Widescreen (16:9) format

When I import video from my Sony DCR-HC24E camcorder which is set to widescreen (16:9) it does not appear in iMovie as widescreen. Instead the image is elongated vertically. How can I cepture the widescreen version that I have recorded and ensure that it stays widescreen on my final burn to disc? I have heard the expression "letterboxing" - is this of any help to me and how could I achieve it? These may seem stupid questions but I am absolutely brand new to iMovie - a novice in other words. Thanks and best regards to you all, Huguenot

Thanks, Lee. I have now followed your advice and tried that but although it gives me a widescreen moniotr panel in iMovie, it imports as a coventional 4:;3 format, leaving the sides of the screen blank. Then a strange thing happened - it expanded the image to fill but now the image is stretched horizontally. Next, when I attempted to import more clips from the camcorder I got a message saying the project is incompatible with the camcorder. I am now tearing my hair out because I am totally lost. Help! What on earth can I do now, apart from pouring myself a large Scotch?!
regards
Huguenot
Mac Mini Mac OS X (10.4.4)

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YouTube Widescreen PAL DV Format - Right Setting?

This is not a question, but having seen a few postings here in the forum (and in YouTube Help) I thought it might be useful to publish my own findings in order to help others looking to place PAL Widescreen 16:9 DV Format 720x576 onto YouTube.
I have just spent 12 hours doing battle with the codecs in AME (Adobe Media Encoder) and what appeared to be a very unco-operative YouTube. I have read and re-read the topics on the subject still not knowing what the right setting is for DV PAL Widescreen 16:9 720x576 ( if there really is a definitive setting). What's more the instructions to leave the output the same as the input (in my case) proved to be way off beam. Hopefully, I can save someone their hair and and a night without sleep.
The material:
PAL Widescreen 16:9 DV Format 720x576 shot on a Sony HVR-ZE in DV SP. A small amount of material was shot in HD but down-converted (via the camera) to DV 16:9 format (no artifacts are visible in the final). Editing was in AVI with a number of renders for colour balance, levels, audio et al. News-type item running about 2 mins.
The Codec:
Like most, I went to the AME presets and started with Windows Media Video, always a safe bet I thought, and selected PAL Widescreen Source to High Quality Output (well you would, wouldn't you?), and besides the file size will be quite reasonable. Nope, YouTube didn't like that one bit - extremely poor definition, stretched and quite sick looking, even though the Windows Media Player loved it - correct aspects and quality.
After about an hour of fiddling, I then moved to H.264. I'd had success with PAL DV 4:3 aspects and learned that you must keep the output the same as the input - and what's more there are YouTube presets SD & HD. Again no luck, still quite awful and not a scratch on my edited final. But the Quicktime player (like the Wiundows Media Player) loved it. So those presets were out too. What followed was a long night trying different combinations of presets, aspects and just about everythinjg I could think of.
The Solution (for me):
Without getting into the aspect ratio debate of square pixels which has been well covered by more knowledgable persons than I, it was simply working through the issue which brought the light on.
What I had in effect from the DV format was not 720x576 which I stuck to throughout based upon passed experience, but 1440 by virtue of it being widescreen. So clutching nothing more than that concept the following morning (after some sleep) and recognising that YouTube looked like it was stretching the 720 format I went to H.264 and the 1440x1080i 25 High Quality preset. I thought if the YouTube player wants to stretch my 720x576 format then I thought let's see what it makes of a bigger mouthful to chew on. Also having got quite tired of waiting for the entire item to upload eveytime, I made a widescreen test project (DV PAL Widescreen 16:9) with just three shots in it.
On my first test of 1440x1080i 25 High Quality preset, Aspect Ratio: Square Pixels, Progressive, I uploaded to YouTube. Success! So I quickly set about uploading my main project - but no - it looked absolutely rubbish again - what is going on? GSpot gave no indications as to a problem (in fact I find this piece of software quite unhelpful with its false positives).
I uploaded my test project again, and the result was poor - again! Poor definition, like it had the wrong aspect setting.
I decided to close Premiere Pro and then start it up. Went into the test project and saved with the settings above (as they were the only ones that gave me success after hours of trying many others), but one thing I was careful not to do was to click around the settings - straight in and do it! Uploaded, and success again! Now I had my benchmark - and what's more, after a few minutes I saw the YouTube HD button come up and the HD tag alongside my video entry. I downloaded the MP4 file using the YouTube "Download" button - now I felt I was getting somewhere as this was my "control" sample.
I went through the same process with my main project - reloaded it into PP4 and set the settings H.264, 1440x1080i 25 High Quality preset, Aspect Ratio: Square Pixels, Progressive, in AME and started the queue. The total file for a 1min 40sec item was about 176MB. I uploaded to Youtube.
After about 10 minutes YouTube said "Live". I played the video - rubbish! But wait. The video started to improved on my next play - infact, after about 5 minutes the video was looking great. After 15 minutes or so the HD button came up. Hooray! I have my project on YouTube in the quality as near as to how it was shot.
Whether YouTube had been going through some HD issues at the time I have no idea; whether AME had really selected the right settings even though it said it had, or whether I had not given YouTube time to fully process, all I know is that I now have a repeatable solution to uploading DV PAL Widescreen to YouTube which reproduces my video as near to the original as it will be. But most important, if you are uploading a very large file, allow YouTube time to fully process the video. Often YouTube says "Live" but is still processing. The processing time can go on long after the "Live" message comes up.
Hope this helps someone else?

