Correct Aspect Ratio for Anamorphic Lens - Sonic please Read

pirate3 wrote on 8/19/2003, 1:01 AM

I have shot an entire project with my PD150 and the Century Optics 16:9 anamorphic lens. When previewing on my PC monitor I can see the entire image, (I set the properties to DV widescreen manually, because the video is actually a squished 4:3) and when I capture a still from the monitor, the dimesions are 872x480. (The same in the preview window when set to simulate device aspect ratio) When I output to tape, or burn a DVD in Architect, I lose image on both sides... I am guessing it only shows the 720x480 image.

I have tried to make my own presets, but Vegas will crash if I try to use a custom 872x480. (Note - I have been using Vegas 4 + DVD since the day it came out, and this is the only crash I have ever had, this combined with WinXP Pro is the most rock solid computing experience I could ever imagine.)

My question is, how do I output the entire image without the cropping on the sides? So much of my composition is made up because I was using the anamorphic lens, and I really would hate to lose it.

Another interesting note: When I output to my television and use it in widescreen mode, the same thing happens, but if I watch the original footage off my deck (DSR-11) or camera, I can see the entire image.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Comments

farss wrote on 8/19/2003, 6:16 AM

I'm sorry to say you've made a fundamental mistake when you shot the footage.
What you see in the viewfinder is NOT what is going to be seen on a TV, much the same applies to monitors, particularly the preview monitor in VV or studio monitors.

Camera viewfinders show at least the entire frame, sometime more, sometime a lot more than even what goes onto the tape. This is done for a variety of reasons, probably a good cameraman can explain the why of it better than me. Anyways the thing you have to be very aware of is safe area, some cameras and monitors have enough safe area reactangles to just about obscure the shot. In general there's safe area, what the viewer should be able to see on the average TV and then there's action safe area, stuff you really don't want the viewer to miss. Just what they are set to is probably as confusing as just what is 0dB for audio!

Thats why the VV preview window has two safe area generators and you can configure them to what you need.

Another thing I'd worry about is using the 16:9 lens in front of the PD150, I've heard its fine if you keep the shot full wide but it causes the camera to loose back focus so as you zoom the focus shifts.

Anyways about the best you can do is use track pan and zoom to get your shots back into safe area. In some instances this is going to mean viewers will see a black mask at the sides, other wont depending on how their TV overscans.

No matter what lens you stick in front of the camera DV is always the same, telling VV its 16:9 basically only changes the way it presents the footage in the preview window. You've still got only the same number of pixels to work with.

As to the VV crashing issue, really don't know how that's happening, I've run VV at 720 HD and its never gone belly up for me.

SonyEPM wrote on 8/19/2003, 9:32 AM

pirate: Before recommending settings I'd like to see a sample and I'd also like to repro the crash here.

Would it be possible to email a small clip (~1 sec ) to us? Please send to drdropout@sonicfoundry.com

(yeah, we still have sf email addresses for the time being).

SF

Chanimal wrote on 8/19/2003, 3:14 PM

SonicEPM,

Count your blessings that you still have SF e-mail. The biggest pain I have had to absorb by being acquired by a large company (Motorola, GE, Harcourt), was the "reduced" IT capability (i.e., the Web wouldn't stream, I could install anything (including an update on my PC), etc.)...and I was a corporate VP--it was worse for the rest of the team. Be happy for your fast and flexible systems (including this forum--which would be a travesty if it ever went away).

pirate3 wrote on 8/19/2003, 11:02 PM

I would love to send an email clip, but like I said, when I make a custom preset of 872x480 it crashes. I hate saying that, because I love to spread the good word about Vegas.

Did you want a clip of what actually is put out, and perhaps a still of what I am getting in the preview window?

SonyEPM wrote on 8/20/2003, 10:06 AM

Capture a 1 sec clip of the anamorphic footage from the PD150 using SFvideo capture. Send that clip- don't render anything, don't even load it into Vegas- we need a virgin clip straight from the camera. Thanks.