OT New Sidebar Technique

JJKizak wrote on 10/13/2009, 4:16 PM

I noticed on the NBC news that when they revert back to 4 x 3 with bars on the side during an HD program they take a sample portion of each side of the 4 x 3 and insert it into the bars out of focus to fill in the bars. The motion seems to work a lot better during panning and not distract the viewers eyes.
JJK

Comments

Coursedesign wrote on 10/13/2009, 4:41 PM

New since ~2004 (for those who had OTA Digital TV at least :O).

erikd wrote on 10/13/2009, 9:04 PM

Yeh, I'm pretty sure it was ESPN who first used this technique in HD programming. 2004 sounds pretty close.

farss wrote on 10/13/2009, 9:11 PM

Nice to hear I'm in good company, been doing this for years.
First time it was for a series of DVDs that were all stills but something about the Australian landscape and 4:3 did not sit right so some shots were cropped to 16:9 and the other got exactly the treatment mentioned. Piece of cake to do in Vegas.
If you add a bezier with a soft edge you can make the image appear to merge into the side bars. Can work really well.

Bob.

JJKizak wrote on 10/14/2009, 5:19 AM

I guess I'm a little slow.
JJK