720PN aspect ratio- squeezed on monitor

rook

rook

Veteran
Hey guys,

I've got a bit of a confusing thing happening...and I'm shooting tomorrow!!!!

I want to shoot in 720pn and when I put the HVX into that mode I get a letterboxed image on the LCD. Okay, wasn't expecting that, but that's fine.

But now I have a squeezed image in my monitor, which makes framing on the fly, impossible.

The aspect ratio in the menu is listed as NORMAL and is shown in blue and cannot be changed.

What am i doing wrong?

Thanks guys.
 
Hmmm... I shoot in 720pn also, and don't have this problem. I assume you are using component video output to your monitor? If so, most decent monitors should be able to auto-detect the aspect ratio, and letterbox accordingly. I use a cheapo consumer 18" LCD with DVI input (using a Component Video to DVI transcoder), and it works just fine.

Depending on your monitor, you may have to tell it in its menu to automatically adjust the aspect ratio. Or, in my case, not to do anything. On my monitor, the display wants to make the video data fill the entire screen, which would of course make it squeezed (not to mention blurry). But if I go into the LCD's menu, I can tell it not to automatically expand image to fill the screen, and then the image is letterboxed.
 
You don't have a problem, you're not doing anything wrong, but you're apparently using a 4:3 monitor with a 16:9 camera so yes of course it's squeezed.

HD is always 16:9. That's always the case. You can't have 4:3 HD in the HVX.

So on the LCD, it shows as 16:9. It's not letterboxed, instead it's using the area outside the 16:9 frame for the timecode display and all that other stuff, to keep it off your main frame.

It's sending a full-frame 16:9 image out the video output ports. If you're trying to view that on a 4:3 monitor, then yes it'll look squeezed, just like any 16:9 image would look when viewed on a 4:3 monitor.

You can't change the aspect ratio (it's blue, you can't change it) because you're shooting HD which is always 16:9. The aspect ratio menu is only for when you're shooting standard-def, where you have a choice of 4:3 or 16:9.
 
Thanks guys.

When I actually put some thought into it, it makes obvious sense.

I wish I had a work around for it. I had a hell of a time framing with the squeeze.

-rook
 
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