How change asp ratio 16:9 to 4:3 ???

Question

Hi
I has shoot on HDV, capture and edit in 1920x1080 - 16:9
But i need to change final material to 4:3(640x480) for television
So, how can i do that???
Thanks!

Answer 1

Hi Rafffaello
Essentially you need to downconvert from your HD resolution to SD.
Most HD decks can do this, and will usually give better quality than a software conversion. Depending on the deck you many have a number of options for the downconvert: Letterbox, Squeeze or Crop. If you are expected top deliver a full screen 4:3 master then you'd want to choose Crop. This will give a straight center cut 4:3 version of your 16:9 master.
If you need more control over framing individual shots within your sequnece due to issues caused by the center cut cropping then you'll have to create a new 4:3 master edit and reframe those shots appropriately. Simplest is to nest your HDV timeline into an SD one ... what is your delivery format? is DigiBeta, BetaSP or good old DV tape? and what IO hardware are you using? do you have an AJA or Decklink card or similar, or are you just using firewire transfer to DV?
If you are going to downconvert to DV then you'd be nesting your HDV timeline into a DV timeline ... initiallty FCP will scale down the edit so that it appears fully letterboxed within the 4:3 frame. You can load the edit up into the Viewer window and then use the Scale control in the Motion tab to resize so that it fits the full height of the frame ... that takes you back to your basic center cut crop. Now you can use the blade tool to isolate those specific shots that need more approprate framing and then you can use the Center control to frame accordingly.
(of course all this scaling and framing can be done more easily and visually by using the Image and Wireframe mode in the Canvas window)
Hope it helps
Andy