the DV format was not 720x576 which I stuck to throughout based upon passed experience, but 1440 by virtue of it being widescreen.
As a point of interest, anamorphic PAL DV translates to 1024 x 576 in square pixels. 1440 is the HD anamorphic equivalent.

PAL Widescreen format between photoshop and After Effects

Hi, I wonder if someone else has bumped into the problem I have and has a solution. I am working with Photoshop, After Effects and Premiere Pro(all CS3 levels) to create a project using still and moving images. I am using PAL widescreen (16:9) format for the first time so have cropped my still images in Photoshop to 1024 x 576 pixels. Starting a new project in After Effects I chose PAL/Widescreen and set the resolution to 1024x576. When I bring in my images and drop them to the timeline they have the same height as the AE screen but are significantly shorter than the displayed 1024 pixel size. If I drop the images into Premiere they will size to 1024 x 576. Am I doing something drastically wrong here ?

Just to add to this, I am confused over exactly what is happening inside
After Effects with regard to interpreting PAL footage!
When you go to the Compositions Settings dialogue box there are two Presets
on the drop down list for non-square pixels; PAL D1/DV and PAL D1/DV
Widescreen.
Both comps are 720 x 576 pixels.
However when you go to the drop down list for Pixel Aspect Ratio the two
options there for non-square pixels are PAL D1/DV (1.09) and PAL D1/DV
Widescreen (1.46)
According to my calculations:
PAL 4:3 in square pixels = 768 x 576 (768 / 4 * 3 = 576)
Doing the maths the Pixel Aspect Ratio rounds up to 1.07 not 1.09
768 / 720 = 1.06666666667
PAL 16:9 in square pixels = 1024 x 576 (1024 /16 * 9 = 576)
Again doing the maths the Pixel Aspect Ratio rounds up to 1.42 not 1.46
1024 / 720 = 1.42222222222
If the Pixel Aspect Ratios given are correct then the Width of both
Compositions should be 704 not 720!
768 / 704 = 1.0909090909 which rounds up to 1.09
1024 / 704 = 1.454545454545 which rounds up to 1.46
Using the preset comp Width with the preset Pixel Aspect Ratios doesn't seem
to add up or am I missing something fundamental here?
Perhaps I should just import the footage using whatever Pixel Aspect Ratio
into a PAL comp with square pixels and then just use the fit to comp command
to make sure it really does fit!
John (aka Jack)

Widescreen (16:9) to 4:3

I accidentally took footage in widescreen (16:9) format. I want to import it into a 4:3 project. Is it better to tell it to interpret footage as 16:9, and then scale it, just tell it to interpret footage as 16:9, or just import it into the timeline as is?
Thanks.

Try both. You may need to interpret footage to obtain correct PAR

Exporting widescreen

I figured out how to edit my movie in widescreen 16:9 format in FCE, but when I export it to quicktime, it makes it an anamorphic 4:3. How do I export it and preserve the 16:9 format?

Does the footage look ok from within FCE4?
Is the footage captured DV or HDV?
If not, did you use the "Easy Settings" to configure for the right capture.
i.e. anamorphic such as the DV-PAL Anamorphic, assuming you are using PAL here.
What about your sequence, does it have the anamorphic checked?
What are you export to???
On export (as Movie) from FCE4 it will play in QT as 4:3 until you change the width to 1024.
Exporting as a conversion is a little bit more fiddle, you should be able to do it and change the aspect or dimensions.
If i creating an iPod size version the workflow is different for as I use my Elgato software and device to get it right. Typically for 16:9 footage 480x270 and for 4:3 480x320.
Message was edited by: peterjohndean

