Procedure for uprezzing 4x3 letterbox to 16x9

Re: Procedure for uprezzing 4x3 letterbox to 16x9

[quote author=disjecta link=board=Events;num=1097870435;start=15#16 date=10/15/04 at 17:55:34]John,

Yes, captured to a regular 4x3 project/timeline via firewire. Nothing special there.

You export your footage from the regular 4x3 timeline but instead of exporting as a movie, you are exporting uncompressed TIFF frames.

After doing the Photozoom thing, you will then open up a new project that is widescreen and import the batch-processedd TIFFS (which are uncompressed, consider them photographs). If you specify that you want the batch brought in as a numbered sequence (in your NLE), your program will assemble the files into one movie file automatically.

At this point, it is uncompressed and needs to be recompressed as a DV AVI on your timeline (or Quicktime if you are on a Mac).

DV AVI is native to Windows NLEs and Quicktime is native to Mac NLEs. The reimported file does not conform to these file types so needs to be rendered on the timeline to conform.

Other than that, no special codecs or anything out of the norm is required.
[/quote]

Cool. Thanks for the reply. :)

I understand what you're saying, but I was wondering if there'd be some benefit to importing the "uncompressed" TIFF images (after PhotoZoom Pro) back into a higher codec timeline. When you "recompress" back to DV, I wonder if you're losing some final resolution. Don't get me wrong, it looks fantastic! :)

I was just wondering if there'd be some benefit to putting the "uprezzed" footage into...say...a DVC50...or DVCHD timeline for even higher resolution. Just thinking out loud. Don't mind my rantings. ;)
 
Re: Procedure for uprezzing 4x3 letterbox to 16x9

[quote author=disjecta link=board=Events;num=1097870435;start=0#9 date=10/15/04 at 14:08:22]It works exactly the same way as footage you would get from the anamorphic lens. [/quote]

Take a look at this link: http://www.centuryoptics.com/products/dv/16x9/16x9.htm

On the right side there is an image-explonation of what an anamorphic adapter does. There is a big-big different between your metode and an anamorphic adapter shoot.

Beside the scale-to-size/interpolation the software does some imageprocessing. You can do the same and more complicated process in Photoshop as well but this one-push-button solution is just perfect.
 
Re: Procedure for uprezzing 4x3 letterbox to 16x9

photoshop algorythms dont come close to touching the photozoom pro
"s-spline" algorythm for uprezzing. i like the "photo-soft" preset. i

SPEED TIP !
..you can also crop your letterbox footage on export from the NLE, and export a 720 x 360 image sequence , so the exported images only have the center 16:9 area of the 4:3 letterbox frame. then you can uprez that to 720 x 480 the same as you would with squeeze mode footage. it should save a little time over processing the whole 4:3 frame.
 
Re: Procedure for uprezzing 4x3 letterbox to 16x9

[quote author=iamloser link=board=Events;num=1097870435;start=15#22 date=10/16/04 at 05:48:24]photoshop algorythms dont come close to touching the photozoom pro
"s-spline" algorythm for uprezzing. I like the "photo-soft" preset. i
[/quote]

What ever. I like it too.
 
Re: Procedure for uprezzing 4x3 letterbox to 16x9

One thing: when shooting letterbox, keep in mind that (in NTSC) the letterbox image area is 720x372, not 720x360. A pure 16:9 may be 720x360, but letterbox mode isn't. IAL hinted at this by saying that letterbox mode may need to be cropped more than it looks in order to get an absolutely accurate aspect ratio. However, if you're framing you shots in letterbox mode and you want to keep the whole frame (even if it means the aspect ratio will be about 4% off) then you'd export at 720x372 for re-sizing to 720x480, or, alternately, if you don't want to crop on output then you'd resize your image to 720x618, which will stretch the image such that the letterbox window will now be 720x480.
 
Re: Procedure for uprezzing 4x3 letterbox to 16x9

I don't think FCP let's me crop the images when exporting an image sequence from the timeline, still checking that out. Also, I think I have to use Quicktime to create a movie file from the image sequence that PhotoZoom creates, it doesn't look like I can do that right in FCP.

"Interpret your footage as "widescreen 16:9", then place on your timeline"

I may have to do this in Quicktime as well, I don't think FCP has the "interpret footage as" option like in AE.
 
Re: Procedure for uprezzing 4x3 letterbox to 16x9

Here is what I had to do with FCP, someone please correct me if there is an easier way.

1. Exported TIFF Image Sequence from timeline.
2. Used PhotoZoom and scaled the 720x480 files to 720x618.
3. Imported PhotoZoom TIFF Image Sequence into QT (Standalone)
4. Saved as Uncompressed TIFF QT Movie (23.976)
5. Imported QT Movie in to FCP 23.976 anamorphic project.
6. Changed properties of movie file to anamorphic and Pixel Aspect from square pixels to NTSC - CCIR 601.
7. Dropped movie into timeline.
8. Scaled movie file to 100%, then rendered.

