Stretched letterbox?
- Thread starter Elvis
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Barry_Green
Moderator
Re: Stretched letterbox?
Shoot in Letterbox, then go into Vegas and use the pan/crop filter to tell it to be 16:9 ratio. Vegas will crop off the letterbox bars. Tell it "stretch to fill frame" and Vegas will stretch the video to make an anamorphic 16:9 video from your letterbox footage. It'll produce footage that would play back on a widescreen television. The quality will be approximately that of "squeeze mode", although "squeeze mode" will be a little higher quality.
Shoot in Letterbox, then go into Vegas and use the pan/crop filter to tell it to be 16:9 ratio. Vegas will crop off the letterbox bars. Tell it "stretch to fill frame" and Vegas will stretch the video to make an anamorphic 16:9 video from your letterbox footage. It'll produce footage that would play back on a widescreen television. The quality will be approximately that of "squeeze mode", although "squeeze mode" will be a little higher quality.
Barry_Green
Moderator
Re: Stretched letterbox?
It gets stretched to anamorphic shape.
It gets stretched to anamorphic shape.
Barry_Green
Moderator
Re: Stretched letterbox?
Well, yeah, it gets converted to 16:9-shape. Same thing as happens when you shoot through the anamorphic adapter.
Well, yeah, it gets converted to 16:9-shape. Same thing as happens when you shoot through the anamorphic adapter.
Re: Stretched letterbox?
Well, what from I can tell, it gets reshaped in a sense but it's not at all distorted looking. Barry correct me if I'm wrong but I think what's happening (in Vegas at least) is a kind of zoom (digital) into your existing image in the 16:9 aspect ratio. So what you're left with fills the 16:9 frame without distortion. It is a bit softer since now you're using 360 lines to fill what was originally 480 lines - but it is still very usuable. (Shoot in "thin" mode to get the full benefit of the camera's full verticle resolution.) I did this last week after I got Vegas 5 and DVDA2 installed and am happy with the results (although next I'm going to try the 1.85:1 Academy ratio to leave a little black on top and bottom of the frame. I think this will make for a less stretched [i.e., not as soft] center of the image.) If you're using Vegas:
1 (optional) shoot in letterbox mode. This will allow you to have the proper framing without having to move the image up or down later on the timeline. (I don't how to use the squeeze mode of the 100A for this.)
2. Open a new project in Vegas and set your properties to [24p] or [NTSC] DVwidescreen.
3. Go to the pan/crop button on each event and select your desired aspect ratio. Notice the image is now letterboxed in the preview window.
4. Edit as usual.
5. Select "render as" and choose a template to match your project properties e.g., DV Widescreen (2-3 pulldown). Now I don't think I selected 'stretch to video fill frame'. I know it seems counter intuitive but by setting the project properties and "render as" to the widescreen template you are already doing this. That being said, what I did notice is that I had verticle black bars on the right and left side maybe 5-6 lines wide on my preview and final render. I'm guessing checking the 'stretch to fill frame' box will get rid of that but haven't tested it yet.
6. Play back the file on a device that will properly display 16:9 material. I don't think Windows Media Player 9 does 16:9 with DV .avi files but could be wrong. The camera itself won't if you print the .avi to tape. I selected an .mpg2 render for DV widescreen in DVDA2 and went straight to a widescreen DVD (again selecting widescreen in the DVD project properties) and - waahlaa - a perfectly displayed 16:9 image from my DVX 100. Slightly soft but very very usable.
Well, what from I can tell, it gets reshaped in a sense but it's not at all distorted looking. Barry correct me if I'm wrong but I think what's happening (in Vegas at least) is a kind of zoom (digital) into your existing image in the 16:9 aspect ratio. So what you're left with fills the 16:9 frame without distortion. It is a bit softer since now you're using 360 lines to fill what was originally 480 lines - but it is still very usuable. (Shoot in "thin" mode to get the full benefit of the camera's full verticle resolution.) I did this last week after I got Vegas 5 and DVDA2 installed and am happy with the results (although next I'm going to try the 1.85:1 Academy ratio to leave a little black on top and bottom of the frame. I think this will make for a less stretched [i.e., not as soft] center of the image.) If you're using Vegas:
1 (optional) shoot in letterbox mode. This will allow you to have the proper framing without having to move the image up or down later on the timeline. (I don't how to use the squeeze mode of the 100A for this.)
2. Open a new project in Vegas and set your properties to [24p] or [NTSC] DVwidescreen.
3. Go to the pan/crop button on each event and select your desired aspect ratio. Notice the image is now letterboxed in the preview window.
4. Edit as usual.
5. Select "render as" and choose a template to match your project properties e.g., DV Widescreen (2-3 pulldown). Now I don't think I selected 'stretch to video fill frame'. I know it seems counter intuitive but by setting the project properties and "render as" to the widescreen template you are already doing this. That being said, what I did notice is that I had verticle black bars on the right and left side maybe 5-6 lines wide on my preview and final render. I'm guessing checking the 'stretch to fill frame' box will get rid of that but haven't tested it yet.
6. Play back the file on a device that will properly display 16:9 material. I don't think Windows Media Player 9 does 16:9 with DV .avi files but could be wrong. The camera itself won't if you print the .avi to tape. I selected an .mpg2 render for DV widescreen in DVDA2 and went straight to a widescreen DVD (again selecting widescreen in the DVD project properties) and - waahlaa - a perfectly displayed 16:9 image from my DVX 100. Slightly soft but very very usable.
