Letterbox or squezze mode?

S

Steve2012

Well-known member
I have a small project coming up and it has been quite a while since I have shot anything on the DVX100B camera. I am thinking of shooting squeeze mode but I am reading that shooting 4:3 letterbox mode will be better resolution than squeezed. Will this really show on a wide screen HDTV?

If I shoot letterbox, do I then edit on a 16x9 timeline and simply scale up the image to fit the widescreen space? Won't that just lose resolution as well?

I was just going to shoot squeezed mode on both cameras but now I'm a little confused.

Some insight on this would really be appreciated.

Shooting HD is not an option unfortunately.


I am looking for the sharpest and best resolution available to the dvx100b.

Thanks,

Steve
 
If you want a 16:9 format picture, do not shoot Letterbox. That is 4:3. Once you do that it will never fit 16:9 correctly again.
Shoot squeeze. If you try to scale up letterbox format to 16:9 format you will lose a great deal of resolution. Frankly they should remove the letterbox shooting style from all cameras. What you are reading only applies if you are viewing on a 4:3 formatted televsion. It has nothing to do with modern HDTV televisons.
 
Barry Green's book says to shoot letterbox, footnote 1 page 155 dvxbook. Thats what has me confused. Also, there are alot of other reference points that suggest this as well. Just don't know if it's personal preference, or matter of fact.

Thank you for your feedback.

Steve
 
I did some tests back when I had the DVX and I found that letterbox scaled up looked better...marginally. But at the end of the day it wasn't worth the hassle, and I ended up shooting squeeze for eaze of use. Instant HD yielded some good results for up conversion as well. I would leave in camera sharpening on the lower end of the scale though.
 
Steve2012 said:
I have a small project coming up and it has been quite a while since I have shot anything on the DVX100B camera. I am thinking of shooting squeeze mode but I am reading that shooting 4:3 letterbox mode will be better resolution than squeezed. Will this really show on a wide screen HDTV?

If I shoot letterbox, do I then edit on a 16x9 timeline and simply scale up the image to fit the widescreen space? Won't that just lose resolution as well?

I was just going to shoot squeezed mode on both cameras but now I'm a little confused.

Some insight on this would really be appreciated.

Shooting HD is not an option unfortunately.


I am looking for the sharpest and best resolution available to the dvx100b.

Thanks,

Steve
Click to expand...

Shoot squeeze and make sure your Vertical Detail Frequency is set to THIN.
 
I used to shoot full frame and letterbox in post, or "blow up" to a 16x9 crop in post (Squeeze or AE).
Following David's advice, I shot in squeeze mode and compared both methods from a standard DVD on a good HD TV. The image shot in squeeze mode is definitely sharper with more apparent resolution. The DVD player is an older one that doesn't upscale to "near HD quality", just a normal player.
Hope this helps.
Ken
 
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