Making a 16:9 DVD from a 4:3 letterbox master? (I searched first!!!)

M

markyf

Well-known member
Sorry guys... not finding the answers I crave.

Here's my deal. I have a 37 minute short film that I edited on FCP. It was shot on a DVX 4:3 letterboxed. I did a couple of screenings two weeks ago and everyone enjoyed it. I just projected it with the letterbox and it was fine.

But I can't get my head around what I should do for DVDs, for personal use and festivals. Ignorantly, I had first thought you would just burn a letterbox DVD and have the TV zoom in to remove the bars but that doesn't work. Letterbox is fine for 4:3 TVs but what should I do for widescreen sets and how do I go about it. DVDs are cheap... I was thinking of just including both discs since I won't be distributing that many... family, friends and a few festivals.

So summary of my question... How do I take my 4:3 letterboxed final cut and make a 16:9 DVD while preserving quality as much as possible? In what program would you do it and what are the steps?

Many thanks...
 
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When shooting, shoot 16:9 squeeze mode. If you already have the letterboxed footage, you need to edit it to an anamorphic timeline, zoom in 133%, I believe, and export with current settings. Then when you encode the DVD, be sure to encode for 16:9.

Quality will be very similar to the original.


Jason
 
don't scale it on the timeline... let Compressor do the conversion for you. just set Compressor up to do a 16:9 crop on the footage and turn frame controls on. you'll get much better quality this way.
 
Can you spell out the steps in Compressor? Is it in Geometry? I tried this the other day and was getting confused. I didn't see a preview of it being cropped either.

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Getting closer to figuring this out but not all the way yet.

If I select a 16x9 crop, it cuts into my footage quite substantially. Not really sure why as the DVX Letterbox is exactly 16x9, no? Seems like it's zooming in as well a touch or something.

Should I just do a custom crop and get those red lines right to the edge of my frame? Not at my computer for a bit so can't play around and it takes an hour every time to figure out if I'm right.
 
no, i don't think the DVX's letterbox is exactly 16:9... apply a 1.78 letterbox matte in FCP and see if it crops anything more in your timeline.

do not just custom crop to the lines, then you'll have a distorted image because it would not be an accurate crop.
 
Ok. I'll try it. Honestly, I think I'd rather skew it a little than lose the 5% off the top and the bottom I am losing now. Drastically changes some shots... i.e. a shot on a like where I'm losing the horizon, etc...

Lesson learned: Shoot 4:3 and letterbox the viewfinder. I won't shoot 4:3 letterbox again although I was doing so based on the recommendation of Barry's book.
 
After choosing crop you also have to select the corresponding frame size in that same geometry window.

So set crop to 16X9 and frame size to 16X9 as well. That will solve stretch / skew issues.
 
Ok. Last time I tried, though, I don't think I could access the frame size. It's greyed out. What I did do, though, is in a previous menu (don't remember which one exactly), there are some options for the encoder. I changed the dimensions in that window to 16x9 from 4x3.
 
Hmmm ... maybe you don't have to check it. I'm used to making web videos where any size goes. It probably should be greyed out for DVD because NTSC video is only ever 720X480 - only difference is pixel aspect for 4:3 or 16X9 (720X404 equivalent).
 
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