Pixel Aspect & Compressor for PAL going to NTSC

hi.
I have PAL clips which be part of an NTSC iDVD project. do I need to export the QT movies in NTSC format? i.e.,
do I need to change the sequence compressor and pixel aspects to NTSC?
do I need to change the PAL clips within the NTSC timelines to NTSC compressor and pixel aspect?
or... (and I would really prefer not to have to do this because the same sequences are being exported to MP4 really well as they stand)
do I transcode my PAL DVD MPEG files into DV-NTSC format via MPEG Streamclip?
cheers,
Gregory

You need to get good standards conversion software like Graeme Nattress' Standards Converter. You won't get good results doing it in FCE.

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Is there a way to set pixel aspect ratio for a project?

This is related to another post I made about using iShowU HD, a screen capture program (for screen casts). On their support page, they show example settings for FCP, but not for FCP X. I was wondering if someone could take a look at that page and decypher that for FCP X. One thing the specify for FCP is to set the pixel aspect ratio to "square pixels", as well as some other things. Also, is it good to use 30 fps?
This is the support page:
http://help.shinywhitebox.com/workflow/final_cut/
Thanks

Set capture size:
Set output video:
Set frame rate:
Set capture options:
Set video and audio format:
Set up the FCP X project:
1080p HD / ProRes 422 / 48kHz...

Aspect ratio for PAL 5:4 material in HD sequence...

I've got an HD timeline, 1080i, 16:9, square pixels... I've been given some DV PAL (5:4 / 720x576) material to use in the sequence. It looks vertically stretched, so I need to change the distort aspect ratio... but what exactly do I change it to? It looks ok at -6 or even -10 or -12... but I can't tell what is the correct/accurate setting! What is the correct aspect ratio setting?
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...and following some tests, the answer is... -6.67

The (new) Premiere pixel aspect ratio is wrong for my PAL DV cam footage

I've had a Sony TRV-950E DV-cam since 2003. I've been shooting DV PAL in widescreen.
I just bought Elements 12 to edit my footage, and discovered that the pixel aspect ratio for D1/DV PAL Widescreen has been updated to 1.46 (old value 1.42).
The theory behind this change is that video recorded on 720x576 is slightly wider than 16:9 and that the 16:9 portion is 704x576.
Unfortunately this is not correct for my footage! I've captured the video from my DV-cam (by firewire) and opened it in Premere and it is streched to be shown as 1050x576.
So I did a test:
I filmed a steady shot of a perfect circle and captured the video from the camera and opened it in Premiere. The pixel ascpect ratio 1.46 makes the display 1050x576.
The question is: Am I seeing this displayed as a perfect circle now?
This can be tested:
I make a picture of a perfect circle in Photoshop (square pixels) with size 1024x576. I imported this picture into the Premiere project, and match the two circles: The filmed one, and the Photoshop one.
They DO NOT match! The one on the video is slightly stretched in width.
So then I stretch the Photoshop picture in width to become 1050x576. I then import this picture into the project. And now I have a perfect match between the circles!
This means that my DV camera actually records a 100% 16:9 picture on all the pixels 720x576 - and not a slightly wider picture with the 16:9 part being in 704x576 (which is the reason for the change in pixel aspect ratio from 1.42 to 1.46).
I have some HD scenes that I want to import (and downscale) into my SD project also, and I also have a lot of still pictures.
Unless I can change the setup i Elements to the correct ratio 1.42, these stills and sqare-pixel-video (HD) should ideally be streched from 1024x576 to 1050x576 to match (become equally stretched as) all the SD footage.
How do I solve this?
I just bought Elements 12 three days ago.
(I just tried opening the captured video in Windows Movie Maker - and that program must use pixel aspect ratio 1.42 since the video is diplayed correctly as 1024x576 with a perfect circle)
Regards,
Tom from Norway

