widescreen

Widetrack wrote on 2/25/2003, 1:13 PM
I just got some 16:9 footage I want to edit in VV4, and it's proven a challenge to get it to look right in the preview window.

I figured out one technique, but don't know if it's the best way to do this, and will it give me actual widescreen when I go to tape?

This is what seems to work:

1. Set project to Widescreen DV
2. Open the pan/crop dialog for EACH CLIP (!)
3. Select "match output aspect ratio"
4. uncheck stretch to fill frame
5. uncheck Maintain aspect ratio
6. align "window" (with the big "F" in it) with top and bottom of frame
7. Check "Simulate Device Aspect Ratio" in preview window.

Seems clumsy, especially since Vegas works so smoothly in aother areas.
It seems unlikely this convoluted process is what you intended just to use anamorphic footage. And I'm not sure it's going to output what I want.

Please put me on the right track.

Comments

MHampton wrote on 2/25/2003, 1:53 PM
Maybe I'm missing something. I Shoot 16:9 with my camera and have done several projects in 16:9. I simply set the properties of the project to DV Widescreen and I'm done. I don't have to do anything with the settings of each clip. The "Simulate Device Aspect Ratio" works out well but it's not necessary for the final product.

Does the clip show as being of a DV Widescreen format? I'm outputting 16:9 avi's as well as MPEG-2 to make anamorphic dvds! It's working great for me without having to go through all of the problems you are having. The only time I have to do some of that stuff is when I'm mixing 16:9 and 4:3 stuff and then I have to do settings on the 4:3 clips, but nothing on the 16:9.
Widetrack wrote on 2/25/2003, 2:06 PM
When you say "does the clip show as being DV widescreen..." Where would that show up?

This is anamorphic footage, so I get a 4:3 frame with a "squeezed" image in it (people look tall and thisn)
Widetrack wrote on 2/25/2003, 2:49 PM
BTW, do you have "Maintain Aspect Ratio" checked in Pan/crop?
Finster wrote on 2/25/2003, 4:01 PM
For anamorphic video I have to set media properties for each clip to 1.21 pixel aspect ratio and project properties to the same. That's it. For a letterboxed version just change project properties.

I don't get automatic detection of widescreen material, but maybe that's because I use manual capture from a BetaCam deck?
Paul_Holmes wrote on 2/25/2003, 4:09 PM
I don't get it. For 16X9 video I choose the DV NTSC Widescreen template, pull in the widescreen clips and it displays as widescreen on the computer (I usually set "Simulate Device Aspect Ratio"). Doesn't seem complicated. Of course, on my 4X3 TV it looks horizontally compressed but I only use the TV for color-correction.
Widetrack wrote on 2/25/2003, 4:16 PM
I just found that (with this batch of clips, anyway) if I go into the pan crop dialog and uncheck "Maintain Aspect Ratio" the clip displays properly in the preview window (though as someone else said, squeezed horizontally in the NTSC screen)

I'm still not sure that it will render ok, though I think that's purely dependent on the project properties. I think.
MHampton wrote on 2/25/2003, 5:57 PM
When you right click on the clip, either on the video track or in the media pool, check the "Pixel aspect ratio:" field. It should say "1.2121 (NTSC DV Widescreen)" Mine says that automatically because my camera (canon optura pi) sets the flag in the dv stream. Maybe you need to set that manually on yours. That should be all you need to do if you have already set the project to DV Widescreen.