CS4: Converting AVCHD to NTSC widescreen - narrow vertical bars

Hey, folks.
We're shooting with a Panasonic AG-HMC70P which saves as 1080/60i AVCHD. My target format is NTSC DVD Widescreen (16:9).
Using the MPEG2-DVD format in Media Encoder and selecting Widescreen as the pixel aspect ratio, I get very narrow vertical bars on the left and right, i.e. it's clearly widescreen and not 4:3, but it's simply not filling the complete width of the screen when converting.
The properties of the imported .mts file report a pixel aspect ratio of 1.3333, versus the output format 1.2121, and I'm wondering if this is the source of the bars or there's something else that I'm not setting properly. I'm rather new to CS4, so cockpit error is highly likely here.
This is what properties reports on the imported source file:
==========================================
Type: MPEG Movie
File Size: 363.5 MB
Image Size: 1440 x 1080
Pixel Depth: 32
Frame Rate: 29.97
Source Audio Format: 48000 Hz - compressed - Stereo
Project Audio Format: 48000 Hz - 32 bit floating point - Stereo
Total Duration: 00:03:59:15
Average Data Rate: 1.5 MB / second
Pixel Aspect Ratio: 1.3333
And here's what the resulting converted file with the vertical sidebars reports:
=======================================================
Type: MPEG Movie
File Size: 10.4 MB
Image Size: 720 x 480
Pixel Depth: 32
Frame Rate: 29.97
Total Duration: 00;00;12;16
Average Data Rate: 852 KB / second
Pixel Aspect Ratio: 1.2121
(The target duration is shorter than the source because I'm testing and don't need to render the entire thing until I get it right.)
Been reading manuals, poking Google with a stick and trying various other forms of self education but have come up short. If any of you could point me in the right direction to properly convert AVCHD to NTSC widescreen, I'd be most grateful.
Thanks,
Chris

Hi, John.
Here's what I've learned thus far from Googling a bit. This seems to be a common issue, and the solution I've seen proposed (actually from a Vegas forum but the issue is the same) is to expand or crop the image. Taking that advice, I've cropped the top and bottom by 12 and it gets rid of the bars.
While this seems to work, I can't help but feel that this is a hack and that there's actually a "proper" way to deal with this. Surely we're not the only folks going from AVCHD to NTSC widescreen, so I'd be surprised if this was something that the Adobe devs simply missed.
So, while I have a momentary workaround, I'm still in search of the best way to address this issue. Hope my hack is helpful to you as well.
Chris

Similar Messages

CS4: Converting AVCHD to DV-AVI Type II - what's your tool / approach?

My machine lacks the horsepower to handle native AVCHD without a lot of jerky playback issues, and in a previous thread I got a lot of good advice on solving this problem. Short of buying faster ponies, the best solution as I understand it is to first convert to the native DV-AVI Type II format that Premeire uses.
I thought that finding the appropriate conversion tool would be a short Google and / or Adobe Forum search away, but half a day of searching both and I've still not found a suitable solution. I'm attempting to convert .mts files from a Panasonic AG-HMC70P camera. Here are the results thus far for PC based programs:
Koyote
It may get the job done, but it installs malware so it's a non starter.
Super8
Perhaps it's able to accomplish the AVCHD - DV-AVI Type II conversion. However, I've not yet been able to flip the right switches to succeed. Perhaps if I had more education in world of video formats its user interface would be more intuitive, but I'm not seeing an obvious path to the correct conversion. Anyone successfully converted and imported the results into Premiere from this one? If so, what settings did you use?
VoltaicHD
Seems like a nice program, but the output files didn't seem to play nice with Premiere. Audio & video out of sync.
I've looked at many others but these are the only ones I've downloaded and given a try. I'm sure I'm not the only one here who needs to do this conversion. If you have a tool that you're using that supports batches of files, I'd be grateful if you'd share the info on it.
If I can't find a good conversion program (wouldn't have thought it would be so hard to find one), I'm wondering if Adobe Media Encoder would generate the same results. In other words, if I dropped an .mts file on a timeline in Premiere and then exported it to AVI / NTSC DV Widescreen (or some other such setting), would this give me the same results, i.e. a native DV-AVI Type II file?
Would appreciate any suggestions you might have on converting AVCHD footage.
Thanks,
Chris

