Procedure for uprezzing 4x3 letterbox to 16x9

Here's my experience using this on a 2.66 dual Intel Mac with 6Gig of Memory, running FCP 5.1.4 on Mac OS 10.4.10, working on PAL 4:3 interlaced footage from a DVX100 to create an anamorphic 16:9 PAL DV version of my movie:

I exported my movie, reimported it and added a deinterlace filter, exported the video as uncompressed TIFFs via QT conversion @ 25 frames per second. My finding is that interlaced footage looks terrible after this process.
I divided those TIFs in groups of 1000 to separate folders. In PZ2 I proceeded folder by folder, unclicking the 'Maintain Aspect Ratio' checkbox each time and setting the vertical print size to 768. On Run, all output TIFs were sent to the same folder.
My computer would do each folder of 1000 images in about half an hour. If you raise the number in the batch, the processing slows noticably by the end.
After processing all frames, I used Quicktime to 'import image sequence' @ 25 fps. Select the first frame of the sequence and QT adds together all the sequentially-numbered stills in the folder. I saved this as a self-contained movie.
I started a New PAL DV Sequence in FCP and ticked it as anamorphic in the Browser. I imported the new quicktime movie and ticked it as anamorphic.
I dropped this onto the timeline then I then double-clicked on it to bring it up in the Viewer. In the 'motion tab' I changed the 'distort' setting to Zero, and the 'Scale' to 100. The unwanted black bars from the letterboxing, while visible in the individual TIFs, were outside of the 16:9 area after this expansion and so disappeared.
I rendered this, then added just the audio from the original interlaced version.

Note that I found that I had to reapply a broadcast safe filter to a section that was 'safe' before this process - so check your ranges.

Job done. Takes ages & ages &ages, but looks great.

-thanks to all who've given the advice I've read here - especially disjecta.
 
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Anyone using Avid pro HD here?
I am trying to export tiffs in a row, or are everybody exporting one tiff at a time?
Because I can't figure out how to export a sequence as tiffs.

Thanks alot for help!

Edit: Found the problem.
I have to check the Sequential Files check box....
 
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Great "Poor Man's Wide-Screen " thread ...

I have a few concerns here:

Q1. Why always PhotoZoom when there is a proper HD video uprez software i.e. 'Instant HD' by RedGiant ?

Q2. If a good looking footage letter-boxed shot with a bare DVX100 (i.e. no 35mm adapter & no Anamorphic filter) not appearing so good with PhotoZoom stretch, why talking about it ? (Considering the point of debate is getting great looking Wide-Screen footage)

Q3. Why can't try other HD uprez softwares and compare their results, instead of only PhotoZoom which is taking valuable time to stretch each frame in batch and producing no better footage than the original one ?

Q4. Isn't it a possibility that 'disjecta' used some kind of 35mm adaptor to shoot or some kind of other software in the work-flow before using PhotoZoom uprez ? Coz if a good-looking footage doesn't appear as good or better in our work-flow after uprezzing there must be something missing ...

Any suggestions ...
 
Q. Squeeze mode is 16:9 i.e. In Camera (Letterbox + Upraise). I need to know whether DVX100 does the upraising on the 'RAW' or 'DV compressed ' footage ?
 
the idea is to get a 16x9 widescreen format from letterboxed dvx footage while trying to gain some resolution that would be lost if shot in squeeze mode. it's just a way disjecta apparently came across a while ago. there maybe better ways to do it. if you find a way post it... i'd love to know of a better way, but i do love the results photozoom gives....
 
When the widescreen project is exported as a lossless avi, how do you create a Quicktime from this without it being stretched? To clarify, converting the stretched avi to a DVD ready mpeg works fine since DVD players always squeeze the stretched video anamorphically. How do I force Quicktime to do the same? Thanks.
 
I have a question for all of you,

I'll plan to shoot using 25p (PAL), 4:3 letterboxed, Thin, then later uprezz the video image stills using PhotoZoom Pro s/w & bring the uprezzed stills into Adobe Premiere Pro anamorphic 16:9 timeline & render DVD.

I would like to know if during shooting, I should set my DVX's Detail settings to +5 & V Detail settings to +6. Then when I uprezz to 16:9 anamorphic using Photozoom Pro, will the images be too sharp due to the (+)tive settings of Detail & V Detail?

My goal is to play the edited, uprezzed video on a HD Plasma display to see how the uprezzed footage holds up. I know that original HD cameras are capable of producing razor-sharp images with lots of details in the picture. So, my reasoning is that I set my DVX100A Detail & V Detail settings to positive, on the high side & when I uprezz, the images would look really sharp & crisp. On the other hand, will the additional sharpness produce noticable flickering on the HD plasma display?
 
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