Monitoring 16:9

Jessariah67 wrote on 12/22/2004, 6:57 PM

Hey all,

Have a 16:9 project coming up and we want to monitor it "accurately." We're shooting on cameras that have 16:9 mode, but the image is distorted in the 4:3 screens. I'm assuming a 16:9 screen will show the image undistorted. Yes? If so, any decent ones out there that don't cost as much as dental work?

Thanks.

K

Comments

Spot|DSE wrote on 12/22/2004, 9:35 PM

You need a 16:9 monitor, yes. this is where DV Rack might be of use for the shoot, and you can always rent a PVM14L, or buy used. They are great, not TOO expensive....(around 600.00 used)

Jessariah67 wrote on 12/23/2004, 3:52 AM

Thanks, Spot.

Bill Ravens wrote on 12/23/2004, 5:40 AM

There's a number of small LCD monitors available, as you may know, including one from Panasonic. The Panny is 7" and 16:9, available from Nebtek. There's also a fairly inexpensive monitor from Lilliput that is being used by some videographers over on DVNET. The Lilliput has 16:9 mode, exclusively and better resolution than the Panny. If yu're interested in it, go to Ebay and search for "7 touch". Avoid the car monitors as these don't have enough resolution to work for focusing.

scissorfighter wrote on 12/23/2004, 5:55 AM

Also, you don't need a "dedicated" 16:9 monitor, which can be pretty expensive. You can get a 4:3 monitor like the Sony PVM-14L2 that also has a 16:9 mode... just press a button and the aspect ratio is set to 16:9. With patience you can get good deals on Ebay.

patreb wrote on 12/23/2004, 11:10 AM

The real question i have is that if my 4:3 monito sees it distorted then every other besides monitors with 16:9 will see it distorted too... IN that cases majority of teh viewers will see it stretched... In other words teh only option, correct me if i'm wrong, is to edit 16:9 footage in 4:3 project... Right?

Jessariah67 wrote on 12/24/2004, 1:12 PM

You can render your project so it letterboxes on 4:3 TVs. I don't believe you can do one render that will fill 16:9 and letterbox on 4:3 like commercial DVDs do. If I'm wrong about that, I'd be happy to hear about it.

Thanks to everyone for the feedback. Merry Christmas!

Kevin

Laurence wrote on 12/24/2004, 2:12 PM

Actually, you can preview letterbox and render anamorphic, at least I have. I don't remember the exact settings, but it wasn't hard to figure out. I was using the Canopus box with a standard 4:3 TV. The preview seemed a little more efficient too, like after dropping all those lines it had less work to do, and the pre-rendered transitions seemed smoother.

Coursedesign wrote on 12/24/2004, 5:35 PM

"one render that will fill 16:9 and letterbox on 4:3 like commercial DVDs"

That's a function of the DVD player. It sees the WIDE bit set on the DVD and checks your menu setting on the player (where you specify 4:3 or 16:9 output to your TV).

Merry Christmas!