Hi, Rod.
Good stuff, appreciate the link.
While it would be nice if I could find a suitable program to just batch convert the files, I don't seem to be having much luck on that front. It's a bit more of a workflow hassle to step it through Premiere -> Media Encoder in order to get the initial raw SD footage that I want to edit, but on the bright side it does seem to be the path of maximum control in terms of the quality of files I end up with for editing. So maybe that's the way to go.
Thanks, man.
Chris

Export HD to NTSC Widescreen -- not truly 16:9

If you export HD footage, 1080x1920 for example, to NTSC Widescreen, you end up with 720x480 with rectangular pixels that have a 1.2121 pixel aspect ratio. That means, the display is effectively 873x480 pixels, which is a a screen aspect ratio of about 16.4:9 instead of 16:9. What you end up with is the original video image squashed between thin, vertical black bars on the right and left sides (not the thick black bars you get when you display a 4:3 video in a 16:9 display).
If you open the video in an NTSC Widescreen Sequence, you'll see those black bars. The video image does not fill the screen.
This is easily fixed: change the Scale Width value to 102.3 (uncheck Uniform Scale). That puts the image portion of the clip into the proper aspect ratio (and shoves the black bars off the left and right sides of the screen). But I'd rather change the scale of all the clips in a project.
Since NTSC has to be 720x480 pixels, if you want to display something at a 16:9 ratio, the pixel aspect ratio should be 1.185 instead of 1.2121.
Perhaps an Adobe engineer can explain why exporting HD to NTSC Widescreen creates a video with black vertical bars and how a 720x480 (with rectangular pixels with a 1.2121 aspect ratio) clip can be considered as having a 16:9 aspect ratio.
Thanks,
Jeff Sengstack

