HDV rendered to .MOV seems to be 4:3, not 16:9. Why?

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David W. Richardson

Chapelgrove Films
I've got a number of clips shot with a Canon HV30 (HDV). Clip properties in Vegas show them to be 1440x1080.

I render them out as QuickTime (.MOV) files. I do NOT have "Stretch video to fill output frame" checked. In the render dialogue, frame size is set to use project settings. The project uses the template "HDV 1080-60i (1440x1080, 29.970 fps)", with frame size set to 1440x1080. Pixel aspect ratio is set to "1.3333 (HDV 1080)".

But when I view the rendered clip in QuickTime, or upload it to Facebook and view it there, it's in 4:3 aspect ratio. If I pull the rendered clip into Vegas and check the clip properties, it says it's 1440x1080.

So what am I doing wrong here???
 
Try rendering as 1920x1080 with square pixels. For computer/web viewing, that's usually the best way to go. Square pixels pretty much always get displayed properly, whereas rectangular ones might not.
 
This is for footage to sell via stock footage sites. It may not be used strictly for the web. Would you still recommend square pixels?

Thanks David!
 
Probably; it would ensure the fewest problems.

Non-square pixels are used for compromises -- bandwidth while recording, fitting widescreen footage into a standard frame, etc. If you don't need to compromise, there's no reason to use them.

You'll probably have larger file sizes, but will that be an issue?
 
Basically, Quicktime only knows a PAR of 1.0. As has been mentioned, rendering 1440x1080 PAR 1.3333 HDV to 1920x1080 PAR 1.0 is the only way to get the correct aspect ratio.
 
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