Converting .dv Files to Widescreen

Half of the footage was exported onto a hard drive in a widescreen or anamorphic format. I've tried looking at the properties in the browser to see exactly which, it says that the clip is 1440 x 1080. The other half of the footage is in a standard format (also 1440 x 1080?) and does not match up. How do you convert into widescreen format or vice versa?

lol
cmd is a modifier key :
cmd = press the command (apple) key ... the one immediately to the left of the space bar
opt = press the option (alt) key ... the one immediately to the left of the command key
ctrl = press the control key ... the one immediately to the left of the option key
shift = press the shift key ... (not press s-h-i-f-t)
cmd-9 is the keyboard shortcut for Edit menu *> Item Properties > Format...*

How to burn widescreen

Hello All !!
Our camera operator forgot to tell us that he shot a wedding in 16:9.
So we captured and Edited in FCP 5.0 using the standard 4:3 Aspect ratio.
Bear with us we are newbies.
Anyway, when we burned to a DVD & played it on a standard TV the people are squished & look tall & thin.
Someone told us to click the timeline in FCP, go to "sequence" settings and check the ANAMORPHIC Box.
We did that and the display window on the computer screen "looks" wide, however when we exported using quicktime conversion and burned to a DVD, The DVD no longer shows up on a standard TV looking WIDE.
How can we get our FCP Timeline to burn a DVD IN WIDESCREEN 16:9 FORMAT?
Whew !! we use iDVD to burn DVD'S
Or if anyone has a better plan any help much appreciated !!

we use iDVD to burn DVD'S
Which version of iDVD? This is the iDVD 4 and earlier forum. If you are in the correct forum for your version of iDVD, I suggest you purchase iLife '06 to get iDVD 6.

FCE Widescreen?

Hi,
I'm a bit of a new user to FCE as oppose to other video editing programs, and I was wondering how I make the Canvas into a widescreen 16:9 format so when I export my videos there are no black bars on the top and bottom of the video during playback in Quicktime.
Thanks,
Alex

how did u do it ? : )
jojos

Alien movie - fullscreen or widescreen

Can someone tell me if Alien movie by ridley scott is really fullscreen download and not widescreen? The format shows Fullscreen in iTunes. Surely it is actually widescreen. Thanks.

It's mislabeled. I had the same question, but just bought the original 1979 cut and it's widescreen.

AVI to DVD using iDVD cuts off sides of the movie

I have various avi movies and while trying to burn them to DVD using iDVD I have been experiencing the following problem: The left, right, top and bottom of the movie are cut off (imagine putting two layers of duct tape on you screen making your screen smaller and then watching a movie on it).
I have a widescreen TV and have tried both the widescreen and standard format with little success. The only difference in on the standard version I can see the entire menu (in the wide screen version, oddly enough, the screen is cut off).
Is there something on iDVD I can do to adjust the ratio to shrink the movie to fit the screen, or do I have to format the movie somehow before bringing it into iDVD.
I appreciate any advice or help anyone can offer.

The problem with that is the green screen I get if I add it to the slide show.
That's the first time I've heard of that. Thanks for the feedback. There's are two possible workarounds if you want to try them:
1 - open the movie in Quicktime Player and export as full quality DV and use that in the slideshow.
2 - if you've installed Perian on your Mac uninstall it, save the iDVD project as a disk image and see if the green is still there or not.
There's a third way, with Quicktime Pro and an Applescript, to mask the movie so that it will be in the TV Safe area. If you find you want to try post back.
OT

New 16:9 movie and how to export it

Hy
I have to create a new movie for widescreens 16:9 format, and even If I tryed several times I don't have any success. So please advice me what I'm doing wrong
When I'm creating a new project I'm setting a new preset with these settings:
Editing Mode : DV NTSC
Timebase : 29.97 frames/seccond
Video : Frame size 720x480 ( I'm not able to chenge these settings
Pixel aspect Ratio: D1/DV NTSC Widescreen 16:9(1.2)
Display Format : 30fps Drop-Frame Timecode
Now for the export I need a movie that can be played on a DivX Player that can support mpeg format or even an avi format.
First I tryed directly from Export -> Movie but the file is too larger and is not suported by the DVD players
Seccond I tryed to export it using Adobe Encode but the only suported format are FLV Quick Time, RealMedia and Windows Media. As far as I know the DVD player is not suporting these formats.
What are your suggestions ?