you have to do your frame aspect ratio calculations based on the image area (clean aperture) not the production aperture.
page 4...this link
http://www.panavision.com/publish/2007/12/10/GenesisFAQs20071207.pdf
My take on this is that CCD's that are full size for 35mm film ( beginning of aspect ratios for a lot of stuff ) there is less fudging re: transforming a smaller chip size to the correct exact image size, that the image size derrived from the real camera recording may not be exactly the "production" aspect ratio sizes...or something like that... It is confusing to me also, as I have no video cameras, digital or otherwise, and don't shoot anything but still film.
I think ( not sure but think I read ) that the red camera actually has a CCD "larger" than the genesis, so it actually is capable of recording higher resolutions than typical 4.4.4 production dimensions....but how that works into "clean" image area and aspect ratio is confusing to me also...
To further confuse me, this article has info on exact number of lines broadcast for pal and ntsc...
note THIS in the article ===------------------------------------------------------
NTSC Video
525 scan lines per frame, 30      frames per second (or be exact, 29.97 fps, 33.37 msec/frame)
Interlaced, each frame is      divided into 2 fields, 262.5 lines/field
20 lines reserved for control      information at the beginning of each fieldSo a maximum of 485       lines of visible data
Basics of Video
Analog video is represented      as a continuous (time varying) signal.
Digital video is represented      as a sequence of digital images.
    Types of Color Video Signals
Component video --      each primary is sent as a separate video signal.
The primaries can       either be RGB or a luminance-chrominance transformation of them (e.g.,       YIQ, YUV).
Best color       reproduction
Requires more       bandwidth and good synchronization of the three components
Composite video --      color (chrominance) and luminance signals are mixed into a single carrier      wave. Some interference between the two signals is inevitable.
S-Video (Separated      video, e.g., in S-VHS) -- a compromise between component analog video and      the composite video. It uses two lines, one for luminance and another for      composite chrominance signal.
    Analog Video
The following figures are from A.M. Tekalp, "Digital video processing", Prentice Hall PTR, 1995, NTSC.
NTSC Video
525 scan lines per frame, 30      frames per second (or be exact, 29.97 fps, 33.37 msec/frame)
Interlaced, each frame is      divided into 2 fields, 262.5 lines/field
20 lines reserved for control      information at the beginning of each field
So a maximum of 485       lines of visible data
Laserdisc and S-VHS       have actual resolution of ~420 lines
Ordinary TV -- ~320       lines
Each line takes 63.5      microseconds to scan. Horizontal retrace takes 10 microseconds (with 5      microseconds horizontal synch pulse embedded), so the active line time is      53.5 microseconds.
Digital Video Rasters
Color representation:
NTSC uses YIQ color       model.
composite = Y + I cos(Fsc       t) + Q sin(Fsc t), where Fsc is the frequency of color subcarrier
PAL Video
625 scan lines per frame, 25      frames per second (40 msec/frame)
Interlaced, each frame is      divided into 2 fields, 312.5 lines/field
Uses YUV color model
    Digital Video
Advantages:
Direct random access       --> good for nonlinear video editing
No problem for       repeated recording
No need for blanking       and sync pulse
Almost all digital video uses      component video
Chroma Subsampling
How to decimate for      chrominance?
4:4:4 --> No chroma      subsampling, each pixel has Y, Cr and Cb values.
4:2:2 --> Horizontally subsample Cr, Cb signals by a factor of 2.
4:1:1 --> Horizontally subsampled by a factor of 4.
4:2:0 --> Subsampled in both the horizontal and vertical dimensions by a factor of 2. Theoretically, the chroma pixel is positioned between the rows and columns as shown in the figure.
4:1:1 and 4:2:0 are mostly      used in JPEG and MPEG (see Chapter 4).
CCIR Standards for Digital Video
(CCIR -- Consultative Committee for International Radio)
                       CCIR 601       CCIR 601         CIF         QCIF
                        525/60         625/50
                         NTSC         PAL/SECAM
Luminance resolution   720 x 485      720 x 576     352 x 288    176 x 144
Chrominance resolut.   360 x 485      360 x 576     176 x 144     88 x 72
Color Subsampling        4:2:2          4:2:2         4:2:0        4:2:0
Fields/sec                60             50            30           30
Interlacing               Yes            Yes           No           No
CCIR 601 uses interlaced      scan, so each field only has half as much vertical resolution (e.g., 243      lines in NTSC). The CCIR 601 (NTSC) data rate is ~165 Mbps.
CIF (Common Intermediate      Format) -- an acceptable temporary standard
Approximately the VHS       quality
Uses progressive       (non-interlaced) scan
Uses NTSC frame rate,       and half the active lines of PAL signals --> To play on existing TVs,       PAL systems need to do frame rate conversion, and NTSC systems need to do       line-number conversion.
QCIF -- Quarter-CIF
ATSC Digital Television Standard
(ATSC -- Advanced Television Systems Committee) The ATSC Digital Television Standard was recommended to be adopted as the Advanced TV broadcasting standard by the FCC Advisory Committee on Advanced Television Service on November 28, 1995. It covers the standard for HDTV (High Definition TV).
Video Format
The video scanning formats supported by the ATSC Digital Television Standard are shown in the following table.
Vertical Lines
Horizontal   Pixels
Aspect Ratio
Picture Rate
1080
1920
16:9
60I 30P 24P
720
1280
16:9
60P 30P 24P
480
704
16:9 &   4:3
60I 60P 30P   24P
480
640
4:3
60I 60P 30P   24P
The aspect ratio for HDTV is      16:9 as opposed to 4:3 in NTSC, PAL, and SECAM. (A 33% increase in      horizontal dimension.)
In the picture rate column,      the "I" means interlaced scan, and the "P" means      progressive (non-interlaced) scan.
Both NTSC rates and integer      rates are supported (i.e., 60.00, 59.94, 30.00, 29.97, 24.00, and 23.98).
At 1920 x 1080, 60I (which      CBS and NBC have selected), there will be 1920 x 1080 x 30 = 62.2 millions      pixels per second. Considering 4:2:2 chroma subsampling, each pixel needs      16 bits to represent, the bit rate is 62.2 x 16 = 995 Mb/sec.
Homepage of the Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC)

Vertical Bars in 1080p video (PP CS4)

I recently shot some footage on a newer camcorder capable of recording 1080p footage, and the footage recorded as MP4. When I import directly into PP CS4, I choose the 'AVCHD 1080p30' present. The video imports as it should into the project, and displays as it should in the Source Monitor, but when I move the footage to the timeline, the Program Monitor's output shows vertical bars around the footage. I should also note that I've only used the AVCHD preset because I'm not 100% how to simply start a new timeline that's 'just 1080p30.'
The Timeline's resolution and source video's resolution are both 1080p.
When I export the final video, I still see the vertical bars.
Any insights?