Tom
After much thought and exploration and experimentation, I have come to the conclusion that there is no practical purpose for doing anything other than importing your media into the project and editing/exporting. I find no distortion in doing so, be it in the video samples that you posted or in still models that I created for the pixel aspect ratio 1.422 vs 1.4587 for D1/DV PAL Widescreen.
If you have not already, please read the following about the Adobe DV Widescreen Pixel Aspect Ratio change from 1.422 to 1.456.
Please start in the first link which gives some get subsequent links in it
http://forums.adobe.com/thread/673877
http://www.mikeafford.com/blog/2009/03/pal-d1-dv-widescreen-square-pixel-settings-in-after -effects-cs4-vs-cs3/
Also, you may find the following article on square and non square pixels of interest. It uses the PAL DV Widescreen 1.422 pixel aspect ratio in its discussion.
http://library.creativecow.net/articles/gerard_rick/pixel_madness.php
Aside from the explanation for the rights and wrongs of the matter, this is what I actually observed taking your PAL DV AVI Widescreen and PAL MPEG2.mpg Widescreen into the same Premiere Elements 12 Windows PAL DV Widescreen project. Along with your video files were still images that I created in Photoshop Elements 11 Full Editor:
1024 x 576 document with a red circle on Layer 2 of the Layers Palette
1050 x 576 document with a red circle on Layer 1 of the Layers Palette.
The red circles were superimposed in creation. The difference in the pixel dimensions between the two are evidenced by Layer 1 content peaking through on the left and right.
The gpsot readout for pixel aspect ratio for each of the videos was
a. Your PAL DV AVI 720 x 576 Widescreen = 1.422
b. Your PAL MPEG2.mpg 720 x 576 Widescreen = 1.422
Each of the Photoshop Elements documents (circles) saved as .psd files 1050 x 576 pixels.
When all were taken into Premiere Elements 12 project manually set for PAL DV Widescreen, they looked like the following, no display of distortion.......
PAL DV AVI Widescreen 720 x 576 (now the pixel aspect ratio in Premiere Elements Properties was shown as 1.4587, not the 1.422 seen in gspot before import)
PAL MPEG2.mpg Widescreen 720 x 576 (now the pixel aspect ratio in Premiere Elements 12 Properties was shown as 1.4587, not the 1.422 seen in gspot before import)
Edit Menu/Preferences/General with check mark next to "Default Scale to Frame Size" was in effect.
As for the red circles stills (1050 x 576 to equate to the square pixel version of 720 x 576 widescreen) did not distort when brought into the Premiere Elements 12 Edit area monitor which is established by the PAL DV Widescreen project preset with the pixel aspect ratio = 1.4587.
The jpg version of the Photoshop Elements document (.psd) 1050 x 576 pixels (square pixels) looked like:
And, when this Timeline was exported Publish+Share/Computer/AVI with the DV PAL Widescreen preset, there was no distortion in the export. It looked undistorted as it did before export.
So, unless I am overlooking a key point here, I cannot see a reason why you cannot use the video sources that you presented for sampling as weil as stills with the 1050 x 576 pixel dimensions.
The only time I see any distortion possibilities is if you use a player that does not recognize the 16:9 flag that stretches the 720 x 576 to 1050 x 576 for display after encoding.
Trying to convert Premiere Elements 12 which uses the 1.4587 pixel aspect ratio for PAL DV Widescreen into a Premiere Elements 7 which uses the 1.422 pixel aspect ratio for PAL DV Widescreen is up hill in spite of creative thinking on your side.
Please review and let me know if you are seeing another different from what I am reporting with the samples that you posted.
Thank you.
ATR