If I don't scale the movie file to 100%, then the black bars generated by the DVX are still in the frame. By scaling to 100%, the black bars are just perfectly out of the frame and only the centered portion is visible.
 
Re: Procedure for uprezzing 4x3 letterbox to 16x9

how come all my footage now looks stretched (everyone looks skinny)? Is this normal? I followed all directions...

Maybe i'm not understanding the concept, but arent you basically stretching a 4:3 image lengthwise in photozoom? how is the footage supposed to go back to normal when you just interpret it as widescreen when it's already stretched?
 
Re: Procedure for uprezzing 4x3 letterbox to 16x9

Did you bring it into a widescreen project? Also remember, if you are viewing a widescreen project on a non-widescreen TV, everything will be vertically stretched.

By the way, donbarzini, how were your results?
 
Re: Procedure for uprezzing 4x3 letterbox to 16x9

yes, i did disjecta.

OK now im way more confused. when i took snapshots from the preview window in Vegas they appeared normal. However, the "new" widescreen jpg was 872x480 while the screenshot from normal 4:3 footage is 654x480. Shouldnt both my 4:3 and new widescreen footage be 720x480? The preview window in vegas and After Effects is stretching my image, and their rendering out stretched video as well! What the heck is going on?!  >:(

Here's a screenshot (appears stretched) from the vegas preview window (and what my rendered footage looks like):

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v398/voodoo1694/screen.jpg

Here's a screen capture from vegas that looks proportional:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v398/voodoo1694/Image1.jpg

Why cant i get my rendered footage to look proportional like the screengrab? (i have all settings/properties set to widescreen)

EDIT: OK, i just noticed that the preview window is 720x480x32, the footage in the Media Pool is 720x480x24. Does this have anything to do with my problem?
 
Re: Procedure for uprezzing 4x3 letterbox to 16x9

This is a process for converting the letterbox portion of a 4:3 image into a full-screen anamorphic widescreen image. It will look "stretched out" unless it is played on a widescreen TV. The TV does the "unstretching" to make it look like a full-screen widescreen picture.

This technique should not be used if your final display device is a 4:3 TV.
 
Re: Procedure for uprezzing 4x3 letterbox to 16x9

I havent viewed my footage on a TV. My problem is that it looks stretched on my computer screen.

check out the screenshots from my post
 
Re: Procedure for uprezzing 4x3 letterbox to 16x9

Well, yeah. Of course it does -- it's anamorphically squeezed for display on a widescreen TV.

Again, this procedure is really only for display on a widescreen TV.

If you want to view it on the computer, that's when you want to render to 864 wide.
 
Re: Procedure for uprezzing 4x3 letterbox to 16x9

ahh okay, i didnt know that this was *only* for 16:9 TV's. I thought it would look normal on a computer monitor for some reason.
 
Re: Procedure for uprezzing 4x3 letterbox to 16x9

disjecta,

I have to say that the results are sharper than if just viewing the native letterbox image from the camera. However, if there is mosquito noise in your footage, this process seems to amplify the noise that is less noticeable in the original. I have to play around a bit more and transfer some footage to DVD.
 
Re: Procedure for uprezzing 4x3 letterbox to 16x9

I still need to figure out how to crop the still images prior to the process in PhotoZoom. I'd like to crop the images first, then rescale in PhotoZoom back to 480. I think it would reduce a few steps on the FCP side.
 
Re: Procedure for uprezzing 4x3 letterbox to 16x9

[quote author=disjecta link=board=Events;num=1097870435;start=0#14 date=10/15/04 at 17:40:57]If you figure that out, post it here :D[/quote]

I've got an email into their tech support to see if they have any support for command line arguments. I tried loading a batch file but that failed. Seems like it will only load an image file as an argument.
 
Re: Procedure for uprezzing 4x3 letterbox to 16x9

[quote author=Dan_Lahav link=board=Events;num=1097870435;start=30#33 date=10/16/04 at 15:32:22]ahh okay, i didnt know that this was *only* for 16:9 TV's. I thought it would look normal on a computer monitor for some reason.[/quote]
It can be made to look normal on a computer monitor, but that footage would not display properly on a widescreen TV.

To get it to look normal on a computer monitor, just crop the footage to 720x372 on export, and then up-rez in Photozoom to be 864x480. When you import that footage, you'll want to set your project settings to 864x480 (square pixels), then you can render out a widescreen image that will display properly on a computer screen (but will not display properly on any televisions).
 
Re: Procedure for uprezzing 4x3 letterbox to 16x9

donbarzini,

I mentioned in one of my other posts that in order to benefit from this technique, you must have well-exposed shots with little noise. I have already acknowledged that imperfections in the original will be amplified in the blow-up....it's inevitable.

This would be the case in any up rez procedure.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top