Ann, I had a look into your suggestion, and no such option exists in my Mac system preferences.
As a side thought, I imported some regular (non-HD) footage into Premiere, and matched up the settings, and I don't have this problem.

Converting PAL to NTSC in FCP

How do I convert PAL to NTSC in FCP?

Hi
May be my Amateuristic way can be of help ?
PAL to NTSC or NTSC to PAL
A. Copying commercial DVDs - No Not possibly at all - Not even legal to discuss.
B. Home made DVDs (DVDs without copy protection)
C. Movies from iMovie or FinalCut
• Save as full quality QuickTime .mov and convert this with JES_Deinterlacer (free on internet)
NTSC ---> PAL.
• Most often not necessary - Most stand alone PAL DVD-players playback NTSC
(if TV is old in BL/W)
PAL ---> NTSC.
• If played on Mac - not necessary AT ALL
• If on NTSC DVD-player - CONVERSION IS NEEDED - nearly no Stand alone NTSC-DVD-players
playback PAL at all.
To do this You need to convert the PAL DVD to streaming.DV or full quality QuickTime .mov
• I use Roxio Toast™ to do this (There are no free converter)
• JES_Deinterlacer (free on internet) to convert to NTSC
• Set up an NTSC project (29.97fps or 30) in iDVD and import then burn
I burn to
• Verbatim DVD-R
• Set down burn speed in iDVD to x1 or x4 recommended by many
• Secure a minimum of 25Gb free space on internal boot hard disk before burning (IMPORTANT)
PAL is 25 fps and an analog TV standard of 625 lines
NTSC is 29.97 fps and 520 lines
NTSC (29.97fps) 520 lines - about 640x480 pixels (square) 720x480 rectangular (narrow) pixels
PAL (25 fps) 625 lines - about 768x576 pixels (square) 720x576 rectangular (narrow) pixels
to use a photo 702x480 resp 576 then add 9 pixels on each side to add together as 720
If iDVD hangs on PAL or NTSC.
Bengt W wrote
Deleting iDVD pref. file - should return You into NTSC mode.
Yes iDVD can switch to PAL - BUT as You see with a rather lousy result.
a. Need to convert to PAL - most often not - Most PAL-player can playback NTSC
and on a fairly new TV in color. (old TV in Bl/W)
(Other way around - from PAL to NTSC most often a must - few NTSC-player can use PAL)
b. IF MUST - then use JES_Deinterlacer to do this conversion - so much better and free.
My list on this (or rather PAL --> NTSC - just think the other way around)
I have to send it overseas
That too can be a problem. As USA = NTSC = 29.97fps and EU = PAL = 25fps.
DO Not let iMovie or iDVD do this conversion from one to the other - Result will be Very
BAD
I save the movie as a full quality QuickTime .mov file then I use JES_Deinterlacer to do the conversion - then I cont. in iMovie or iDVD with project set accordingly.
JES_Deinterlacer is free on Internet and there are Pro applications but not that much better and costs are astronomical.
PAL-DVDs - don't play in US
NTSC-DVDs - usually plays well in EU
All plays well on a Mac - What ever.
Allosaurus writes
Thank you SDMacuser. I dumped all the plist icons with no result, and was getting pretty plist off when it occurred to me to delete all the previous dvd.proj files. Bingo. That did the trick. So thank you for all your help and the additional information you provided.
Yours Bengt W

What software do i need to convert AVCHD mts/mts2 files to import to iMovie

What software do i need to convert AVCHD mts/mts2 files to import to iMovie

As Kirk says, if you have your camera, you can attach it directly.
Further, if you preserved the entire file structure of your camera (not just the .mts files, but also the folders on the camera), then you can import from that via FILE/IMPORT FROM CAMERA ARCHIVE.
When you import from a camera, it is recommended that you keep a camera archive so you always have the originals available.
If you have the .mts files out of context, you will need a third party app to convert. Two that I know of are ClipWrap and Voltaic HD. You should convert the files to Apple Intermediate Codec. And then use FILE/IMPORT/MOVIE.

How to convert AVCHD for use on ipad

Is there a free convertor for mac to convert AVCHD to the format needed for ipad?? i want to try editing with reeldirector on my ipad, i then need to import it to my ipad is the camera kit the only option?

The Mac application Handbrake should work. It is "free" open source.

