Aspect ratio Best of both worlds Q

U

Uncommon

Member
I not sure how to present this question (what a way to start off a forum membership :-), but let's try this...

Desired end result:

A DVD that automatically produces two different images based 4:3 output (NTSC) or Widescreen (16:9). (No brainer so far, but stay with me).

The 4:3 image is full screen with the main image being the widescreen image in the middle and instead of black bars above and below there is additional video material--Sorta like the stock ticker on CNN, logo, commentary, etc.

On the 16:9 output that extra information at the top and bottom would be clipped off, leaving a entire widescreen filled with just the main image.

Purpose:

Both presentation methods take best full advantage of their resolution and format. If the widescreen viewer wants to really see the 4:3 version (unlikely) they can just put their TV in that mode.

Question:

Can you use anamorphic (what is it? line 23 of the signal?) to deliberately *trim* the height for widescreen (1280x720) and also compress the entire signal for 4:3 viewing (720x480)?

This assumes that the production is actually filmed in HD and altered in post to something like 1280x853 anamorphic.

Hopefully this makes sense and I'm not being clear as mud :-)

- Mark

Mark Willson
Uncommon Technology
 
No, you can't use the anamorphic process to crop in one mode, and not crop in another. In fact, the end result would basically be the opposite: in the 4:3 mode, the image would be letterboxed, and there would be additional "bars" in the form of your streaming info under the widescreen image in the center of the screen. In 16:9 mode, the picture would be the same -- just no letterboxing. And keep in mind this only works if the video was shot in an anamorphic sqeeze mode...

If you really don't want the streaming info to be at the bottom of the widescreen version, but want to keep it in the 4:3 mode, you'd have to offer two differenct versions of the film on the DVD.
 
First, a DVD is standard-def only, so you wouldn't be working in anything like 1280x853, you'll be working in 720x480 and only 720x480.

Second, the basic answer is: yes, you can do that, I believe, but it's up to the individual to control their DVD player to do it your way. DVD players have built-in aspect ratio converters, and have typically three ways of displaying an image: 16:9, 16:9 letterboxed on 4:3, or 4:3 pan & scan. You'd author the DVD as 16:9 and set up the DVD player to use 4:3 pan & scan when configured on a 4:3 TV, that way the DVD player would send out a full-height/side-cropped image.

But this probably isn't what you want, it means that each end user would have to change the way their DVD player is configured.
 
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