Ok I understand, but anyway, during the development, I diddn't solved the problem with the real 16:9 format.
Because when I'm creating a new project I'm setting Widescreen 16:9 but I can't change the dimmnesions from 720x480 to 852x480. How can I do that ?
Also the exported file is 14:9
Regards

Premiere Pro CC does not open MOD files correctly

Hi,
I just started using the Adobe Creative Cloud as a trial, in particular the Premiere Pro CC software, since it might be relevant, I am working on a mac (completely updated as of yesterday).
I have a JVC GZ-MG505 camcorder. This device saves the video files on an internal HDD in a file format called MOD. From what I have been able to see when searching on the web, this should be nothing more than a MPEG-2 file.
So, I tried importing some video files into Premiere Pro and to my surprise, I noticed that a whole strip on the right hand side of the image is missing. The original is recorded in a widescreen (16:9) format with 720x576 pixels and Premiere Pro gives me a file with 540x576 pixels. I have tried using the Interpret Footage to change this, but it doesn't let me change the number of pixels. I also tried opening the files in Adobe Media Encoder and I have exactly the same results as in Premiere Pro. However, opening the files in VLC or mPlayer they come out exactly as expected with all the pixels there. Has anyone come accross this problem before or can anyone help me with solving this?
I could try reencoding the files with VLC, but the output file is much smaller than the input file, so I am afraid I am loosing some definition.
So, just to restate my problem, the adobe products open my MOD files without complaining, but for some reason they loose a strip 180 pixels wide on the right hand side of the image.
Cheers

Premiere Pro CC does not open MOD files correctly
That is correct: there is a bug in CC. In CS6 they work correctly.
Please file a bug report.
http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/mmform/index.cfm?name=wishform
http://forums.adobe.com/message/5658455#5658455
search for mod files and you will find one or two other threads.

Black bars alongside video+squished aspect ratio on export

I'm trying to get my import/export settings right--I keep getting black bars and a squished or stretched image when my videos export. Since Elements doesn't read MOD I've been using miro to convert, which doesn't like to export to mp4 all that well to begin with (which furthers my diagnosis problems.) I don't know anything about video image->pixel size (nor can I find anything online that makes sense to me) and canon's website doesn't tell me what my camera is shooting in in those terms, but I've been using the widescreen format--what is that size?? I'm not sure if this problem is because of defaulting project settings on import (Elements not picking up on the proper format and defaulting to something else), an exporting problem (I've tried all the different settings under publish+share>computer>mpeg4 and quicktime>NTSC DVD standard and widescreen, as well as every other export option I can think of), or a conversion problem (why doesn't Elements accept MOD to begin with? Final Cut 7 does no problem!) Everything looks good in the editing process, plays fine etc.
Is this a simple fix? The videos play fine in quicktime, but VLC catches the bars, which makes me think it's a simple solution to a complex diagnosis. Please help, thanks.
CAMERA:
canon FS200
MOD file format (raw file image/pixel size is not shown, can't find it)
mac OS.10.8.3
Elements 11.0
Miro converter 3.0

stockdizzle66
Thanks for the update.
Let us look into the following next, one problem down (the aspect ratio), next the quality of playback of your Timeline as seen in the Edit Mode Monitor.
1. Given that you are working with .mod widescreen 16:9.
a. Open a new Premiere Elements 11 Mac project. Go to File Menu/New/Project and set the project preset yourself in the new project dialog. You want NTSC DV Widescreen. Make sure that you have a check mark next to "Force Selected Project Setting on this Project" before you exit the new project dialog.
b. Once back in the Premiere Elements workspace, go to Add Media/Files and Folders and import your mod.widescreen into Project Assets.
c. Right click the .mod widescreen file in Project Assets, select Interpret Footage, and, in the Interpret Footage dialog, dot the Conform to: and set that to DV/DV NTSC Widescreen 16:9 (1.2121).
d. Drag your .mod widescreen to the Timeline from Project Assets. Do you see no colored line over the content, an orange line, or a green line? If an orange line, render the Timeline with the Render button or pressing the Enter Key of the computer main keyboard. Is the .mod widescreen now display the same, worse, or better than before we started all this?
Also, right click the monitor, select Playback Quality, and see if there is any difference in what you are seeing if you use Highest instead of Automatic as the set. Also check to see if Magnification there is "Fit" rather than other.
Is your video card driver up to date according to the web site of the manufacturer of the video card?
Please review the above and let us know the outcome.
Thanks.
ATR
Although conversion .mod widescreen to another format is always a consideration, it has not been found to be necessary in essentially most cases. Classically, if an import problem with this type of file, the renaming of the .mod file extension to .mpg prior to import took care that while Interpret Footage took care of the aspect ratio issue.
I just saw your note about MPEG Streamclip. That works great for Windows for conversion to DV AVI. Never tried it for a .mov export for Mac. But remember there is an option for 4:3 or 16:9 in that dialog (or there should be...I will take a look if you do not find it). So no distortion expected since MPEG Streamclip should be supplying that problematic 16:9 flag.

