What size should JPGs be?

Beelzebob wrote on 6/10/2004, 12:31 AM
I have 2 maps I want to add to my current project. When I add them, there's a thin area at the top and bottom that they do not cover. If I put the maps on the video overlay track, the main video track shows through these thin areas. I tried panning and cropping, but the areas remain. I tried resizing the original image to 720x480. That didn't help either. I'm sure there's a simple answer, but I don't know it.

Thanks for any help,

Bob

Comments

ADinelt wrote on 6/10/2004, 4:53 AM
I believe you want to have your images 655 x 480 (for 4:3 NTSC). Doing this will allow the image to take up the full screen with no borders around it.
merkelck wrote on 6/10/2004, 7:04 AM
I always resize jpgs to 720x480. Then once they are in MS3, go to the properties of the photo and make sure the field order is set to lower first and the "pixel aspect ratio" is set to .909 for NTSC DV. That always seems to match the NTSC video correctly.
Chienworks wrote on 6/10/2004, 7:41 AM
Or, resize them to 655x480 and leave the pixel aspect ratio alone. It's a lot simpler and you don't have to muck about and risk distortion.

How are you resizing them to 720x480? Are you merely getting one dimension to match and then cropping to the other? If so, then setting the PAR to 0.909 will squeeze the image horizontally and everything will end up "tall & skinny". If instead you are resizing them to something like 655x480 first, then stretching them out to 720 then you'll be ok. However, that's a lot of extra work both preparing the image and then placing it on the timeline.

Far better to just go for 655x480 or some multiple thereof.
dand9959 wrote on 6/10/2004, 12:33 PM
The method I use is to open up the pan/crop FX window on the image, right click on the grid and select the "Adjust to output Aspect" (or some such item). This automatically adjusts the pan/crop window of the image to match the output aspect ratio. Very simple and a real time-saver!
Beelzebob wrote on 6/13/2004, 8:39 PM
Thanks all,

655x480 did the trick. I'll try the other idea as well.

Best,

Bob