Why 16x9 is letterboxed on my HD TV

I don't understand why my SD 16x9 projects become letterboxed on my HDTV after they are burnt to DVD?
Why don't they use the full screen?
Am I doing something wrong or is that the way they are?

Are you setting you DVD Player or TV to force letterbox?

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Missing from the "Missing Manual"; any ideas on this one?

Greetings Wizards, Gurus, Freakazoids, and anyone else willing to share their wisdom,
I recently upgraded to iMovieHD (5.0.2) and have come across a few anomolies; some harmless and some downright debilitating (and stupid, I might add), for instance:
What is this @%#$ "Updating Files - This could take awhile" message?! It interrupts every process. Sometimes it's just during an edit, but earlier today it interrupted a capture and blew the whole clip (it was a 10 minute clip for time lapse). I had to go back and start over.
Fortunately, it didn't take "awhile", but in previous sessions it really did. Sometimes 5 minutes or more. What is this process and how can one avoid/work around it?
Perhaps related, perhaps not, but I was working with large clips today (for a time-lapse project; many 5 - 10 minutes long) and found that it was nearly impossible to scrub through these clips without invoking the Spinning Beachball Of Death. Now I'm guessing that it may have something to do with a really long clip being scrubbed too fast, but here's the issue: I have a 2.5GHz DP G5 and it can't seem to handle the same thing I was able to do with my trusty old 450MHz G4 running iMovie 3.03. I've never had problems like this. In addition, it doesn't seem to depend on length; I can scrub 10 minute clips fine and then it'll hang up on a 6 minute clip. Next I'll try a 12 minute clip - no luck. However, it always has problems with the same clips.
And they call this an upgrade?!......don't even get me started on the whole "non-destructive editing" thing....
Any ideas?
In the immortal words of James Brown,
Please, Please, Please, Please,..........help a brother out.
Thanks,
Chris
PPC G4 450, 768 MB RAM + G5 2.5DP, 512 MB RAM Mac OS X (10.3.9)

Wow. That's brutal. I think I would have scratched my eyes out by then.....
We do our own letterboxing, so we shoot 4:3 with tape over the monitor (or the camera's LCD - really) and frame for that. (we call it "ghettoboxing" - I suppose we'll have to stop calling it that at some point.)
Anyway, it's easier to deal with in post because we never have to worry about squeezing or unsqueezing, etc. It always looks right, and well, there's a certain amount of caché when one walks around with a $4000 camera with tape stuck all over the monitor....
Even classier, I have a china marker in the edit suite so I can draw the lines on the monitor and line up the letterboxing. Nothing but the best for our clients....."Wait, we have clients?! Where?!"
If you've got a lot of clips it can be a drag, but I usually select a screen-length's worth in the timeline and render the letterbox on all at the same time, scrub forward and do it again to the next batch. The settings usually stay the same from the last time you used the effect, so it works out.
The more I think about it, the more I think it has something to do with the drop-frame time code. I don't think the Quicktime engine is able to deal with it effectively, especially if there are dropouts on the tape. Which in this case, ther seemed to be on a couple of clips.
Not sure why 16x9 would cause an issue, unless it's somesort of rendering or conversion issue. When you view your clips back onscreen, are they squeezed, or does IM accomodate the format and stretch the preview monitor?
- Chris
PPC G4 450, 512 MB RAM + G5 2.5DP, 512 MB RAM Mac OS X (10.3.7)

What export format for best resolution and 4:3 aspect ratio

Team,
I am putting together a DVD for my son's hockey season. It is a mixture of Livetype stuff, imported DV clips (Not HD), and using a program called Photo To Movie for my photo montage's.
I have about 2 mins of livetype stuff, and about 2 mins of an export from "Photo to movie" in iMovie DV (NTSC) format
Now I'm doing a few dry runs to see if this newbie can get this to DVD using iDVD. Now when I burn it, and I play it on a standard DVD player on a standard 4:3 ratio TV, I'm seeing a black bar on the top and on the bottom.
The only way I get those bars to go away is if I export from FCE in Streaming DV format (export using quicktime options and choosing DV Streaming (then imported into iDVD), but I'm feeling my quality is lower as a result. Am I off here? Is there a format that has high export quality .
I'm new to mac, and am not accustomed to "Exporting" and "Importing" and maybe I'm screwing something up during those events. I just think my video quality may be suffering because I can only get DV Streaming to not have the black bars when burning with iDVD.
Any advice would be appreciated asap.
Thanks!

