Help with getting widescreen!!

P

parabola10

Member
I know that this topic has probably been posted several times, but honestly right now I don't have the time to look through pages and pages of posts to find which one will be specific to my situation. So, sorry for asking again but here goes....
I'm new to Vegas (well...editing for that matter). I shot in letterbox (not sure if that was the best way to go, but what's done is done) and I'm trying to get a true widescreen picture as my finished product.
The initial reason that I shot in letterbox was because I had read a post saying to shoot in letterbox and then use photozoom pro to get the 16x9 image. In order to do this you need to export the image as a .tiff file, which Vegas does not do. I was thinking of using adobe premiere but I've tried it and I really prefer Vegas - it just seems easier to use.
What are the steps that I need to take to achieve the true 16x9? Also, for future projects is there a better way to shoot for widescreen. Any help on this will be greatly appreciated.
 
I am assuming that you are shootiing in standard definition DV

In the future, you will want to shoot in squeeze mode if possible, rather than letterbox, as letterbox mode is a way to get a widescreen look in a fullscreen display. What you want is a true widescreen display.

What would be best is to shoot squeezed footage that will spread out to fill the sides when put into a widescreen project. If your camcorder supports that, then you are set.

As for your current footage, probably the best you could do would be to either export to a format using a 16x9 screen aspect ratio and crop out the black bars or put the footage into a widescreen project and resize it to fill the screen.
 
Sorry I didn't specify. I'm using a dvx100b so, yes I am shooting in standard def. Ok, if I set the project properties to widescreen and then use the pan and crop to get rid of the bars, will I have to do that to each individual clip? Or is there a way to crop one clip and have them all come out the same?

For John Froton: Not sure what you meant by "exporting to a format using 16x9 ratio and crop out black bars or put the footage into a widescreen project and resize it"?? Maybe I'm reading it wrong but isn't that essentially the same thing? (Like I said, I'm new to all of this)
 
To make the other video events do the same thing; Right Click on the event you have made 16:9 and Copy then select all of the other events and paste event attributes
 
But do that before you add any CC or other effects. :)

OR, keep the project "normal" aspect while you do all the editing and such, then save it.

Open up a new Vegas project, Widescreen, import the .veg file from the project you just edited, and apply the crop to the entire thing all at once.
 
Ok, another question. When I use the pan/crop and set it to 16x9, it automatically adjusts. However, when it does this, it adjusts the top line to just a little below the top black bar, basically it's cutting off a tiny bit of the top of my picture. Also, in the pan/crop screen where it shows the clip the cropping bars are touching the sides of the picture but in the preview screen there is the tiniest bit of black on each side. Is this going to disappear when it gets put on the t.v.? If not what can I do about it?

Oh yeah....the dimensions say 720x368. It sounds right. I just don't understand why I'm getting the thin black bars on the side.
 
parabola10 said:
For John Froton: Not sure what you meant by "exporting to a format using 16x9 ratio and crop out black bars or put the footage into a widescreen project and resize it"?? Maybe I'm reading it wrong but isn't that essentially the same thing? (Like I said, I'm new to all of this)
Click to expand...

Ya ... it is basically two different ways to do the same thing, which is to crop out the black bars and have a 16x9 screen ratio.

I am used to using Premiere Pro much more than Vegas so .... I am used to PP having two simple ways to accomplish that.
 
parabola10 said:
Ok, another question. When I use the pan/crop and set it to 16x9, it automatically adjusts. However, when it does this, it adjusts the top line to just a little below the top black bar, basically it's cutting off a tiny bit of the top of my picture. Also, in the pan/crop screen where it shows the clip the cropping bars are touching the sides of the picture but in the preview screen there is the tiniest bit of black on each side. Is this going to disappear when it gets put on the t.v.? If not what can I do about it?

Oh yeah....the dimensions say 720x368. It sounds right. I just don't understand why I'm getting the thin black bars on the side.
Click to expand...

In the pan/crop tool, right-click on the frame and choose "Match Output Aspect." Make sure you're in a widescreen project, though.
 
John Froton: Which do you prefer Premiere Pro or Vegas and why?
I've been trying to decide which one to use. Vegas seems a little easier but it may just be because I tried that one first.
 
parabola10 said:
John Froton: Which do you prefer Premiere Pro or Vegas and why?
I've been trying to decide which one to use. Vegas seems a little easier but it may just be because I tried that one first.
Click to expand...

I have used both Premiere and Vegas and although Vegas seems pretty intuitive for straightforward stuff, and Vegas has been good about providing high end codecs without charging extra fees, I still prefer Premiere. Now that Premiere Pro CS3 is out, I really prefer it and I'll tell you why.

Premiere Pro CS3 has OnLocation (previously DVRack HD) included with it and this software is great for capturing (and monitoring while you are capturing) all kinds of firewire video streams, from DVCPro HD to HDV to DV straight to a laptop/external harddrive while using the laptop's display as a high resolution monitor with waveform and vectorscope for setting proper exposure.

It also comes with Encore DVD for DVD authoring, which is on par with DVD Architect in most ways but has the advantage of working seamlessly and easily with Photoshop files and layers and can also output any DVD project into an interactive Flash file. You can simply export to Flash and have a version of your DVD ready for the web in the Flash format instead of mpeg2.

That touches on another big advantage of Premiere, and that is that it bridges with After Effects, Photoshop and other Adobe apps and if you really want to get into specialized effects, After Effects is the way to go.

Beyond that, I have always found Premiere to be intuitive for me, but it has typically been buggy in a cheap kind of way in the past. Now with Premiere Pro, I think they are much more grown up and on par with other professional apps.
 
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