Cs3- exporting dv ntsc widescreen-solution

Hi
Im using CS3 with dv avi type 2 source material , 780x420 Interlaced, 29.97, 16:9 ( widescreen ). Video length is about 50 minutes.
I don't have Sorenson (can't afford now )...and am using CS3 to export to burn a DVD. My impression has been, according to posts here, that CS3 is not the best way to export ...that using frameserver and Sorenson is better...
However, I am new to this and have a lot to learn about the compression used to export for DVD...and so I tried a couple things in CS3.
1) checked preset(s)... for mpeg2-dvd (format) , ntsc high quality preset.
In this case the quality is set by CS3 to 4, lower field first, aspect 4:3, vbr 2 pass, with 1.5, 4 , 7 as min, target, max bitrates.
In the preset for ntsc widescreen medium quality (there is no high quality widescreen preset)...everything is the same except it is vbr 1 pass. and aspect is set to 16:9.
I exported using ntsc high quality but changed quality to 5 from 4, min bitrate to 2 instead of 1.5...aspect to 16:9 from 4:3.
It looked horrible. major horizontal lines throughout...sawtooth patterns, etc.
Harm Millaard suggested a calculator:
http://dvd-hq.info/bitrate_calculator.php
I put in my info and got the suggestion to use 8 mpps for bitrate, CBR...
Did that export....
Looks horrible !.... major horizontal lines, sawtooth patterns...
info from calculator:
------------- calculator will suggest CBR in 2 circumstances instead of VBR 2 pass ---------
Second, when there is enough space on the disc to make the average bitrate equal to or greater than the maximum bitrate. In this case, a VBR file would effectively be CBR, therefore it makes no sense to use the VBR mode (which takes longer to encode). If the calculator suggests VBR with an average bitrate value that is very close (i.e., within 10%) of the maximum bitrate value, you can greatly reduce the encoding time (with a very small loss in quality) by selecting CBR mode.
Sooo, I decided since interlaced video was apparantly NOT AN OPTION ...I went to progressive....
And wanting to take advantage of EVERY OUNCE OF QUALITY I decided to force CS3 to do a VBR 2 pass export using 8,8, 8 as the min, target and max bitrates....
This would seem dumb because CBR at a setting of 8 should be the same thing....
But for some reason I decided to do this crazy thing...and it looks good ....
Although this is fine for now I am wondering....why does interlaced look so terrible ?
I also wonder what the M frames and N frames default settings of 3 and 15 is the same for all presets. My GOP is apparently I - frame = 1
P frames = 17, GOP limit = 18.... but how that translates to M frames (number of B frames between consecutive I frames and P frames) and N frames ( number of frames between I frames - must be mulitiple of M frames value ) ???? What's the story with this and why the default of 3 M frames and 15 N frames ? Confusing.
Don't know if this will ever help anyone else but forcing the VBR 2 pass with 8,8,8 worked well, took about 45min to export 50 minutes of the video..and gave me the calculator's predicted file size to put on the DVD ( roughly 3.3 gig )...
Thanks for that calculator again, Harm
Rod

Hi you guys...thanks !!! for help...and advice
With regard to the m frames and n frames ( which I still don't get ....am totally confused )...I finally opened up the book I bought on mpeg compression...and started looking at the pictures....
I am like very into pictures and illustrations ..... and if it wasn't for the "classics" series of comics ( re: "The Fall Of The Roman Empire" etc)..I would never have graduated from 5th Grade.
Soooo, at least I can start getting into this book a little and see if it starts making sense...
Stan, Bill, Harm....did the AVI export ( 10 gig ) and didn't export audio. Used the wav file from previous export ( mpeg-dvd ) and stuck both in the DVD authoring program... and they were the same "length" ....( hopefully in sync ) ...and I burned a DVD....which took FOREVER....the encoding part of it...couple hours almost...
However, it looks WAY better than the progressive burn...ESPECIALLY ON FAST PANS .....
Harm, I guess what you said about losing the one field , when camera pans fast, makes it more blurry on progressive conversion.... cause I see a pretty big difference in that ....
NOW...( Bill, your comment re: preview quality )...it seems to me that maybe when I was doing the original export and previewing, and seeing the horrible sawtoothing and horizontal lines, etc....that maybe if I had gone ahead and burned the DVD it would have been OK.....
So I'm sorta back where I started. Now I have to start from the beginning....over again....export from CS3 as mpeg DVD, DO NOT LOOK AT PREVIEW ( PUT HANDS OVER EYES )....and burn the DVD and see what happens....
Geez.... there's so much to learn about all this...every " step" in the process.... It's kinda fascinating in a way...you know? Very cool....to think you can actually do what guys were doing back in the 1930's....and get it onto a DVD successfully.... boggles the mind !
Rod

How to convert DVDs (PAL, NTSC) to mp4?

