Conversion of video from 4x3 to 16x9

JohnJ wrote on 6/12/2012, 8:10 AM

Hello,
I have some old video on a dvd which is in 4x3 format. I want to convert it to 16x9 to amalgamate it with some later material.
Could anyone tell me how to do this,please?
Thanks,
Johnj

Comments

Chienworks wrote on 6/12/2012, 8:36 AM

You've got several choices.

- You can drop it on the timeline as-is and end up with black bars on the sides.
- You can do the above and add some interesting image/video behind it on a lower track to fill in the black bars with something else.
- You can pan/crop a 16:9 section from the 4:3 frame to fill the whole 16:9 frame. This will lose some of the original image from the top and/or bottom.
- You can crop to a smaller extent, losing less of the original image vertically and get smaller but still existing black bars on the sides.

If your 16:9 project is HD then that may further complicate your choices and method, since stretching SD material out to fill an HD frame won't result in the best image compared to the HD material.

My choice is the first one. What you choose is up to you.

john_dennis wrote on 6/12/2012, 10:53 AM

I almost always use the first option.

Most of my attempts at the second option produced results that annoyed me.

I have a special case where a version of the (edit: fourth) option works OK. My point and shoot still camera records video at 1024x768. I sometimes crop this material to 1024x720 in a 1280x720 project leaving smaller black bars on the side. Doing so means the video is not resized. A few of the vertical lines are lost but it's usually no big deal.

riredale wrote on 6/12/2012, 10:53 AM

One interesting variant I've seen on news shows is similar to Option #2, where the background fill is a stretched and heavily-blurred version of the 4:3 overlay. In this fashion the viewer can sense there's something there, but unconsciously focuses on the 4:3 center.

Gary James wrote on 6/12/2012, 11:11 AM

I've seen this in TV news reports where the original material was shot in 4x3 and is broadcast on an HD channel. I find this to be terribly distracting from the original content. Personally, I'd avoid this technique.

wwaag wrote on 6/12/2012, 11:50 AM

Gary James wrote: "I've seen this in TV news reports where the original material was shot in 4x3 and is broadcast on an HD channel. I find this to be terribly distracting from the original content. Personally, I'd avoid this technique. "

Agreed. It is very distracting. To overcome this, here's what I do. First duplicate the track. On the lower track, crop to 16:9. Then lighten it (128 to 255). I then do a "freeze frame" for the first frame of each clip. This eliminates the distracting movement on the sides. And finally, I apply a bezier mask to the side bars so that there is a little blur between the main and background image and not a sharp distinct line. Human attention is drawn by movement and sharp edges so that a reduction of these in the sidebars will make it less distracting.

wwaag