" LCD. I'd say it looks okay at best and blown out big time. This TV has just been calibrated too so I assume the color is fairly accurate. Eeegads, I hope it never sees the light of day outside of a SD 4:3 display.

rs170a wrote on 5/18/2008, 9:51 PM

Maybe the original video was blown out to begin with?
Did you ever check it on a properly calibrated 4:3 monitor?

Mike

TheHappyFriar wrote on 5/18/2008, 11:28 PM

normally TV's do all the color/scaling to content, the player doesn't (TV could be on "full" screen instead of "original" for the aspect)

but unless you trim the video to 16:9 & loose the top/bottom of it, it's just going to be filler on the sides. a 4:3 playback does the same, just black.

you could always put video on the sides & say "you payed extra for this!" But then when you view it on a 4:3 TV you'll have black bars on the top/bottom, so you'll need to do that again. ;)