Hello,
I would like to convert DVDs (PAL, NTSC) to mp4.
I have Adobe Premiere Pro CS3, but never used it.
I am looking for a easy to understand information how to do it step by step.
Maybe there are already how tos for this?
PAL: 720 x 576, 25 fps
NTSC: 720 x 480, 29 fps
Thank you very much.
Sandra

Oh, you need to learn the program first before you can export anything...
Get yourself a month of Lynda.com subscription and learn CS3.
Watch the Online Video Course Premiere Pro CS3 Essential Training
Adobe TV had a course for CS3 but they dropped that.

How to convert AVCHD files on a PowerMac G5?

I have recently bought a Powermac G5 to use for editing my videos, as my Macbook 2005 is on it's last legs.
The only problem is i didn't realise how much trouble i would get myself into in terms of compatability. I need to convert AVCHD to MPEG so i can import my clips into iMovie or Final Cut.
I read in another discussion that VoltaicHD would solve this problem, and does work on PowerPC Processors, but it keeps telling me it is not supported on this architecture.
Any help would be much appreciated. Cheers, Oli

OliJenkins wrote:
I have recently bought a Powermac G5 to use for editing my videos, as my Macbook 2005 is on it's last legs.
The only problem is i didn't realise how much trouble i would get myself into in terms of compatability. I need to convert AVCHD to MPEG so i can import my clips into iMovie or Final Cut.
I read in another discussion that VoltaicHD would solve this problem, and does work on PowerPC Processors, but it keeps telling me it is not supported on this architecture.
Any help would be much appreciated. Cheers, Oli
Hopefully you did not pay much money for a Powermac G5...
At the end of the day, unless your time and effort has no value monetarily, you will watch endless while this ancient machine tries to transcode AVCHD video.
The time needed on even the slowest and least expensive of modern Macs (Mac Mini) will be amazing!
When my iMac G5 died, I replaced it with the 2011 Mac Mini and now I do ALL my transcoding on this machine; what a difference!
To answer the remainder of your question: what purpose do you need MPEG video for? Do you mean MPEG-2 for creation of DVDs?
In any event the current version of Handbrake (running on a modern Mac) will handle most anything that you need other than DVD creation.

Converting AVCHD to MOV

Hello everyone,
I need to convert AVCHD files into MOV in order to be able to not only open them on my computer but to have them in a format supported by FCP 7 in order to be edited.
I tried downloading several conversion software applications but they all failed. Is there an official one from Apple that I can easily purchase at the app store or any other suggestions?
Thank you very much for your help!

What camera recorded the material?
What software have you tried? Clipwrap2? Toast?
fwiw - FCP7 can ingest a number of AVCHD variants directly and transcode them to ProRes.
x

Converting AVCHD to SD on a PowerBook G4 - is this remotely feasible?

I am wondering whether Converting AVCHD to SD on a PowerBook G4 is remotely feasible and/or practical. I'm drooling over the HMC-150 which generates AVCHD. The rest of my workflow and delivery will be SD (DVD and web).
Yes, I'm trying to "future-proof" my camera purchase, even while I primarily work in SD.
VoltaicHD claims to convert to editable HD (can't find what format...). Does anyone know of a utility that will convert to SD, though? And it looks like it will take 12x the original footage amount. I know, that drastically reduces the appeal of a tapeless workflow.
Thoughts?

I'm new to this, so forgive me if I'm leaving out pertinent information or mis-stating something.
This is the potential secenerio which I am wondering about:
I'll be recording on the tapeless Panasonic HMC-150, onto SDHC cards. I'll put those cards into a card reader, and copy the files to an external HDD on my MAC. Then convert those AVCHD files DIRECTLY into an SD/DV format (no intermediary HD format), and do post in SD.
I assume that a Powerbook can copy any file off an SDHC card, right?
The only question, then (I think), is whether a utility can convert AVCHD into Mpeg2 or something else SD.