I'm exporting from FCE and I then use it in iDVD. My brain is fried, and I may have not been clear on the following: I export from FCE using File => use quicktime conversions.
Now when I export to straight-up Quicktime (not use quicktime filters), and then take that Quicktime file into iDVD it gives me a "Widescreen Preview" and when I take the next step and burn to DVD and play on a 4:3 aspect TV it comes out with the black bar on top and bottom (Which I believe is letterbox?)
So that being said, I'm at a loss as to why there are letterboxes in iDVD.
Thanks in advance.
Message was edited by: Skatingskis
I found something close. http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=5924938&#5924938
It appears they are going from "Photo to Movie" straight into iDVD and having a similar issue. The big difference is that I'm using FCE before I go to iDVD.

Setting output aspect ratio

I have a jpeg background with 1080p video scaled down to 16.2% overlayed over it. It also has a powerpoint (jpeg) overlayed on it. The final product is an instructor to the right of the powerpoint discussing his presentation. Everything is square pixels (1.0). My sequence is set to 996x625 the same size of the background .jpg. I need to output it to .mp4. in two sizes. When I set the height in my output settings to 996 and leave it set to maintain the aspect ratio, Premiere changes it to 996x560 and adds vertical letterbox. If I unlink the aspect ratio and change the width to 625 I get a message "Invalid frame size/frame rate for this level. Please lower the video bounds or frame rate, or increase the level and profile and try again"
I also wanted to make a second version reduced by 1/3 which is 664x374. Premiere allows that size, but adds letterboxing. If I am in the same ratio as the original I don't understand why it is letterboxed.
thank you

Projects to tend to go sideways at some point when using oddball sizing...best to stick with some sort of standard if at all possible, not just a random set of dimensions. Video encoders work on video content in blocks (matrixes) and odd numbers just don't fit into that world, as Jim stated.
Perhaps you could create a 720p sequence, copy the content of your curent sequence into it, and rework things a bit to fit? That will also then provide a smooth pathway to smaller "standard" encoding sizes such as 640x360.
Thanks
Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers

White iPad users: is the white frame distracting?

I love the look of the white iPad but I'm just wondering, when you are watching video, particularly in a dim environment, is the white frame around the screen distracting? I'm thinking maybe it makes more sense to have a black screen just for visual comfort....?

"The white bezel looks good, aesthetically — very similar to the infamous white iPhone 4s that I played with after last year’s WWDC keynote. But, I found the white bezel distracting. With the black, the frame disappears from mind when you’re using the iPad. With the white, it always seemed like I was looking at a white frame around the screen. There’s a reason why movies are letterboxed with black bars, not white ones, and why most TVs are framed by black." (Source)

Front Row and 4:3 Aspect Ratio

Hi,
I love Front Row (upgraded to 1.01), it just has one flaw that makes it bad for movies. I have a 16:9 aspect Cinema Display, and whenever I want to watch 4:3 DivX movies, I want to stretch their aspect ratio to 16:9 so they fill the screen, but Front Row (so, Quicktime Player) doesn't offer this, or does it?
Other freeware players like VLC and Mplayer can do this, but they don't work with Front Row.
Is there a setting that will stretch the source material?

