I am using the panasonic anamorphic lens...It squeezes the image. How does Vegas knows it 16x9. I tried what you said but the image still squeezed.

When you shoot using the camcorder's 16x9 mode, it sets a flag in the digital bitstream saying that it was shot in this mode. Vegas reads this flag during capture and sets the aspect ratio flag in the .AVI file's header accordingly. Since you are using an anamorphic lens, as far as the camcorder is concerned, it's shooting in the 4x3 mode and sets the flag to 4x3. When you capture this footage, Vegas also assumes that it is 4x3. You need to set the Vegas project to DV Widescreen AND you also need to right-click on the clip on the timeline and, under the "Media" tab, set the "pixel aspect ratio" to either NTSC or PAL DV Widescreen depending on which video standard you are using. Then Vegas will treat it correctly.

John

John - Sorry for butting in here, I don't have an anamorphic lens [ I presume this creates 16:9 in the viewfinder as well ], alhtough I do have 16:9 guides in my Canon XM2, that all I need to do is "frame" the shots between the guides, bring the same footage into V4 and use the 16:9 in Pan/Crop? Is that correct? I'm almost there in getting my brain into gear about this - is this true [ not necessarily 'bout my brain, I mean! ]? And when I come to show my 16:9 V4 work on a TV with 16:9, it will fill the 16:9 format?

It's a question I've been always wanting to ask . . . now seems the time to do it!

TIA,

Grazie

I feel stupid. I film in 16x9 mode, its supposedly true 16x9, and it captures it as widescreen DV footage, but it alway looks stretched out no matter what setttings I have it on EXCEPT normal DV, then it doesnt look stretched out but is letterboxed. Is that correct? Something doesn't seem right, because if I render it this way doesn't it lose the WS resolution and what I end up with is basically the same as letterboxed standard DV? ugg. I am very confused right now. Is the pixel aspect the only thing that is giving it more area on the sides of the screen and less on the top and bottom?

Adam Wilt explains it fairly well here:

Adam Wilt on 16x9

John

FWIW, in case it helps some... I've found it useful in Vegas to often just tweak the settings...

If you've got widescreen video (not letterboxing attached to 4:3, & not anamorphic), should be able to get just that in your preview if Vegas understands the frame size of the file (set in clip properties), and you have the same set for your proj. Don't really see a need for pan crop what so ever.

Can set the proj aspect to something like DV widescreen to expand anamorphic video in the preview window, which is kind of a shortcut to setting the actual desired frame size and then unchecking the clip's switch to maintain aspect. The other aspect settings work the same way - if you've got 480 SVCD for example, it'll expand to normal. Myself, I often find it less confusing to just set the frame size in pixels, but that's me.

If you have 4:3 with black bars (as in fake widescreen or a more wide screened anamorphic), set cropping to cut off the bars, set the proj to the desired frame size, and you'll get just the video in the preview window. Please be careful though if/when rendering back out to 4:3 - for some reason cropped video behaves differently then cropped and rendered video if you set widescreen in the mainconcept encoder dialog, so might have to play with settings etc. Noted in an earlier post that checking the box to stretch the video on the render as dialog preserves the aspect of non-letterboxed widescreen video rendering to 16:9 mpg2 (doesn't work the same way when you crop the vid in Vegas). If you're rendering separate streams (ie: for DVDA etc.), the wide screen flag can be set along with the height value of 540 in restream without re-encoding, so an option would be to encode to 4:3 and skip the confusion.

Editing it's easier for me if I don't have to deal with the letterboxing. Some encoders like TMPEnc let you crop the letterboxing off of the video before encoding to keep the encoder from working on that portion of the frame, yet still retain it in the finished mpg2. Don't know if Vegas works that way or not, if there's any technical advantage, but it will generate the black bars on render given the above caveats.

The one thing I don't see here is what the problem may be for you - you create a 16:9 WS project and you make sure the clips are correct pixel aspect *BUT* there is one more item you need to do: RIght click on the preview window. From the little pop up that appears check "Simulate Device Aspect Ratio". Now you should see the correct image in the preview window.

Keep in mind however that the output via firewire will still looked 'squished' unless you use a 16:9 TV/Monitor. Also when you render if you want to keep the 16:9 image remember to choose a 16:9 WS template and make sure that "Stretch Video to fill output frame size (do not letterbeox)" is set up. If you render 16:9 to 4:3 and want letterbox you need this unchecked for example.

huh?

Since neither the camera (nor Vegas) knows you installed an anamorphic lens, you need to bring up the clip properties and set the pixel aspect ratio to "DV Widescreen" (1.212). Then your clips will be 16:9. Use the "DV Widescreen" (and 24p if that's what you shot) template in Project Properties. The latest 4,0c update contains 24p widescreen templates just for you folks with anamorphic adapters.
Right click on the Video Preview and make sure "Simulate Device Aspect Ratio" is ON.

And read the 24p whitepaper; anamorphic widescreen is covered in there.

///d@

What part didn't you understand? It is clear if you have VV open and look at what I said. But if you still are confused at what I said (Or at what SonicDennis also said) just ask something more than "huh?".

1> Open a new project and select a 16:9 Widscreen template.
2> When you load media onto the timeline make sure the aspect ratio is set to 16:9.
3> On your preview window right click and make sure the "Simulate Device Aspect Ratio" is checked.

As far a VV now goes you should see your video is the correct aspect ratio - 16:9

For preview via firewire you will not get a letterbox, you will see full frame and unless you have a 16:9 monitor the image will be "squished". When you *render* if you want the anamorphic image just make sure you render with a 16:9 setting. If you use a 4:3 setting and want letterbox make sure you have "Stretch Video to fill output frame size (do not letterbeox)" UNCHECKED.

As I say - if it isn't clear ask what part is not clear. :)