What is the best settings to shoot widescreen?

That Todd Guy

That Todd Guy

Active member
Hey

First of all,
I feel a little embarrassed that I have had my DVX 100B for some time now,
and all I have shot with it has been regular standard DV (4:3) stuff,
I haven't even shot anything in 24p yet,
And secondly I am really glad to have a forum like this to go to when I need the correct answers for my video taping questions.

OK, having said all of that....
Hopefully someone out there can help me with my question

I have an event that I will be taping real soon,
and I need to shoot it wide screen to get better (wider) coverage.
I am planning on using two cameras, but unfortunately I am going to have to use one good one (DXV-100B) and one not nearly as good of one (Panasonic PV-GS150).
When I go to edit it all together,
I want the shots to look similar (at least in the format that they were shot in).

Could someone please explain what mode I need to set my DVX in (Letterbox or squeeze) and what mode I need to set my GS150 in (Widescreen or Cinema)
to have them both look similar.
I know that there will be a considerable difference in the quality between the two,
but what I really want to make sure of, is that they at least look the same in frame layout.

I really could use some advise before I get into this and have a project that is
all disproportionate between the two cameras.


I appreciate any & all the help anyone can give,
Thanx

Todd
 
Todd, when you shoot with the DVX in either LETTERBOX or SQUEEZE the image is NOT actually wider. You mention needing a wider view, and you just get getting wider than the widest zoom setting on the DVX, regardless of the mode. Your GS150, on the other hand, does provide a wider view when in WIDE mode.

In terms of editing the footage together, if you want the DV to be the same aspect ratio, then you would combine:

DVX100 LETTERBOX & GS150 CINEMA - Gets you 4:3 footage with black bars (not sure the blacks bars are the exact same size?)

or

DVX100 SQUEEZE & GS150 WIDE - Gets you pure 16:9 footage to work with

The GS150 doesn't have a progressive mode or a 24p mode, so it's shooting plain interlaced and if you want to cameras to match somewhat, you should just shoot the DVX in interlaced mode as well.
 
Thanks!

Thanks!

Thank you for the breakdown,
I was getting confused (if you couldn't tell)
and I do want them to match up in size.

I am planning on shooting interlaced,
and I think I am going to combine
Squeeze with Wide.
That way I know the bars will be the same size.

Thank You,

Todd
 
Well, that's not really a fair assessment though. Converting your 4:3 footage to 16:9 is going to cause some compromise somewhere no matter what you do. Squeeze does just as good a job as most other solutions. If you're not displaying on a 16:9 TV, then yes squeeze degrades the footage unnecessarily. But if you're going to display on a widescreen TV, you're going to have to do that conversion somehow or other, and squeeze is about as good as any other method.
 
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