Exporting 1080i, Pixel Aspect Ratio Problems

Hello everyone,
I've been dealing with a lot of different format projects recently: SD, HDV 720-24P, and HDV 108050i.
For now, these projects are intended for internet delivery. I've not had too much problem exporting the SD and HDV 720-24P projects, but the HDV 108050i has been very frustrating.
When I export SD and HDV 720 in compressor, I set the pixel aspect ratios to NTSC and square, respectively. But when I try to set the pixel aspect ratio for the 1080i to "1080i 16:9" (which I believe is 1.333:1), it rejects my choice, choosing "default" instead. When compressor finishes exporting, my 1080i movie looks very squished horizontally.
The only success I have had is in exporting via Quicktime conversion, where I duplicate my compressor settings, but do nothing to the pixel aspect ratio (since there is no option to change it in quicktime, it seems). The movies I have exported with Quicktime have been fine. I don't know if it makes a difference, but when I try to export these 1080i clips, I am in the proper 1080i "easy setup."
I know almost nothing about this pixel aspect ratio business, but I believe it is the cause of my problems (since I am using the proper 16:9 aspect ratio for movie width x height).
My Questions:
1. If I am understanding the problem correctly, how do I get compressor to acknowledge the right pixel aspect ratio for my 1080i footage, rather than the incorrect "default"?
2. If am not understanding the problem correctly, what might be going on?
3. Can anyone point me to a useful resource about pixel aspect ratios? I've been searching the forums and online, and I thought I was getting a grip on things but it seems I am still way over my head. For example, what is the significance in Final Cut Pro of changing your viewer or canvas to not show square pixels? Do you need to format for square vs. non-square depending on the final delivery destination (not the source format)?
Thanks!
Message was edited by: Haberdasher

Sorry to bump, but any ideas?

Is pixel aspect ratio in TIFs not supported

Hallo,
I generated 200 TIFs with a Photoshop script that I wanted to use as slides in an Encore DVD project.
After importing the TIFs into Encore I recognized that the were too small. Though when I opened them in Photoshop they had the correct pixel aspect ratio for a PAL DVD and the correct size (720 x 576 pixels).
I then saved those TIFs as PSDs again and imported those into Encore. Suddenly they were shown in the correct width.
So my question is: Does Encore DVD not support pixel aspect ratio in TIFs?
Regards,
Christian Kirchhoff

Bill.
My Apologies.
What I mean is a Subpicture Highlight image, as used by Scenarist & Maestro and an option in DVD-Lab Pro.
Instead of importing a PSD, with all it's layers, what we do is this:
1 - Create a 720x480 0.9 PAR background image in Photoshop. This will be the background of the menu, and should be a full 24 bit colour image. Usually saved as a TIF file but in some apps can be a bitmap. Sonic insist on a TIF.
2 - Create the Subpicture Highlight image. This is what will become the button artwork. You have 4 colours:
White (Background)
Black (Main
Red (Highlight 1)
Blue (Highlight 2)
Save as a 2-bit indexed TIF file, with a maximum of 4 colours. Black must be 0,0,0 in RGB, same applies for other colors - they need to be pure colours.
3 - Create a button image if there are complex shapes in the SPHL. This will create the actual buttons. Not always needed, as you can also create buttons from the SPHL.
When I need to use these, I then load the external background, and import the SPHL over the top, and assign the buttons. Everything works really well doing this process. Not as elegant as a PSD import, I grant you - but a lot less room for error with "hidden" buttons etc.

Custom Pixel Aspect Ratio (After Effects CC 2014)

Hi All,
How do you create a custom Pixel Aspect Ratio for After Effects CC 2014. I need a PAR of 3.3, as it would help me solve a technical problem i've been having with projection mapping.
I've tried editing the Interpretation Rules.txt file which was hidden within the Users\Appdata\Roaming\Adobe\After Effects\13.1 Folder. To remove the last # so i can at least see that I can set up a custom PAR.
But it doesn't appear in the drop down menu when creating a comp, or interpreting footage.
I've also made the same change to the Interpretation Rules.txt file in the Premiere PRO CC 2014\Plug-ins\en_US\ folder.
And I've restarted my PC after changes just incase Media Core wasn't updating itself properly.
I can see the Custom PAR as an export option out of Media Encoder. But thats not what i need. I need to be able to correct a render which had a PAR of 3.3 without losing pixel information, much like an Anamorphic workflow.
Anyway, Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks!
Evan

