No stupid questions, right?

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fieldreportermf

Active member
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:)
 
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 =[
 
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...
 
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 :)
 
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.
 
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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!!!
 
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.
 
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?
 
fieldreportermf said:
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?
Click to expand...

Yes, everything should be 16:9 or "widescreen".
 
some1shero said:
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?
Click to expand...

Ha ha, that would be some major accomplishment! I'd say that's a hardware limitation and possibly an AVCHD codec limitation due to the much higher data rates required. I don't think any camera in the prosumer range can do 1080 60P, can it?
 
fieldreportermf said:
I was hoping to have the finished piece without any black bars on the top or bottom. This is what I meant by "fullscreen".
Click to expand...

I think we're still confused... "Full screen" on an old 4x3 monitor? HD is by definition wide screen. If you have a widescreen monitor and you're STILL seeing bars at the top and bottom, then there's a problem.
 
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