I'm exporting from FCE and I then use it in iDVD. My brain is fried, and I may have not been clear on the following: I export from FCE using File => use quicktime conversions.
Now when I export to straight-up Quicktime (not use quicktime filters), and then take that Quicktime file into iDVD it gives me a "Widescreen Preview" and when I take the next step and burn to DVD and play on a 4:3 aspect TV it comes out with the black bar on top and bottom (Which I believe is letterbox?)
So that being said, I'm at a loss as to why there are letterboxes in iDVD.
Thanks in advance.
Message was edited by: Skatingskis
I found something close. http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=5924938&#5924938
It appears they are going from "Photo to Movie" straight into iDVD and having a similar issue. The big difference is that I'm using FCE before I go to iDVD.

16:9 footage being letterboxed on widescreen tv. Why?

Footage shot in 16x9.
Edited in fcp in a 16x9 sequence setting.
Exported the movie and put in to compressor.
Encoded at 90min, best, 16x9.
Put in to dvdsp and menu and video is 16x9 letterbox, not pan/scan or anything else.
Video plays on 4:3 tv with letterbox.
Video plays on widescreen tv (two different tv's) with letterbox.
This just isn't right, but I can't figure it out. Thank you in advance

You can try a reinstall of the software (make sure to remove the receipts) and also you can try a new user first.
1.) Which players were you trying this on and did Apple DVD Player change to 16:9?
2.) If the DVD SP Pro screen switched to 16:9 then it is working properly and could be the player you are trying. Sounds like it did not switch to 16:9 when you opened it in Apple DVD Player?
3.) Also when did you set 16:9 Letterbox on the track itself and not as a general default?
Could be wrong, but do not recall this issue coming up before if the settings in Final Cut, the encodes and DVD SP were correct (people have had improper settings before.) It is computer software and things can get bugs, but it is worth looking. The project open up from the build file DID NOT open properly in Apple DVD Player? - which is why yu said you had drop downs?
If you can say exactly the workflow, from original source footage, settings in Final Cut, the exact version of DVD SP, your OS it may show where it is falling apart, other than a general issue with DVD SP (since it seems not 16:9 ever worked properly for you?)
1.) Running OS 10.4.11 on a PowerBook G4 733 (yes?) It could be the computer maybe out of spec for the version of DVD SP....
2.) Running Final Cut Suite/Studio version with Final Cut xxx (???) on the system
3.) The original material is x capture on a x camera as x type of footage
4.) Captured (how)
5.) Edited in a Final Cut sequence with the following settings:
6.) Exported from Final Cut as self contained/reference movie at what settings version
7.) Ran through Compressor and bitVice with the following settings
8.) Bought into DVD SP (which exact version)
9. Set the track itself to 16:9 Letterbox?
10.) Built project and it did or did not open in 16:9 prior to burning.
11.) If it played back properly at 16:9, then burned to what brand DVD
12.) Tried it on Brand and models of DVD Players and television, with proper settings on both TV and DVD Player (check settings)
Some of the things, like brand of media, probably would not affect this issue.
Have you tried a 16:9 project in iDVD with a small portion of the footage that is exported from Final Cut Pro and does that work properly? (You can make a disc image in iDVD and mount with disk utility and play in Apple DVD Player?)

16x9 HD FCP Quicktime Export to 4x3 with Letterbox in Compressor

Okay I'm sorry if this has been posted on here, but I've searched a bunch of post and no one seemed to answer this the way I need it done.
First I have a 16x9 HD file that was edited in FCP and rendered out to a "Quicktime Movie" (the one that renders it out to your timeline specs with no compression).
I then want to take this file and put it in Compressor. Because I want to give Compressor the best version of the file. I now want to render out a Quicktime H.264 file to 4x3 with a 16x9 letterbox. Meaning I DO NOT WANT TO CROP the image, but rather keep the 16x9 aspect ratio using black bars above and bellow the video to deliver a 4x3 SD video file.
I've played with a variety of settings and have had no luck. I
I've used the "Geometry Tab" and played with "Source Insert (Cropping) and Padding, but it always distorts the image.
I also have tried the "Letterbox" option in the "Filters" tab with no luck.
I find it hard to believe that this cannot be done in Compressor. So if someone could please walk me through this in Compressor I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks for reading!

