Web preview without bars

PerroneFord

PerroneFord

Deals in Lead
Ok,

I need some help in doing this. I know it's not hard, I just don't know how! :)

I have 4:3 video. I do pan/crop to change it to 1.85:1 or 2.35:1. What I would "like" to do is to create wmv, mov, and mpg2 files WITHOUT letterbox bars, just like the movie trailers.

Additionally, can I go to DVDA with this new widescreen version, and have it display WITH letterboxes on a standard TV, but show without the letterbox (or small ones) on a 16:9 TV?

Thanks for clues in how to do this...

-P
 
For web, yes. You go into custom frame sizes when you render and enter the appropriate dimensions.

For DVD, no. Widescreen DVD images are ALWAYS 16:9; that's just the way it is. In order to display something wider, the black bars must be part of the picture.
 
David,

I know the bars will show up if I am doing 1.85 or 2.35. What I am after in this instance is to not have to create multiple versions of my files. In other words, when I create my archive finished version AVI file, I'd like to have it in 1.85 or 2.35, and have that version to compress for either web video or DVD.

Put another way, if I shoot 4:3, crop to 16:9, and save an AVI of the full movie as 16:9, I want to know if I can go to DVD with it and have it show on 4:3 tv with bars, but show correctly on a 16:9 without having to create two versions.

Thanks,

-P
 
If you create a true widescreen output, the bars will be automatically put in by the DVD player for 4:3 systems. Assuming the player isn't crap.

And, since you're not adding bars, the web version won't have them, either...

...but web/PC uses square pixels, so you'll end up having to make two separate renders anyway. (And adjust the size for square versus rectangular.)
 
GenJerDan said:
If you create a true widescreen output, the bars will be automatically put in by the DVD player for 4:3 systems. Assuming the player isn't crap.

And, since you're not adding bars, the web version won't have them, either...

...but web/PC uses square pixels, so you'll end up having to make two separate renders anyway. (And adjust the size for square versus rectangular.)
Click to expand...

I don't care about two seperate renders, as long as the file I am writing to my archive tape (lossless AVI) can be one version.

I'll give this a try today at the office and see how it works.

Thanks!
 
Your best bet, then, is to render a Widescreen DV AVI. You'll have black bars, but you can then crop them off and render without the bars for the web. As you have to render anyway, the addition of the crop takes all of 5 seconds of additional time.
 
So here is what I did.

I opened a new Vegas timeline, progressive (video was shot 30P), and NTSC DV Widescreen. I dropped my 4:3 footage onto this timeline. It looked squeezed. I did my cuts and color corrections and other effects. And then rendered to Huffy AVI, custom frame size (720x390). Came out PERFECTLY!

Now I am doing the DVD portion. I rendered the Audio to AC3. And in doing the video, I am rendering using the Mainconcept Widescreen template as a starting point. I changed the quality to full, changed the aspect ratio to 16:9, doing 2-pass VBR. On the first run, it stretched the video out of proportion. So I had to uncheck the "stretch" option on the render dialog. Now it looks perfect as it renders.

We'll see what the video looks like in DVDA in couple hours.

Thanks again for your help.
 
Well,

Apparently what I did was screw up! LOL!

When I dropped the AVI file (media said it is 720x390) into an NTSC Widescreen project on DVDA, the video proportions looked fine. It letterboxed on my 4:3 TV preview. But when doing the "made DVD" it wanted to re-compress. I'm allowing it to do that just to see how it looks.

I'll try to get a screen grab from Vegas...
 
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The "white area" there is apparently just alpha channel from Photshop. It doesn't show in the video preview or anywhere else.
 
Of course it will recompress -- 720x390 isn't within the DVD spec, so it's going to have to re-render to make it compliant. It will most likely add black bars.
 
Ok,

So you're saying that in Vegas, if I shoot 4:3 video, I drop that into a NTSC Widescreen project. From there, if I want to go to web, I crop as desired, input my custom frame size, and create the file. If I want to go to DVD, I export with NTSC DVD Widescreen settings for Mainconcept, and bring that into DVDA.

Do I have the correct understanding of the workflow?
 
That is a good workflow. But if you're working with DVD Architect, use the DVD Architect templates instead of the generic "NTSC DVD" templates. That way, DVDA will not have to re-render anything. It will save you a lot of time when you're making the DVD.
 
Thanks David. I'll try to cut another DVD tomorrow with this new workflow and see how it goes. Right now, I've gone back to my original capture file, and started this new workflow. Initial tests of web format video look excellent.
 
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