Set-Up - HELP

Hi,
I've just literally received my AppleTV five minutes ago.
It connected to my Wireles Network and is syncing as i type this. The AppleTV is connected to my TV via component.
However, there is an annoying buzzing sound coming from the tv speakers no music or audio is playing, and everything is in black and white.
HELP!
I sent Apple the following information before i ordered the AppleTV and they said that it would work:
TV INFORMATION:
30" screen LCD Widescreen TV Screen format: 16:9 WXGA resolution Screen Brightness (cd/m2): 450 Contrast ratio: 400:1 Resolution (pixels): 1280x768 Multi-standard tuner Number of channels: 100 Text with Fastext Picture Comb filter Sound Audio output (RMS) W: 6 NICAM stereo Headphone PC compatible RGB via SCART: 2 SCART: 2 Composite Video S-Video Table-Top Stand No signal off/mute On/off timer Remote control.
What have i done wrong?

I hate to be the one to tell you this, but if that is
all the ports you've got on your TV, then the Apple
TV won't work for you. You need to have Component
input for video (which typically uses red, green and
blue connectors.) Looks like you just have Composite
input, which won't work.
Sorry.
I am extremely peeved off at Apple. I called them 5 times before i ordered and I got the same person and before i placed the order i specifically told them and e-mailed then all the components on the back of my TV and they said it would work.
THEY LIED!! THEY JUST WANTED MY MONEY!!

Exporting Large Slideshow Help!!

I'm having a bit of trouble exporting a slideshow of 515 pictures. I'm aware that is a lot of photos but I can't find ay specifics as far as the limitations of the software goes. I've searched the web high and low and could not find anything that states a limit of how many photos I can have in a slideshow. I'm using the scrapbook theme without music, and attempted to export it at a high resolution. The exporting process took a looooong time as I knew it would, however 3/4 of the way through, the export bar stopped moving completely and the preview for the slideshow stopped as well. I attempted a second time after waiting a few hours to export it, and it again failed to complete. Here's my thing, I'm trying to get this slideshow, bring it into to iMovie so I can add music (because iPhoto won't let me choose specific parts of the songs I want to play) and then bring it into iDVD to burn and watch it on a widescreen or standard TV. Have I surpassed the limitations of the software?? What would be my best option to accomplish this??

Welcome to the Apple Discussions. If you plan on taking the slideshow into iDVD to burn to disc then exporting at HD is a waste of time and effort. iDVD reduces all content to:
720 x 540 pixels for standard video in NTSC format
854 x 480 pixels for widescreen in NTSC format 640 x480
Thus crop the photos to the size you want and try again as standard or widescreen.
It's been my experience that creating the slideshow in iDVD gives me the best onscreen image resolution.
The downside to this method is that you can't have the Ken Burns effect (not problem for me as I don't use it), can have only one transition per slideshow and no unique themes.
The upside is that the music plays as it should whereas iPhoto has problems with too much dead air between tracks and early termination at the end of the music.
You might consider creating the slideshow in iMovie or a 3rd party application like Photo to Movie or PhotoMagico. PhotoPresenter is another 3rd party slide show application and offers over 25 animated themes, some of which are shown on this demo page: PhotoPresenter Animated Slideshow Themes. It has the Ken Burns effect but it is applied to all photos the same way with no user control.
TIP: For insurance against the iPhoto database corruption that many users have experienced I recommend making a backup copy of the Library6.iPhoto (iPhoto.Library for iPhoto 5 and earlier versions) database file and keep it current. If problems crop up where iPhoto suddenly can't see any photos or thinks there are no photos in the library, replacing the working Library6.iPhoto file with the backup will often get the library back. By keeping it current I mean backup after each import and/or any serious editing or work on books, slideshows, calendars, cards, etc. That insures that if a problem pops up and you do need to replace the database file, you'll retain all those efforts. It doesn't take long to make the backup and it's good insurance.
I've created an Automator workflow application (requires Tiger or later), iPhoto dB File Backup, that will copy the selected Library6.iPhoto file from your iPhoto Library folder to the Pictures folder, replacing any previous version of it. There are versions that are compatible with iPhoto 5, 6, 7 and 8 libraries and Tiger and Leopard. Just put the application in the Dock and click on it whenever you want to backup the dB file. iPhoto does not have to be closed to run the application, just idle. You can download it at Toad's Cellar. Be sure to read the Read Me pdf file.
NOTE: The new rebuild option in iPhoto 09 (v. 8.0.2), Rebuild the iPhoto Library Database from automatic backup" makes this tip obsolete.

Widescreen (16:9) format

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