Dvdauthor and NTSC widescreen woes [SOLVED]

I've been trying like crazy for days to get dvdauthor to behave. What I'm doing is authoring a video that is 720x480 NTSC widescreen. It plays fine in Mplayer and FFplay, as well as will play in DVD players. The trouble is that dvdauthor isn't fitting the video to the screen; It's making it huge and cropping the ends. The relevant line in the XML file is this:
<video format="ntsc" aspect="16:9" resolution="720x480" widescreen="nopanscan"> </video>
dvdauthor is showing the correct information upon completion:
INFO: Generating VTS with the following video attributes:
INFO: MPEG version: mpeg2
INFO: TV standard: ntsc
INFO: Aspect ratio: 16:9
INFO: Resolution: 720x480
INFO: Audio ch 0 format: ac3/6ch, 48khz drc
The nopanscan option is supposed to fit the video on screen, right?
By the way, all of the DVD authoring tools that I've tried suffer from the same problem. Not to mention that they all suck for various reasons (particularly devede) and I'd rather do it myself from the command line. Any ideas?
Last edited by skottish (2008-07-28 23:46:03)

Nevermind. It turns out the dvdauthor didn't like the video. When I stripped the secondary audio track from the file with FFmpeg, I used this command:
ffmpeg -map 0:0 -map 0:2 -i fountain.mpg -vcodec copy -acodec copy -g 12 -target dvd -aspect 16:9 THE_FOUNTAIN_01_01.vob
This doesn't creat a NTSC compliant file. This one works though. Notice that target changed to '-ntsc-dvd':
ffmpeg -map 0:0 -map 0:2 -i fountain.mpg -vcodec copy -acodec copy -g 12 -target ntsc-dvd -aspect 16:9 THE_FOUNTAIN_01_01.vob
Groovy.
Last edited by skottish (2008-07-28 23:45:47)

I need to convert AVCHD to work with Final Cut Studio

I recently purchased a Sony HD camcorder only to discover it records in AVCHD which is not supported by apple FCS.
Also apple is not supported by sony so the software that came with the camera does not work with my Mac Pro.....
Is there any way i can convert AVCHD files on my mac to work with FCS??
Thanks lee

This probably doesn't answer your question but I'll chime in.
I have the Sony SR1 camera. I'm not sure if that's the one you have. Anyway, I purchased the Blackmagic Intensity card for $250, now I can capture directly from the camera into whatever codec you want. Well almost. At least you have the option of using Uncompressed, DVCProHD, ProRes etc.
I tried editing AVCHD natively using Vegas, but that's not the way I want to work. I also havent found any decent way of converting the files. It's a huge headache. I'm not sure I'd want to edit AVCHD native anyway. It's pretty processor intensive, and I just don't see much of a difference between the files the camcorder captures, and transcoding them upon capture through the Intensity card.

CSS, Flash, or HTML? What is causing the white vertical bar?

I am using an I-frame to embed a photo gallery that was created with Adobe Bridge CS4. Adobe Bridge instructed me to make the iframe height = 75% of the width. The code is <iframe src="PhotoAlbum/index.html" width="900" height="675" frameborder="0"></iframe>
#photoAlbum contains the iframe with the following properties:
#photoAlbum {
margin-top: 20px;
margin-right: auto;
margin-bottom: 0px;
margin-left: auto;
width: 900px;
text-align: center;
padding-top: 20px;
padding-bottom: 20px;
border-top-width: 2px;
border-top-style: groove;
border-top-color: #333;
I tried changing the width to 960, 900, 850 etc with no success.
I have tried making the background of #photoAlbum black with no success.
The link to the photo album is http://www.gigharborrealestate.com/youtube/016/PhotoAlbum/index.html
The site that I am having problems with is http://www.gigharborrealestate.com/youtube/016/ On the right side of the Trelliis Grove Photo Gallery is a white vertical bar. If you go to /PhotoAlbum/index.html there is no white bar.
Why does this bar show up when /PhotoAlbum/index.html is put into an I-frame? How can I get rid of the vertical bar?

Cool so where do I start
I found this Tutorial:
http://www.toxiclab.org/tutorial.asp?ID=37
But I've never done html in flash before

CS4: Converting AVCHD to NTSC widescreen - narrow vertical bars

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