I did change those settings, but the section in the geometry tab that I need to change is still grayed...
Yes but the setting had changed as need right?
and the preview window shows the dimensions still at 16x9.
Switch between source settings and preview settings view (using the two buttons at top right of the preview window) and it should refresh the preview display correctly.
I don't understand why I things have to be grayed out. I wish I could have full control over everything.
Am not conversant enough with Compressor to answer as to the why Stew, it may be that it really is possible to enable the setting by some specific method ... but I appreciate your point that the controls as they appear to exist are not intuitive in this regard, display controls for frame size but making you switch to another tab to actually change those settings is bizarre ... but nonetheless you DO have the control over these settings, and that's the main thing.
Best
Andy

Need to convert 16X9 to 4:3 letterbox for DVD

Hello
Can anyone tell me the settings I need to convert 16X9 to 4:3 letterbox for DVD. I am mixing other 4:3 letterbox content. Evertime I make an mpeg with Quicktime conversion it is squeezed. I want it to be letterbox in 4:3
Thanks in advance.
I am using Final Cut Pro 4.5 and DVD pro 3
Regards,
Dana Gonzales

In addition to using the advice above, make sure in Compressor (or other item you use to encode) that you are using the 16:9 encode ratio. If you are using QT conversion (which it sounds like from Final Cut?) also make sure that ratio is checked. Unlike a 4:3 m2v which will be 720 x 480 when you open it in QT, the 16:9 will be 720 x 404

Why is iMovie 6.0.3 vertically letterboxing clips that were created at 360x180?

I'm trying to import stock clips from istockphoto.com and some will import at that resolution, others are importing with vertical letterboxes as though they were PAL or NTSC, squashing the image vertically. I've tried starting with DV Widescreen and both HDV options that iMovie HD gives me.
Is there a workaround for this bug that I can't find after hours of scouring the web? Is there another iMovie version I can upgrade to with at 10.4.11 OS ? I realize my OS is practically ancient in computer time (4 years!!!) but I have no Intel processor. If you haven't passed out yet from my outdatedness, any helpful help would be appreciated.
Can anyone help? Please?
Thank you!

Hi, Bengt,
+I think there is a difference between 6.0.3 and 6.0.4. Had problems with 0.3 after+
+installing iLife08 that was OK after 6.0.4 up-grade. (PPC dG5)+
That's why I said 'reportedly.'
I think you are correct. I, too, am suspicious of a difference, and I also downloaded version 6.0.4. I did the download as soon as I saw it on Apple's site after getting my new iMac.
I did have the prior iM6 version that I ported over from my old iMac, too. I am sure that I transferred all my old stuff before downloading 6.0.4, but I didn't run into any problems with it not installing.
Regards,
Beverly

Is there any way to export 2.35 Anamorphic source to a 16x9 letterboxed frame WITH timecode or text overlays?

I have been trying to export temp cuts of an anamorphic project (2.35:1) in a letterboxed 16:9 frame with timecode and text overlays and other Additional Video Effects. Converting the 2.35 to 16x9 has been a breeze with the Preserve Aspect Ratio option in Cropping & Padding . The problem is that the black bars that that puts in the 16:9 frame appear OVER any of the Additional Video Effects, thus covering them up.
E.g. if I select a Text Overlay and place it in the Center, I can see it just fine. But if I want it Upper Left, Title Safe, it is covered by the black space of the Letterboxing. So the Additional Video Effects are getting added, they are just getting covered by the letterboxing. You can even see the very edge of the text in the Title Safe position, peeking out from behind the letterboxing, which is, of course, frustrating .
Thus far it's been a two-step process: letterbox the anamorphic source, then add TC and other video effects in a second job.
So - is there any way to do this in ONE step? It would really help my anamorphic workflow.
(apologies for the lengthy question.)
[I'm using FCPX 10.1.3 & Compressor 4.1.3, in OSX 10.9.5 on Retina MBP, Late 2013, w/ NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M 2048 MB]

Thanks for the reply Russ.
Yes, I've considered adding titles and/or generators in the FCPX storyline, but this creates a need to render the entire timeline. As I'm juggling library locations and hard drive spaces I just didn't want to add a new render that will occupy a lot of space. It's also a bit of visual clultter for me, so my goal is to find the best workflow for adding this stuff on or after export.