Hi Rick,
You're right, it's no known PAR... completely arbitrary and custom to this particular job. I'll run you through my process.
I have a projection surface (a basketball court) Which needs to have content designed onto it which is viewable from one perspective point (camera 1) in the stadium. The problem is that Camera 1's viewing angle to the court is quite shallow.
This is what Camera 1 sees:
I will be generating like this for the surface so that it looks like a deep 3d surface from "camera 1"
Now, the problem is that when I perspective correct the renders to fit what the projector will be projecting from straight down. There isn't enough pixel information for the height of the image. Meaning the pixels will smear.
This is the image that would be projected from a top mounted projector to achieve the 3d effect from the image above, you can see the loss of information in the the height pixels.
My solution for getting more information into the height is to render out of our 3d packages with a Pixel Aspect Ratio of 3.3. This was the sweet spot I found to get enough pixel information to match the pixel output of the projectors.
The resulting render looks like this (note, the angle of the camera hasn't changed)
As you can see, there is more height detail now, which will mean that that last row of pixels will be remain fairly sharp.
So, at this point, I can render from my 3d applications, and conform to the projector dimensions, with very little information loss in the height of the projected image, and without compromising my 3d persepctive.
I'm using the plugin "Camera Mapper" to project this render onto a plane which gets me the full frame of the projector at the right resolution, 4608 x 2304
The tricky part how to composite elements into the scene in an intuitive way.
If i want a horse to look like its jumping through the scene from "camera 1", like this:
Then in the that contains all the information, It will look like this:
Now that's all well and good, but it'll be harder to create realistic looking effects from this view, because they'll all need to be stretched.
I'd like to retain all the image information and just view the comp as though it's squished down.
I imagine this could be done easily by changing the comp settings to a PAR of 3.3.
That way, all the pixel information remains, but i can design in a realistically proportioned composition.
I hope that gets you up to speed on my issue, and my request for a solution.
So, in summary. I'll I'm really looking for is a way to customise the PAR options so that I have a custom available that I can apply to this, and only this scene.
Does this makes sense?
Cheers,
Evan

Disable Pixel Aspect Ratio in CS2

On this site and other I've found info on this but nothing that's worked. I simply want to DISABLE the automatic Pixel Aspect Ratio preview adjustment so that when a file opens it works just like it did in Photoshop 7, it just opens.
When I open the images with which I'm dealing (nearly 10,000!) Photoshop displays it's dialog "Pixel aspect ration correction is for preview only and should be turned off for maximum image quality" yet I'm unable to find a way to disable this so that my operator's don't have to turn that off with every image!
On a couple of other sites I've found references (for CS and CS4) to deleting the preferences file "which will cause Adobe CS to re-create the preferences; therefore you can then choose NOT to correct the pixel aspect ratio for your images." But Photoshop simply rebuilds the preferences file and everything works the same way, I still don't see anywhere to disable it.
Seems amazing that there is no way to disable this. True?
Thanks for the help,
Ken

Well, I have to admit to "devolving" back to 7 after twice looking into this so I can't speak to the file size after making the aspect ratio square. I also did just a quick look at CS3 and didn't readily see any way of disabling it.
My biggest gripe is that if it can be done manually on a menu setting I would think it wouldn't be all that difficult to make it a setting that would work something like the color profiles, where you tell it not to bother with it at all. Being somewhat of a programmer myself I can understand (a little) what Adobe must be up against managing the code it must take to produce something like Photoshop and on top of that trying to satisfy a world (literally) of users. I'm pretty sure they did this due to the growing number of people working with video, but to outright make it the default after so long not bothering with it at all seems a little off base. Then again, maybe that's just in my little world. This isn't, however, the first time across Adobe's programs that I've said "why the heck would they make that the default!" Acrobat is my favorite for that.
Best of luck.
Ken

Changed H264 for Bly Ray settings to PAL, but "pixel aspect ratio" remains NTSC

I changed H264 for Bly Ray settings to PAL, but I can't change the "pixel aspect ratio" which remains NTSC. It remains grey and I can't find the way to unlock this.
What I miss?

