If your END product is DVD then...

J

Jerryv

Active member
Hello everyone,

Not to start another topic about squeezed VS letterbox VS masking in post... it has been handled before more times than i can read in a life time... But i just have a simple quistion:

4:3 letterbox (either mask in post or shot in camera) looks good on a 4:3 television, but not on a 16:9 tv.

squeezed (dvx100a/b) looks good on a 16:9 tv AND on 4:3 tv's when playback on a dvd player.

If the end product is a DVD, i dont see how letterbox 4:3 can be good for both TV's, but squeezed footage looks good on both TV's because dvd players automaticly add the black bars if you display a 16:9 video on a 4:3 tv.

So, can i state that: "squeezed recording is the way to go IF your end product is DVD, because a DVD will automaticly add the blackbars if shown on a 4:3 television"

* iam only talking about if the end product is DVD.
 
Well 4:3 with letterbox works aswell if you you have the skill to upconvert with good results.

What many refers to is that a 4:3 DVD with black bars is no good for 16:9 tvs.

But a upconverted 4:3 (DVX footage) to 16:9 will work well on your 16:9 tv.
 
There's validity in your point. If you are planning on having your project end up on the DVD format and that's that, then it makes sense to shoot in squeeze since it'll give you the most flexibility when burning.

There are however some advantages to shooting 4x3 (letterboxed). For instance, if your end product is gonna be a film print, then actually 4x3 (letterboxed) gives better results as they basically just have to convert it whereas with squeeze footage, they would have to unsqueeze it, then convert it which adds more possible aritifacts.

Another reason why someone may prefer not shooting squeeze is if you decide to shoot regular 4x3 (not even letterboxed, but full 4x3), but frame for 16x9 in your head. Then when you import the footage to your editor, you can insert letterbox masks and then you can adjust your frame up or down according to your liking. While you should always frame as close to possible when shooting (obviously), you'd be surprised how much the leeway to recompose your frames, even if just a little bit, can make the shot look a lot better.

Lastly, even if you decide to use letterbox rather than squeeze, you can always uprez it to 16x9. There's a sticky in the Technical forum that shows you how to do this with Photozoom Pro. You shoot 4x3 (letterboxed) and then uprez it to a 16x9 anamorphic/squeeze file. That way, you'll have a native letterboxed master which again is useful for film outs or even video outs (for instance, some film festivals only show shorts in DigiBeta, and to convert to DigiBeta, you need to give them a 4x3 (letterboxed) master) and you also have a really good looking 16x9 version. In fact, the Photozoom Pro uprez 16x9 footage looks BETTER than if you shot squeeze (I know it sounds like it shouldn't since you are altering an image, but people have found the algorithims to uprez in Photozoom Pro are better than DVX's stretching). The only downside of doing it this way is it takes a long time to make your 16x9 master. A LONG TIME. It's very processor heavy. If you have a medium speed computer and you had a project that's 10 minutes or so, unless you're uprezzing your file 24/7, you can probably expect to spend a couple weeks on it. Maybe more. But your footage will look nice. :-)

Basically, if I'm just shooting a project for fun or whatever that I might want to put on a DVD, I'll usually shoot it in squeeze cuz it's much faster. However, if I'm working on a super important project that I want to make sure looks as good as possible, I'll shoot 4x3 and go the Photozoom route.
 
I have read the sticky topic a few days ago, but because the dvx100a cannot display sqeesed footage in the LCD/viewfinder, i was thinking that a lot of people were not using the sqeese because of that, or because the just wanted a 4:3 image. It is indeed hard to believe that a software programma can do a better than than the camera it self..

I dont see any of my project going to have a transfer to film anytime soon, but iam senstive for the quality issues.

Iam not sure if i go the photo route, the dvx100B can display sqeesed footage as letterbox so shooting is easy, and its more simple with DVD, but lesser quality.

Oke, you have cleared things up, a 4:3 letterbox video can look good on a 16:9 tv with a lot of time and patience...

:dankk2:
 
by the way: how GRAZY are we here?!

Having a nice camera, nice view... what do we do?
Putting BLACK BARS on it!!! :)
 
True. It pains me when I realize I'm cutting into the resolution by deciding to film widescreen.

Which brings me to perhaps another reason why someone may decide to shoot 4x3 full frame and add bars in post. You can frame for 16x9 but also keep in mind the 4x3 frame as you're composing. Then actually you'll have three different masters, all for different needs. You'll have a full resolution 4x3 master, the letterboxed master, and the 16x9 anamorphic master.

That'll give you more options in distribution. For example if I were gonna show the film on TV, perhaps public access, as long as I decided to from the beginning keep in mind the 4x3 frame while I'm shooting, and it's not a compromise on my vision (and there isn't something like a light stand in that part of frame!) then I'd probably just give them the 4x3 full screen master.

Now if it was a more important tv show where I want to show off my composition skills, I'd probably hand them the 4x3 letterboxed footage.

And if it's (as unlikely as it is) a super high quality show on an HD channel, I can give em the 16x9 squeeze footage.

But again, really depends on how much time you're willing to spend on your project in post.
 
If you're planning on releasing on DVD and you want widescreen footage, Squeeze is the right choice.

You can release a 4x3 DVD and the DVD player will know to "pillarbox" it on 16x9 TVs, so you'd get the full image but there'd be black bars on the sides.

But if you want the 16x9 widescreen look, for DVD squeeze is the way to go.
 
You should shoot squeeze mode if going to widescreen but if you take my television for example, flat and widescreen, it plays my 4x3 footage back widescreen, although there are 4 options for the screen aspect ratio, full, wide 1, wide 2 and wide 3. They all change the proportions, full plays a 4x3 in the widescreen making for black bars on the side, but the other three options fill the screen and kepe the right proportions.
 
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