Procedure for uprezzing 4x3 letterbox to 16x9

Yes, shooting 4:3 and cropping (or shooting "letterbox" - they are the SAME thing) will both loose you resolution. those top and bottom pixels are stored but they hold nothing usefull.
When shooting anamorphic, (or really, it's just 16:9 .. the signal DOESN'T CARE.. it's the same number of bits.) you are uasing all your pixels to store usefull data.. of course with an incorrect display it'll look funny.

But the ONLY place where an aspect ration actually means anything (except when generating images, CG, 3D, wipes) is on a MONITOR.


Then of course how you convert from one aspect ratio to another for the monitor is another thing.
Attached is a quick refernace of the available options.
AspectRatioConversions.jpg


the "letterbox to anamorphic" conversion is basically taking a 4:3 source and Pan&Scanning it to 16:9.

- Mikko
 
Thanks very much for your time. I think the only thing I would add to clarify the explanation is the step from "Pillarbox" to "Pan and Scan." When you do this, you are blowing up the 4:3 frame before (or after) displaying on an equivalent true 16:9 frame. When you blow up 10 pixels to fill 20 pixels without any bicubic or S-Spline extrapolation, you still have 20 pixels, but they still look like 10 pixels. Even with advanced uprezzing tech like S-Spline, the image cannot offer any more after a certain point and starts to look muddy; it "falls apart."

For apples and apples comparison sake, lets say that we started with a 36 inch by 27 inch 4:3 monitor. You also have an HD 16:9 shaped monitor next to it with an equivalent size of 48 inches by 27 inches. They are both exactly 27 inches tall, but with 16:9 you get an extra 12 inches in width.

Let's say that your 4:3 imaginary 16mm film camera has 4,000 by 3,000 resolution (with more vertical than horizontal resolution in each frame) for 12 megapixel total resolution. A 16:9 frame would have around 5333 by 3000 resolution for nearly 16 megapixel resolution. You have two options to make your 4:3 frame 16:9. You must either 1) blow up the frame until your sides reach the minimum of the 5333 pixels (which is a factor of 1.33 and reduces your resolution BELOW 12 megapixels on the equivalent 16 megapixel screen with unpredictable effective resolution) or 2) make it "appear" like 16:9 on the 4:3 screen by chopping off only the top and bottom pixels. In this event, you reduce your resolution to 4,000 X 2,250 (16:9) for a resolution of 9 megapixels. This is a 56% reduction in resolution.

Please correct math if wrong.
 
Using an anamorphis adaptor gives better widescreen results, but cost about $700.00 as an add on.

I use it with overall good results, just screw on and shoot. no pan or crop , just full frame widesreen.

The bottom line is whether you want a reduced resolution or higher resolution 16:9 with a dvx .?
 
MAY DAY: I have been attempting to use this process for sometime and am continually running into the same problem. The footage blows up and resizes fine, but when it plays back, the image looks interlaced.

BrandonC had the same problem earlier in this thread:

http://www.dvxuser.com/V3/showthread.php?p=181282&highlight=interlaced#post181282

But it is not clear how he solved the issue. Does anyone know how to prevent this? Is it the frames per second at which you output the TIFF files from the timeline?

I am working on a Mac with FCP4.5HD. The footage was shot 24p. Maybe the clearest question to ask to start getting a handle on the problem is this: Should all the TIFF frames look good right from output from the timeline and before blow-up? Or do your frames sometimes have an interlaced effect/look? If I can establish that they are never supposed to have an interlaced look and mine have it right out of the timeline then I know that it's something in the way I'm exporting them and I can ignore the uprezzz process as a part of the problem for now.

Any help would be greatly appreciated - thank you.
 
Shoot progressive. Import to your NLE into a timeline that recognizes its progressive footage. Make sure that when you export to tiffs make its still recognized as progressive. The tiffs should come out clean as though they came from a small digital still camera.

Photozoom can't work miracles. If the frames you give it are garbage, you get a nice big uprez enhancing the garbage.

