Need to display widescreen on a 4:3 projector

goodtimej wrote on 5/13/2007, 12:39 AM
I recorded and edited a short film in HDV on my HDR FX1. The preferences for the short are exactly the same as the source. HDR widescreen 60i.
I need to print this to tape, but so that it plays widescreen on a 4:3 projector. This is part of a festival, so the projectionist won't change the aspect ratios in between shorts. They also only accept miniDV format. What should I render to so that it displays properly?
So I would I render out as NTSC .avi widescreen or just as NTSC .avi before I print to tape in order to ensure black bars in this situation?
I am using my HDR FX1 to print to tape.
Thanks

Comments

farss wrote on 5/13/2007, 12:50 AM
Just letterbox it yourself into 4:3.

Open a 4:3 NTSC DV project, drop 16:9 footage into that and render out. PTT, job done. Do it at Best with the appropriate de-interlacing method set.

Bob
goodtimej wrote on 5/13/2007, 7:18 AM
Doesn't this degrade the footage from rendering twice?
riredale wrote on 5/13/2007, 9:45 AM
Not that you'd notice, I suspect.

You're going from using 480 lines down to just 360 lines, so the vertical resolution will be crummy regardless.

If you are rendering multiple times using the Vegas DV codec you can do literally dozens of cycles without ill effect. What's different in this case is you're shrinking the vertical aspect of the video.
farss wrote on 5/13/2007, 2:27 PM
Riredale is entirely correct and I can vouch for how crummy that vertical resolution will look, even starting with PAL's 576 lines.

A few years back I showed a movie in cinemas, shot on 35mm and telecined to DV except letterboxed into 4:3. What was ever so frustrating was I had an anamorphic lens for the projector so I could have easily coped with an anamophic transfer.

What will probably save the day in this case is the resolution of the image on the screen will have the same "dpi" as the 4:3 footage. Where I can unstuck was having to enlarge the image so the black bars hit the screen masks. Not only had we lost resolution, we'd also lost brightness.

Bob.