16x9 question.

[costman]

Hey Mgalvan,

Thanks for your repy on FCP and the XL2. I have one more question I hoped you could help me with.

If I shoot a project in 16x9 24p, edit in 16x9 24p, then output to DVD in 16x9 24p, and the user puts that DVD into his player and watches it on a 4:3 television, what happens to the image?
Is is letterboxed automatically or is it stretched and distorded?
Is there a way in FCP to make it letterbox if I know the end user is using a 4:3 television?

Does anyone know how this shakes out? Thanks in advance.

[David Jimerson]

If the DVD player is set up correctly, it does it for you.

[mgalvan]

No problem costman ...

If you shoot and edit in 16:9 24p, create a self contained Final Cut Pro file of your final sequence. Then bring it into Compressor and encode it as a .m2v file with the 16:9 and 24p options on. You can then bring that file into your authoring software (DVD Studio Pro) and burn it as an anamorphic widescreen DVD.

When you put the DVD into your DVD player, your project should appear automatically letterboxed on your TV as the DVD player should do both the letterboxing and 3:2 pulldown to display it properly on your TV set. If not, check your settings on your DVD player.

To make it letterboxed in FCP, just capture your 16:9 footage from your XL2 using the advanced pulldown removal preset (assuming you shot in 2:3:3:2) and work in a standard DV NTSC 48khz timeline preset. FCP will automatically adjust your footage to fit in the 4:3 frame and therefore letterbox it accordingly. Beware though, that you should only do this if your intended final viewing is definitely 4:3 as it takes your 16:9 footage and conforms it to the 4:3 space permanently on final output. In other words, if you were to do this, if you then viewed this on a true 16:9 monitor, it will be letterboxed and fit accordingly as if it was 4:3 footage (bars on top and bottom as well as on the sides).

Hope this helps.