So you may want to do some luminance or weak channel sharpening before exporting to tiffs.
 
Thanks for your note - I have only seen a way to tell Final Cut Pro the footage is 29.9 or 24 etc. How can I make sure it is interpreting it as progressive? One other thought I had, if I couldn't figure out how to insure that the frames come out progressive is to apply the deinterlace photoshop filter to ever TIFF before blowing it up. I'd like to just do it in FCP though. Is there a way once a clip has been imported to reinterpret it as progressive just as you can reinterpret clips as Anamorphic or 4:3 using the Edit Item Properties? Thanks so much.
 
the latest version of Photozoom pro seems to be watermarked. all your images come out with a "trial" watermark.

well the free trial anyway.
 
x2mag68 said:
... your images come out with a "trial" watermark.

well the free trial anyway.
Click to expand...


Welcome to the world of trial software- that is what it means- it will let you use the product, but watermark all your images. Otherwise, why would anyone pay for it? To get the watermark removed, you have to purchase it.
 
Monsoon said:
I am working on a Mac with FCP4.5HD. The footage was shot 24p.
Click to expand...

I don't have the program yet...but does shooting 24p and 24pAdvance make a difference. Such as reading at dvfilms to transfer to film...Advance is the better way to go. Since you are exporting to exactly 24 Tiff Frames...that "might" apply.
 
waltind said:
Welcome to the world of trial software- that is what it means- it will let you use the product, but watermark all your images. Otherwise, why would anyone pay for it? To get the watermark removed, you have to purchase it.
Click to expand...


I know i was praying it just did like a few images clean then shut dwn. just so i could up rez one image. no luck!
 
walktind- i cant see any of the pix you were hosting, is there anywhere i can get them still?

also, when you refer to photoshop were you using cs2? or cs?

Wonder how good dvx + anamorphic lens + uprezzing will compare to hvx200 footage.

thanks!

David
 
daberman said:
walktind- i cant see any of the pix you were hosting, is there anywhere i can get them still?

also, when you refer to photoshop were you using cs2? or cs?

Wonder how good dvx + anamorphic lens + uprezzing will compare to hvx200 footage.

thanks!

David
Click to expand...


Sorry I forgot to include them when I revamped my site here are the updated links. The Photoshop actions were created in PS 7, so they should work in versions after 7, don't know if they will work in earilier versions. (Works in CS [v. 8], have not tried CS2)

As far as comparing footage, I'm sure the HVX will blow the DVX out of the water- as you are starting with more pixels to begin with. It would be fun to do a comparison ...

Links:
Comparison Page-
http://www.waltersindustries.com/tutorials/uprezcomp.html

Photoshop How To (PDF)-
http://www.waltersindustries.com/tutorials/Tutorial-UpResWithPS.pdf

Photoshop Actions-
http://www.waltersindustries.com/tutorials/PSActions/480pHD.atn
http://www.waltersindustries.com/tutorials/PSActions/720pHD.atn
http://www.waltersindustries.com/tutorials/PSActions/1080pHD.atn

Other Photoshop Actions: (For preparing your image for a DVD slide show)
http://www.waltersindustries.com/tutorials/PSActions/SlideshowDVD16-9.atn
http://www.waltersindustries.com/tutorials/PSActions/SlideshowDVD4-3.atn

Hope that helps. :beer:
 
I have some questions that might be stupid. Just promise you won't laugh.

1. I exported my letterboxed PAL-footage from my NLE (Premiere 6.0) to TIFF-frames with a 720x576 resolution and uprezzed them with PhotoZoom Pro to a resolution of 720x768. I then started a PAL DV Widescreen project in Premiere and imported the uprezzed TIFF-frames.
The problem is, the letterbox is still there so the hight of the image gets squeezed in the widescreen project. I would have to crop the picture in Premiere and I don't know how to crop in Premiere to maintain the right aspect ratio. Am I doing this the wrong way or have you forgotten to mention this step in the tutorial? I mean the final cropping in the NLE?

