Squeeze vs. Post Cropping

[svf1972]

I'm just about finished with a short that I shot using the DVX's Squeeze mode. The results were pretty damn good IMO but I'm always up for trying new things. Most of the threads in the forum recommend shooting in 4x3 and cropping in post. I did a test shoot in 4x3 and cropped afterwards using an Anamorphic Sequence, scaling the footage to 133% and changing the aspect ratio to +33.33. As far as my computer monitor shows the footage looked about the same as shooting in squeeze. So my question is this:

Will the footage be crisper shooting in Squeeze so my clips can be scaled to their normal 100% OR will blowing my footage up to 133% and cropping in post not make a noticeable difference?

I really just want the best looking footage. I'm probably going straight to DVD with this film but their is a possibility it will be aired on a public access channel.

Thanks
-Steve

[Geoff_R]

Steve,

The difference might not be noticeably to the eye but I have some issues with blowing the footage up. Sometimes it looks fine whereas othertimes I have been dissappointed and felt there was an increase in pixelation and artifacting.

When I shot with the DVX, I shot squeeze mode, captured via anamorphic and worked on an anamorphic timeline and outputted a final 16x9 mpeg2 file for DVD. The main reason I did this is because I had a nice portable widescreen DVD player that allowed video in. On set, I could view the squeezed image in it's native 16x9 format on the portable DVD player.

Though I haven't done any direct testing, I feel that blowing the footage up to 133% might not look 'as' good as shooting squeeze mode.

The big benefit to shooting 4x3 is that you have some leverage, frame wise, to adjust your image. You can make the eyelines smoother, ect. Personally I wouldn't get into the habit of shooting like this because with the HVX (16x9) chips, you don't have this leeway. You won't have this leeway with an XL2, or any 16x9 cam. I say shoot squeeze and stay in the habit now of composing your images for a 16x9 frame.

[svf1972]

Thanks Geoff, All my previous shoots I've done the same way as you and was happy with the results. Seems the majority of posts in here say to shoot in 4x3 and crop, just wasn't sure if they meant blow up the footage as well for an anamorphic sequence. Having room to crop in post would be nice, but it's not worth the quality in picture. Think I'll stick to the way I've been shooting in squeeze mode, can't say I've ever had a problem with it.

-Steve