Changing the aspect ratio without losing resolution?

DecadenceFilms

DecadenceFilms

Active member
Hi guys,

I shot some footage on the HPX 500 at 16:9 (750P).

I want to make it 2:35:1 but I've noticed that there is a significant loss of quality if I use the video filter (matte) to do this in FCP.

What is the best method of changing the aspect ratio without losing quality and is it still possible to offset the image using a different method?

Any help greatly appreciated.

(As a side note, I've also shot some footage at 1080p on the HVX 200 and my eyes don't register any change at all if I use the video filter on that, why is that?)

Rick
 
I've not done this.. but my first guess would be... is it fully rendered? Not playback rendered.. but full rendered.
 
What you want to do is actually crop the footage form 1280x720 (16:9 720p) to 1280x540 (2.35:1 720p)

This will be done by going in the Sequence Options (CMD-0) and setting the correct target frame size (the 2.35:1 one).
Then when you add clips to the timeline, they will be scaled down and you will need to double-click them (to load them in the viewer) and change the scaling parameter in the Motion tab to 100% (or 1.0, can't remember for sure) so that part of the image will be cropped out. This will normally not need any rendering to play back in real time.

If you don't want to manually change the scaling setting for each and every clip, you can just edit in 16:9 and when done, create a new 2.35:1 sequence to put the 16:9 in and it will be like having just one big clip to change the setting of. Again this should be playable in real time.

Another way is to just edit in 16:9 and crop the frame on export (by using Compressor of QuickTime).

Hope this helped :)
 
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