No stupid questions, right?

[fieldreportermf]

HMC 150, Toast 9, FCE 4

I have been playing with my new HMC 150 and FCE4 but am noticing that all my shots are coming out in letterbox?

I am shooting in 1080?60i PH>logging and transfering into FCE4(or converting with Toast 9 prior to importing into FCE4)>Exporting to Quicktime movie from FCE and then converting the .mov file into an mp4 with Streamclip...phew!

Could someone -please advise as to where/how I need to change settings on my camera, NLE, Toast 9 or Streamclipo to have my finished mp4 in fullscreen as opposed to letterbox?

I know this my be a silly question, sorry... thanks in advance

[Thomas Lew]

Could you post an example of what the output looks like?

Why are you shooting 1080/60i? Progressive all the way mann!!!!!

And try to avoid doing so much converting. Converting makes the video files sad =[

[ullanta]

What do you mean by "fullscreen" - do you mean 4:3?

The HMC only shoots widescreen formats. Somewhere in your conversion chain, you've probably got a conversion preset that's set for 4:3...

[David Saraceno]

What is the reason for trancoding to mp4?

[fieldreportermf]

Hello, thanks for the quick responses

Thomas,
I have been following the forum posts religiously and I was under the impression that FCE4 could only handle 1080/60i OR 720/30P?

ullanta,
I was hoping to have the finished piece without any black bars on the top or bottom. This is what I meant by "fullscreen". Should I make sure that all my conversion presets are in 16:9? I noticed that the camera can record in letterbox, sidecrop or squeeze would one of these settings help eliminate the black bars?

David S,
I though mp4 was optimum for online video. Is this incorrect? Not needed?


This is my first HD camera. Prior to the hmc 150, I had been shooting on a small consumer SD cam, and I have a lot to learn, hence all the questions...sorry. Thanks for your advice, I appreciate it

[matt s.]

The camera records in widescreen only. The letterbox/pillarbox/squeeze are only options for the SD output via the RCA jacks. keep your frame size 1920X1080HD not the 1920X1080 16:9 in the quicktime ouput fram size settings.

[Thomas Lew]

If you want it to be full screen just kind of "zoom in" in post by making the scale higher. That'll give you a 4:3 looking aspect. But then again.. WHY!!!? lol

Just shoot in beauitful panasonic hd widescreen IN 24P!!!

[fieldreportermf]

Thanks guys( I assume your all guys)

[tbanucci]

And you don't want to edit in mp4 mode. Save the mp4 conversion for when you are ready to put your finished video on the web.

[some1shero]

I don't know about you guys, but I'm moving back to 1080 instead of 720. I know 720 is the camera's sweet spot, but I don't think the 1080 is THAT bad. And I'm tired of pixel peeping. If I stuck to shooting 1080, I WOULD shoot 60i for slow motion footage. The camera doesn't have the option to do 1080/60p. Now THAT would be great! I would drool for that feature. I wonder if 1080/60p can be done through a firmware upgrade, or is that a hardware thing?