anamorphic lens vs. squeeze

I

igocrazy

New member
Hello al:

This is a question about a favorite topic that I am still seeking clarification on:

I am starting a documentary shoot in the upcoming week using the panasonic 100A and I am at a loss about what to do with regards to the squeeze mode or buying the lens adaptor for 16x9. I have read the posts and there seems to be people that like both ways. I am not very experienced in post production and I do not plan on editing this doc myself. What can you recommend? This documentary is going to be a lot of cinema verite style shooting as well as interviews.

Thank you for any advice you can offer.
 
Unless you have an overwhelming need to extract every possible bit of resolution out of the frame, I'd say just shoot squeeze. It's the easiest way to get 16x9 footage on the DVX, and it looks pretty good (be sure to use 24P mode and THIN line detail!)
 
Like I said, I am not that knowledgeable in post production. I was wondering if I shoot in squeeze mode and it is going to be shown theatrically but the eventual destination is probably cable tv, will shooting in 16x9 cause problems if most people are going to be watching it on a regular 4x3 set or will it have no problem converting without looking squeezed?
 
Right now 4:3 is pretty much required for cable distribution If you plan on that possibility I would recommend shoot 4:3 and protect 16:9. That is keep your main subject in the middle 1/3 of the screen and lower upper 1/3. When you upconvert or letterbox you won't loose the key elements of the scene.

I don't like squeeze but I defer to Barry Green as the guru on this choice. If needed its not as problematic in other ways as is the anamorphic adapter. But then you will also have to unsqueeze back to 4:3 for the cable. You say theatrical release, as in film? If so there are a number of ways to upconvert 4:3 to 16:9 that might be better that trying to unsqueeze the video,

http://www.dvfilm.com

http://www.redgiantsoftware.com/instanthd.html

I just used the Instant Hd to upconvert 4:3 24p frame video to 720p 16:9 resolution/aspect It worked beautifully. Try their free demo.

S Cannon
 
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Could I shoot squeezed and then letterbox it for tv and not have to unsqueeze? I am unclear on how it all works. Thanks for the help.
 
Letterbox places black bars (matte's) over the video in camera or in post to produce the look of 16.9 aspect ratio of widescreen. If you do this in your NLE you are not altering the underlying video so you can simply turn of the bars for clean 4:3 output. In the camera the black bars are recorded on the video and you have no option. In either case the real out put is still 4:3 720 x480 video.

Squeeze mode electronically alters the video to make make 16:9 aspect widescreen on the DVX's 4:3 chips. It scales the video vertically (squeezes). This reduces the vertical resolution. I have never unsqueezed video. This technical difference is probably not worth worrying about for standard TV (21''-32") display. But would be more problematic if you were going to larger high definition displays or a projector.

Understand that we are talking about altering the aspect ratio (width vs height) of the video and not increasing the resolution of the video display (squeeze actually reduces the resolution).

If you are planing to go to film you will not only change aspect but you will need to upconvert the pixel resolution to 1080X720 or higher.

Letterbox preserves your options, squeeze provides 16:9 video that requires you to alter the content for 4:3 display.

If this was my project I would shoot in 4:3 and keep the prime content in the middle and the very lower upper 1/3 of the frame vertically. I would Letterbox in the NLE with black bars 54 pixels high at the top and the bottom of the frame. These bars are put on a video layer above the clips. This allows the editor to shift the vertical position of the clip underneath (if necessary) to keep key elements in frame.

Output the finished project as standard 4:3 video with or without bars for display via DVD or cable. If you go theatrical you can upconvert (change the aspect and resolution) for a film out or HD quality for a large screen display via a DLP projector, etc.

S Cannon
 
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dvx100a's Squeeze mode reduces resolution? is that true? i wanted to ask if anyone knew about a way to unsqueeze the image in the dvx so that the image in the viewfinder (or a normal CRT Television monitor) wouldn't look squeezed for on-set viewing purposes? is there a converter of some sort?

but,... if squeezing does in fact lose resolution,....it might not be worth it! Does this anamorphic lens remedy this problem?...if so,....I would still need to know how to unsqueeze!!!

Thanks in advanced!

Mark
 
if in squeeze mode you get a pixel aspect ratio of 1.2 then all you have to do is (this is in premiere) enter it in a 4x3 project and select maintain aspect ratio and premiere will automatically correct the aspect and give you letterboxed video...no need to manually add bars. even if the camera doesn't automatically give you the aspect ratio you can set that also in premiere.

note if this can be done in FCP... i don't have it so if you do please add.
 
do you know how to unsqueeze while shooting... to preview and frame shots without it appearing distorted/squeezed.....and yes,...FCP does unsqueeze?
 
best thing i think you can do is maybe s-video out to a widescreen monitor. that was my original setup when using my anamorphic lens.
 
Hi Scannon,

After reading your message, I am still confused should I shoot footage in full 4:3 or letterbox in 4:3 frame. I want to try your way to see how much resolution can be improved from The Instant HD. One last question, final HD file rendering is from After Effect or from Sony Vegas 8.0. and should it be burned to regular DVD or blue ray DVD?

Thanks
 
Empty tea,

Yes, squeeze does reduce resolution if I remember Barry's book right. The anamorphic adapter does increase resolution because it uses more of the CCD's surface.

Barry does a great job of outlining this in his DVX 100 book (newest version covers all 3 models).

I really recommend getting his book to be able to use the DVX to it's best advantage. You find a link in the Home page of this site in the section labled DVXuser shop. You won't regret it.

Ken
 
BLuong,

The highest resolution the DVX can put out is using the anamorphic adapter, according to Barry's DVX book. Shooting without the adapter uses roughly 75% of the CCD's surface while shooting with it uses 100% of the surface.

Accordingly, if you're going to uprez you should get better results using the adapter.

ken
 
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