16:9 is giving me fits--what am I doing wrong?

Jay Gladwell wrote on 2/4/2005, 8:54 AM

Okay, I have footage shot on DV in native 16:9. I'm working on a test clip (good thing I didn't put this off!) and evidently I'm doing something wrong because the finished .avi, when played in Windows Media Player, for example, looks likes it's vertically squeezed. Then, when I encoded the test clip to a .wmv file, that too looked squeezed.

In Vegas the "Project Settings" are"
Video template: NTSC DV Widescreen (720x48, 29.970 fps).
Width: 720
Height: 480
Pixel aspect ratio: 1.2121

It looks fine on screen--both in Vegas and the external monitor.

The "Render" settings are:
File type: Video for Windows (.avi).
Template: NTSC DV Widescreen
and the "Stretch video to fill output frame size (do not letterbox)" is checked.

So... what have I done wrong and/or what have I omitted?

Thanks!

Jay

Comments

B_JM wrote on 2/4/2005, 9:21 AM

don't use windows media layer ever to check aspect ratio - as it doesnt handle it correctly ..

use Media Player Classic ....

Media Player Classic can also adjust for playback on pc or tv simulation ..

dont judlge either on a wmv file ...

Liam_Vegas wrote on 2/4/2005, 9:23 AM

I have found that WMP does not play even regular DV AVI at the correct aspect ratio... that leads me to believe it simply does not support a pixel ratio of anything other that 1.

What is the end format of this video?

nickle wrote on 2/4/2005, 9:26 AM

I've never done a 16:9 but isn't letterbox what you want (not do not letterbox)?

Bill Ravens wrote on 2/4/2005, 10:45 AM

Jay...

There's only two ways to handle 16:9 shot with the XL2, that I've found. One way is to use the standard DV 4:3 format, 720x480, PAR=.909 . This'll give you a letterboxed widescreen output useful for 4:3 NTSC TV or true 16:9 display without distortion.

The second way is to output to 960x480, PAR=1.2121. This will give you a true 16:9 display on a 16:9 capable monitor, however, it will appear distorted (non-letterboxed) on an NTSC 4:3 monitor.

Vegas will always default to 4:3 format in the Track Motion setting, tho. I have been intercutting DVX100 and XL2 footage and noticed, right away, that the two cameras display 16:9 in a different manner. It takes a conscious effort to be sure to set the Track Motion to the 16:9 setting to get it to come out right.

Sometimes, for a reason I can't explain, when I render to HuffyUV intermediate codec, it tags the footage with a PAR of 1.0, resulting in a distorted image in the preview window. I have to manually reset the file properties to a PAR =.9091 to get it to come out right in vegas.

B_JM wrote on 2/4/2005, 10:51 AM

huffyuv is 1:1 always , what you are doing is fine or render to a square pixel resolution ..

theceo wrote on 2/4/2005, 11:14 AM

render to a custom .wmv setting where the original size is kept

Jay Gladwell wrote on 2/4/2005, 1:16 PM

My thanks to everyone for your help! Rendering test as I type this.

Jay