It's a very strange behaviour. When I saw the template it was this way
Whereas, the preset put on the movie (in the batch window) became this way
Same of yours. I don't know why this happened... but I'm happy is the right way...

Pixel aspect and downrez to NTSC problem

Okay, I seem to have a complicated problem...
1. I have footage that was shot mostly at 1080p30 on an HVX200 (there is also some 720p60 here and there)
2. I am making an NTSC version, pan and scan, not letterbox, and have my sequence settings set using the standard DV NTSC preset.
3. I am also making a PAL version, also pan and scan, sequence settings are standard DV PAL preset.
4. I then export through Compressor:
NTSC Settings- Quicktime movie, photo-JPEG, full quality, proportions- 720x480, pix aspect ratio- NTSC CCIR601
PAL Settings- Quicktime movie, photo-JPEG, full quality, proportions- 720x576, pix aspect ratio- PAL CCIR601
Here's the problem- the final results are coming out wrong. NTSC clips look stretched wide, PAL clips look squished skinny. In QT, the aspect ratios both show some kind of "widescreen" effect. The NTSC shows the aspect as being "720x480 (640x480)" and PAL shows "720x576 (768x576)"
I know this won't be accepted for my final requirements. I need the aspects to simply be 720x480 and 720x576 without those dang parenthesis. Anybody know what I'm doing wrong?

flyingosockman wrote:
What I need are essentially NTSC and PAL DV files that are compressed with PhotoJPEG. I didn't know that the square pixels was part of the compressor, however, that's very interesting.
Basically my requirements are photoJPEG, 720x480 for NTSC and 720x576 for PAL.
That's like asking for soda, but without the carbonation.
Jokes aside, sometimes that is what you have to deliver.
To get back to your original issue, what you're seeing (the figures in parentheses, such as 640x480 for NTSC-DV) are the results of QuickTime's Conform Aperture property which interprets non-square pixels as square pixels for QT playback. If your movie were actually NTSC-DV (and not PhotoJPEG), it would look correct in QT Player.
I suspect whoever you're delivering to has ways to correct for the distortion that you're seeing in QT Player when they'll be outputting (to tape? to MPEG-2 stream?).
In other words, if those are the specs you've been given - 720x480 PhotoJPEG for NTSC, for instance - your outputs and workflow are correct.

Issues with Motion in Using Compressor for a PAL DVD

I am new to DVD Studio Pro and Compressor and am trying to create a DVD of a 50 minute PAL project that I made using FCP. I have found a couple tutorials on how to export my project using compressor to be compatible with DSP via pre sets (DVD: Best Quality 4:3) and actually manipulating the controls myself. I have found in using both techniques that during any scene with motion, the edges of the moving actor become blurred and grainy. The tutorials that I checked out I assume (since they were from the US) were for NTSC projects, is there any other considerations that I should make in compressing a PAL project, which might contribute to this graininess? Any ideas?
Any help would be much appreciated. I have included my settings from Compressor below.
Thanks.
Name: MPEG-2 6.2Mbps 2-pass 4:3
Description: Fits up to 90 minutes of video with Dolby Digital audio at 192 Kbps or 60 minutes with AIFF audio on a DVD-5
File Extension: m2v
Estimated file size: 273.48 MB
Type: MPEG-2 video elementary stream
Video Encoder
Format: M2V
Width: 720
Height: 576
Pixel aspect ratio: PAL CCIR 601
Crop: None
Frame rate: 25
Frame Controls: Off
Aspect ratio: 4:3
Field dominance: Bottom first
Average data rate: 6.2 (Mbps)
2 Pass VBR enabled
Maximum data rate: 7.7 (Mbps)
High quality
Best motion estimation
Closed GOP Size: 12, Structure: IBBP
DVD Studio Pro meta-data enabled

The general concepts are the same in terms of maintaining quality throughout the work process in terms of Codecs, exports etc.
As to the motion areas, compression markers in FCP can help in problem areas. What you should do is grab some of the problems sections and drop markers in there and encode them. Some of the frame controls can help, depending on source footage. What was the original material and cpautred/edited? Sometimes things in there can also give quality hits.
Lastly some things (like real black outfits on light backgrounds) can cause some edging issues which can take some work to clean up as much as possible...