JanBee
Active member
Re: Stretched letterbox?
Uhm.. sorry to mess this up, but IMHO shooting in letterboxed mode with the native DVX (or any other cam that does not provide 16:9 CCDs or an anamorphic lens) does not make real sense.
What you get is a 4:3 frame with black stripes. Sure, you can zoom in (and compress horizontically), but the black stripes have actually "stolen" some part of you very, very precious resolution.
If you want to end up in 16:9 but can only "afford" to shoot in 4:3 (or 16:9 letterboxed), do at least this (this is what I did with Canon XL1 and the Panasonic MX350):
Shoot in 4:3 and mask your viewfinder/monitor to 16:9. Now you have the option in the editing room to put a mask on the footage (or zoom in & compress) AND you still have the ability to move the crop area of the frame up and down. So you have at least the option to correct mistakes like mike&boom in the picture etc. Not bad to have that in hand. And it makes NO difference to the final picture quality compared to letterbox shooting.
.. or, as I said, go and get an anamorphic lens or a cam with real 16:9 CCDs ;D
Uhm.. sorry to mess this up, but IMHO shooting in letterboxed mode with the native DVX (or any other cam that does not provide 16:9 CCDs or an anamorphic lens) does not make real sense.
What you get is a 4:3 frame with black stripes. Sure, you can zoom in (and compress horizontically), but the black stripes have actually "stolen" some part of you very, very precious resolution.
If you want to end up in 16:9 but can only "afford" to shoot in 4:3 (or 16:9 letterboxed), do at least this (this is what I did with Canon XL1 and the Panasonic MX350):
Shoot in 4:3 and mask your viewfinder/monitor to 16:9. Now you have the option in the editing room to put a mask on the footage (or zoom in & compress) AND you still have the ability to move the crop area of the frame up and down. So you have at least the option to correct mistakes like mike&boom in the picture etc. Not bad to have that in hand. And it makes NO difference to the final picture quality compared to letterbox shooting.
.. or, as I said, go and get an anamorphic lens or a cam with real 16:9 CCDs ;D
Re: Stretched letterbox?
In Vegas, you can crop to 16:9 *without* the stretch to fill and it won't be distorted on your screen. You can then render out as Widescreen, go to DVD-Architect in a Widescreen project, and the result will be an anamorphic DVD. You never actually have to see the stretch.
In Vegas, you can crop to 16:9 *without* the stretch to fill and it won't be distorted on your screen. You can then render out as Widescreen, go to DVD-Architect in a Widescreen project, and the result will be an anamorphic DVD. You never actually have to see the stretch.
Re: Stretched letterbox?
open up the letterbox file in a 1.2 pixel aspect widscreen project so that it stretches it wide, then just crop off the black bars on top and bottom using the crop tool. i think its about 10 or 11 for the number to crop for top and bottom. this will expand the hieght of the center video area which is stretched acrossed the whole 16:9 window to fit to the top and bottom of the 16:9 window, and viola! you now have stretched the letterbox to 16:9. you can sharpen it some if you like of course. personally i would use photozoom to do it though. theres no comparison in tersm of quality between the two.
open up the letterbox file in a 1.2 pixel aspect widscreen project so that it stretches it wide, then just crop off the black bars on top and bottom using the crop tool. i think its about 10 or 11 for the number to crop for top and bottom. this will expand the hieght of the center video area which is stretched acrossed the whole 16:9 window to fit to the top and bottom of the 16:9 window, and viola! you now have stretched the letterbox to 16:9. you can sharpen it some if you like of course. personally i would use photozoom to do it though. theres no comparison in tersm of quality between the two.
Mike_Donis
Veteran
Re: Stretched letterbox?
I know for a fact that Premiere particularly sucks at re-sizing anything. I stretched a project about a year ago for widescreen and it turned out horrible!
I've never tried photozoom but I'd assume it was WAYY better from the way everyone's talking on this forum.
I know for a fact that Premiere particularly sucks at re-sizing anything. I stretched a project about a year ago for widescreen and it turned out horrible!
I've never tried photozoom but I'd assume it was WAYY better from the way everyone's talking on this forum.
Barry_Green
Moderator
Re: Stretched letterbox?
The last version of Premiere I have is 6.0, and I tried resizing in it, and even using the "better resize" option, the results were very unsatisfactory. For small resizing, Vegas did a much better job, and for large resizing, PhotoZoom/S-Spline was great.
The last version of Premiere I have is 6.0, and I tried resizing in it, and even using the "better resize" option, the results were very unsatisfactory. For small resizing, Vegas did a much better job, and for large resizing, PhotoZoom/S-Spline was great.
Re: Stretched letterbox?
you have to export a stil image sequence(uncompressed tiff is what i use) then you batch proccess the whole folder of images frame by frame in photozoom.. you just select the folder, and it does all of them.. then you import the image sequence into AE or whatever, and render it to an AVI or MOV or whatever again.
you have to export a stil image sequence(uncompressed tiff is what i use) then you batch proccess the whole folder of images frame by frame in photozoom.. you just select the folder, and it does all of them.. then you import the image sequence into AE or whatever, and render it to an AVI or MOV or whatever again.