16:9 on 4:3

[Lake Films]

Hey guys, here's the dilemma. I have a project that was shot in 16:9, bought a flat screen to edit it because I just could not look at it on my 4:3, the squashed images made me crazy, lol. But, for some reason the flat panel isn't helping me much in the way of CC. It looks good on the monitor but when played on a television, looks different. Much more bright and the flat panel reads correct with the color bar calibration. Bear in mind this is a $250 monitor from circuit city named 'element'. I want to edit back on my 'tube monitor' (JVC) again for more realistic CC, but how can I get rid of the squished look of the 16:9 footage? Thanks....

 

[AwakenedFilms]

LCD's are not very helpful with color correction (unless you buy a pricey Sony or Panasonic broadcast monitor), as they can lack contrast, lag with high motion and do not display color correctly. In fact, most consumer televisions come from the factory with huge boosts in sat and luminance.

I find that most flat screen LCD and cathode ray tube TV's will recognize a 16:9 signal when it comes via S-video or Component. If you have a A/D pass through device that uses S-video or component, your TV will probably 'un-squish' the 16:9 stream.

Another cheap-ish option is to get a Matrox MXO and use it to calibrate an Apple Cinema Display as a reasonably inexpensive reference monitor.


Jason