Why are exported movies letterboxed?

I'm looking at the video clips I imported into my computer, and they are the same aspect ratio as my screen, filling it up when I choose to play it in Full Screen. However, once I put the video in Premiere and then export it, the video becomes letterboxed, both vertically and horizontally, so that when I play Full Screen, the video is smaller and surrounded by a black frame.
Why does it do this? And how do I change it so that it stops letterboxing my movies? Any help would be appreciated.
PS I don't really know if this is still considered letterboxing.

When I started the project I just took whatever the default settings were, which as I'm checking now is NTSC-DV-Standard 48kHz. I'm looking more into it since you suggested this, so I'll let you know if I find anything else.
As for how I got the video. It's from my Canon Vixia HG20. I imported them to my computer first, and then used Premiere to take the files that were already in my computer. As I stated in this thread: http://forums.adobe.com/message/3360868#3360868 , I couldn't import directly from the camcorder to Premiere.

Exporting 16x9 Without Black Letterbox

Hi everyone--
I would like to export a 16x9 video as a quicktime without the black letterbox. Is there anyway to do this? All exports I have tried export the video in a 4x3 frame with black letterboxing.
Thanks!

Was the material letterboxed *in the camera* and edited on a 4:3 timeline?
or
Was it shot as 16:9 (aka anamorphic ) and edited on a 4:3 timeline?
If the first instance, Andy's solution of cropping is the only way to go.
If the second instance, put your material in a 16:9 sequence to edit it.
x

Crop 16x9 into 3x2 (not letterbox) without losing quality

I created a beautiful HVDVD_TS video that does not play on most VCR's.
I want to crop the width off each edge (not letterbox). I was successful in cropping off the edges in QT, but I lost quality (colors less vibrant). What is the best work flow?
In the FC forum, I tried two suggestions but both created an elongated video (16x9 squashed into a 3x2 despite using frame controls):
1. For the best quality encode, put it through Compressor, select DVD Best Quality 90 mins and turn on Frame Controls in the Inspector. Then import it into DVD Studio Pro.
2. Encode in Compressor using the SD DVD 16:9 preset.

One could convert the Text to a Smart Object and then apply the Distortion or Warp.
If the result appears pixelated one could open the SO and increase the resolution, which should alleviate the problem somewhat.
Edit: In CS3 the perspectival transformation for SOs is not directly available, but can be simulated with Warp.
A further option would be creating a Layer with a Vector Mask from the Text (Layers – Type – Convert to Shape; best done on a duplicate of the original text layer) and transform that; this would maintain sharp edges at the price of losing text-editability.

Premiere Pro project setup and exporting 16x9 to 4:3 letterbox

I need to export a 16x9, 720/30p CS3 project, for final viewing on a 4:3 projector in letterbox. *This project is about to kick off with a VERY short deadling and the shooters keep changing their mind about whether they're going to shoot in 720/30p or 720/60p. I need to plan for both to be safe. How will this effect things in my original 16x9 project setup if they give me both 720/30p and 720/60p video? And what about exporting for letterbox viewing in 4:3 if this occurs? I mean, if I start a project in 720/30p with CS3 and they bring me 720/60p video as well as 720/30p video, will I have to start a new project and start editing everything all over again, and vice versa? Also, how will this effect my final letterboxed 16x9 product? **I also have to provide this to the customer in 16x9 DVD format.

Sorry, but you are at the wrong forum. The Premiere forums are here:
http://forums.adobe.com/community/premiere
This one is only for discussions on the forums themselves.

Why 16x9 is letterboxed on my HD TV

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