2. If I were to crop the letterboxed footage (or whatever 4:3 footage) in Premiere before the uprezzing, how do I crop it to get a 16:9 resolution? 16/9 = 720/405 so the resolution I want is 720x405. Because the hight is 405, I can't devide it into 2. I need to do that or else I can't crop the 16:9 center out of the frame. I will have to crop 85 pixels off the top and 86 pixels off the bottom (or vice versa) to make it work. How do you people crop the center out of the 4:3 frame?

3. I can't seem to remember my third question.


Btw, GenJerDan posted an URL earlier in this thread to his own Image Resizer that he programmed himself. So waltind, you should try that as well and throw the result into your comparision. Here it is ---> http://www.changedcrocodile.com/Software/Resizer.html vbmenu_register("postmenu_279883", true);
 
I have some questions that might be stupid. Just promise you won't laugh.

1. I exported my letterboxed PAL-footage from my NLE (Premiere 6.0) to TIFF-frames with a 720x576 resolution and uprezzed them with PhotoZoom Pro to a resolution of 720x768. I then started a PAL DV Widescreen project in Premiere and imported the uprezzed TIFF-frames.
The problem is, the letterbox is still there so the hight of the image gets squeezed in the widescreen project. I would have to crop the picture in Premiere and I don't know how to crop in Premiere to maintain the right aspect ratio. Am I doing this the wrong way or have you forgotten to mention this step in the tutorial? I mean the final cropping in the NLE?

2. If I were to crop the letterboxed footage (or whatever 4:3 footage) in Premiere before the uprezzing, how do I crop it to get a 16:9 resolution? 16/9 = 720/405 so the resolution I want is 720x405. Because the hight is 405, I can't devide it into 2. I need to do that or else I can't crop the 16:9 center out of the frame. I will have to crop 85 pixels off the top and 86 pixels off the bottom (or vice versa) to make it work. How do you people crop the center out of the 4:3 frame?

3. When I export the TIFF-frames from my NLE before uprezzing, what should the pixel aspect ratio be? D1/DV PAL (1.067) or Square pixels (1.0)?


Btw, GenJerDan posted an URL earlier in this thread to his own Image Resizer that he programmed himself. So waltind, you should try that as well and throw the result into your comparision. Here it is ---> http://www.changedcrocodile.com/Software/Resizer.html vbmenu_register("postmenu_279883", true);
 
Norbert said:
Btw, GenJerDan posted an URL earlier in this thread to his own Image Resizer that he programmed himself. So waltind, you should try that as well and throw the result into your comparision. Here it is ---> http://www.changedcrocodile.com/Software/Resizer.html vbmenu_register("postmenu_279883", true);
Click to expand...

I would like to add it to the list, but I'm on a Mac, so unless someone can tell me how to get this running with out buying a windows emulator, I will need someone else to run it and post the image, from which I'll take it and add it to the list. Would it be possible for you to do it Norbert?
 
I just updated the links above, and added some more to it. I included an action for 480p, and also actions to help prep images for a DVD slideshow in either 4:3 or 16:9 formats. I have also updated the How-To PDF.

You can use the links above, go to my site under Resources - Tutorials, or here is a direct link to the tutorial page:
http://www.waltersindustries.com/tutorials.html
 
I would run a test and post the images if only had a DVX and something else than Premiere. That Image Resizer software had some problems with TIFF-files and Premiere won't export to any other sequences than TIFF and Targa. So I would need something that's capable of exporting to a PNG sequence.
 
Honestly, I can't see much difference between the algorhithms I used in my program and the built-in resizing in Vegas (or Paint Shop, for that matter), so it's probably not worth the effort. (Although the automaticness of it makes it convenient....for me. ;-) )
 
To be honest, I could hardly see any difference between the algorithms in Image Resizer. In fact, I don't think any of them made any significant difference compared to the original frames. Further, changing the sample width to 5.0 didn't seem to have any effect at all.

The difference between your test images on your site were significant however.

It's good that it is automatic. But how about cropping the image in the NLE and then export the clip or movie to a filmstrip and import that into Photoshop and do the sharpening there?
 
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