captured footage looks different

[hatsoff2halford]

Hi everyone,

I'm shooting with a dvx100a in 24p mode. I am capturing the footage and importing into premiere pro 1.5 with the standard settings except it's set to no fields (progressive). I'm shooting in letterbox mode, the captured footage looks way more widescreened i guess? but when I import into premiere and export it's way more square. I really have no idea how to explain it.

Any help is appreciated,

-Logan

 

[Saiaf]

I was having the same exact problem last night. I guess its not a problem but rather the way it is.

 

[ChuckS]

This gets confusing, but I believe that the letterbox mode in the DVX simply crops the 720x480 image top and bottom and does not anamorphically squeeze the image. When you choose letterbox in PPro I believe it is multiplying the horizontal pixels by 1.2 to un-squeeze and you get a very wide looking image. Output is generally set for square pixels to multiply by .9 so you get this square looking image.

I believe although the DVX has a “letterbox” mode, if you ignore it and capture normally everything will work correctly. The letterbox feature in PPro is for cameras that shoot with true 16x9.

I know that I have totally screwed this explanation up but I know that PPro will edit your letterbox content correctly, you’ll need to experiment a bit to get it right.

 

[Petrus]

If you shoot letterbox mode with dvx100 it is genuine 4:3, just black bars added top & bottom. PPro project setting must be 4:3. Edit in 4:3 and resize the finished project.

 

[RGBaker]

Petrus is confused -- the DVX100 offers a 16:9 anamorphic mode that stretches the image to vertically fill the screen -- it doesn't add a letterbox mask. The letterbox mode requires that the playback use 1.2 pixels instead of the .9 (4:3) standard, or everyone will look tall and thin.

I have problems following the OPs description:

4:3 is a standard screen; 16:9 is widescreen. Widescreen can be either displayed on a widescreen, or displayed on a standard screen with letterbox mask top and bottom. Both 4:3 and 16:9 record the same image area (NTSC values) of 720x480 -- in other words, the recorded image relies on the pixel being different to display in any way other than 'standard' ... but even standard may look wrong on a computer monitor, as neither 4:3 nor 16:9 use the square pixels typical of a computer display.

Typical, but not universal -- your media playback software may 'correct' automatically for you, so your 720x480 will present as 640x480 -- it may even 'correct' the properties of the clip to claim that 640x480 is the frame size.

Anyway, I don't understand the OPs claim to be capturing then importing (capturing with what?), I don't understand when the image looks distorted (on computer? Aftter export? On a TV screen?) ... and I don't know why anyone would suggest that the DVX100 can't shoot 'true' widescreen -- it does.

GB

 

[Kevin Dorsey]

Petrus and Chuck S. are right on the money.
RGBaker, you are confusing letterbox mode with Squeeze mode.

You shot letterbox, edit in a 4x3 project.
You shot squeeze, edit in widescreen project.

-Kevin

 

[Petrus]

thanks!

DVX100 has three modes:

4:3 standard
4:3 letterboxed with black bars to 16:9 (edit as standard 4:3)
16:9 widescreen (edit with widescreen)

 

[Neil Rowe]

you can use the "interpret footage" command by right clicking the footage element in the project bin, and selecting interp[ret footage, where you can then select the proper pixel aspect ratio for the footage to be displayed at. edit in a correct project mode as listed above

"You shot letterbox, edit in a 4x3 project.
You shot squeeze, edit in widescreen project."

and be sure to interpret the footage if needed to the correct pixel aspect ratio. letterbox footage is .9 pixel aspect, and "squeeze" mode (which would have been more aptly named "stretch mode") is a 1.2 pixel aspect ratio.