How do I change a pixel aspect ratio from HD 1920x1080 frame rate 25 to NTSC 640x480 frame rate 29.97

I upload files to a tv channel, but for them to air, they need to have a NTSC 640x480 pixel aspect ratio with a frame rate of 29.97. I currently have a .mov file HD 1920x180 frame rate 25. I deleted the original unedited files so all I have is the .mov file. I need to make my file NTSC 640x408 frame rate 29.97
Thanks please answer ASAP

If you aren't entirely happy with the image quality you get from this in FCP. consider buying Compressor ($49). Down-converting from HD to SD often introduces artifacts. Compressor has a resize filter that does a good job of minimizing those artifacts.
Russ

Quicktime and PAL m2v Pixel Aspect Ratios

When I open any .m2v or MPEG2 video file I've created for PAL DVDs QuickTime Player Movie Inspector (or Show Movie Properties) indicates that the image size is 720 x 404 pixels instead of being 720 x 576.
This is regardless of the source encoder and I have used Sony Vegas on a Windows PC as well as Compressor on my Mac OSX system to create the files.
When I look at the same files in Windows they report the correct 720 x 576 pixels.
The DVDs play correctly and don't show any anomalies it seems that only QuickTime is reporting an incorrect image size
What is going on with QuickTime?
New Hope Media

Forgot to add that the source files for these were either completely PAL Anamorphic DV at 720 x 576 pixels or AVCHD at 1920 x 1080 which I down converted to SD PAL .m2v using Compressor and the PAL DVD preset which indicates the output file should be 720 x 576.
I can only assume that QuickTime isn't reporting the correct pixel sizes as the files properties show up as 720 x 576 in Windows
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DV-PAL pixel aspect ratio & Quicktime confusion...

Hi all,
Hoping someone can clarify some things for me! Here's the situation...
I'm extracting some clips from a DVD, for another editor to put together a showreel. The clips are all off the telly in 4:3. I extracted the clips using MPEG Streamclip, the Quicktime Export option and the Apple DV PAL codec 720 by 576.
First question - it offers me an 'unscaled' output option of 768 by 520. Why 768? Is this something to do with Quicktime only using square pixels and DV PAL video using rectangular?
Second question - Assuming the other editor will be using Final Cut to put the showreel together, which is the most convenient picture & pixel aspect ratio to provide the clips in? I know I can change the pixel a.r. if I drop the clips into a Final Cut timeline and fiddle with the sequence settings. Is that necessary or helpful?
I'm pretty sure the DV codec is the best to use for this exercise, but any thoughts welcome...
Cheers,
Ilan

It can be very confusing. Here's a great place to start....
http://documentation.apple.com/en/finalcutpro/usermanual/index.html#chapter=70%2 6section=13

I've been sent a scan of a document as an attachment. Clicking on it, I get the message, "Pixel aspect ration correction is for preview purposes only. Turn it off for maximum image quality." What is pixel aspect ration and how do I turn it off?

I've been sent a scan of a document as an attachment. Clicking on it, I get the message, "Pixel aspect ration correction is for preview purposes only. Turn it off for maximum image quality." What is pixel aspect ration and how do I turn it off?

It's "aspect ratio", not aspect "ration".
It's what determines whether you have square pixels ("normal") or, if rectangular pixels, what the aspect ratio (width : length) of that rectangle is.
It's explained in the Help files. I cannot go into more detail because you have neglected to provide information about your platform and exact version of Photoshop.
Example in next post

Pixel Aspect & Compressor for PAL going to NTSC

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