Widescreen aspect ratio help

I'm reading this site:
http://www.shapeofdays.com/2005/05/a_demonstration.html
and i read that: "A widescreen standard-definition TV picture is 850 pixels across by 480 pixels down."
questions:
1) so what is the aspect ratio if i change the "standard-defintion" to read HD or Hi-Definition?
2) preface: i created a Widescreen project using iMovie HD 5.0.2 that was shot at 16:9. i created a DVD from the iMovie project and it is 16:9. i "shared" my finished project and selected Full at the first prompts and got a dialogue saying something about the full quality of my project being saved; it produced a QT .dv file of the size of my project (about 3 gb) which is correct, afaik.
question: why is my exported [at] Full dv quality QT .dv file only 720 x 480? instead of 850 x 480?
==
while i'm asking questions: i'm about to export that .dv file to H.264, however i wish to reduce the view size by half --for a lower size-- how do i correctly assign a new properly reduced 50% size so that my aspect ratio is preserved only smaller by half?
thanks.

A widescreen standard-definition TV picture is 850 pixels across by 480 pixels down
A standard NTSC picture is 640 x 480
BUT, DV format saves video in a 720x480 ratio. DV pixels are not square, however. When shooting standard TV, the pixels are higher than they are wide and appear 640x480. When shooting widescreen, the pixels are wider than they are tall, thus giving a 16x9 (850x480) appearance.
As to your specific question about H.264, try exporting to a custom size of 425 by 240.

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Wide screen aspect ratio help

hi everyone im new in final cut pro, and i need some guidance, help or tutorial on how to achieve the widescreen aspect ratio to give the video more like a film look and feel, i need to know how to do this without distorting the video or cropping or making it look stretchy it if its possible. A tutorial would be awesome please if someone can help me, i would really appreciate this i looked around for this but i cant really find anything (i might have been looking in the wrong places :[ ) thanks

im not sure this are the dimensions 1280 × 720 i think (im not too sure) it was wide screen. for example if i used my iphone for in landscape mode i think it comes out wide screen right? so then how would i do it not sure what really but is there any chance that without it having to be shoot wide screen make it wide screen without it looking bad ??

How to change DV/DVCPRO video to 16:9 widescreen aspect ratio in Final Cut Pro X?

I shot some DV video footage on a Canon XL2 in 16:9 widescreen aspect ratio mode. I captured it on a Firestore and imported it into Final Cut Pro X, and it is now being displayed in an incorrect standard 4:3 aspect ratio.
How can I change the aspect ratio of the video within FCPX once I've imported it?
I've tried playing with the Spatial Conform setting for the video file, but that keeps it in a standard aspect ratio and fits or fills the video into a different aspect ratio. So that's not the answer.
I've tried an old trick I used when working with DV widescreen video and iDVD, but this process doesn't fix the aspect ratio in FCPX. Here's the article for your reference:
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2179
Did Apple forget that DV/DVCPRO video--although standard def--can be displayed in 4:3 or 16:9? It seems to force it to 4:3.
Thanks.

@daguerratype
The Spatial Conform is one of the things I tried. Unfortunately none of its settings fixed the aspect ratio. When I choose "Fit", it simply shows it as 4:3 and leaves left and right black borders on a 16:9 timeline. When I choose "Fill", it zooms the 4:3 video and chops off the top and bottom parts.
@Thomas Emmerich
This is a decent workaround. Fortunately my clips are named in such a way that I can easily drop them all in the timeline and do a Command-F (Find) to search by clip name, highlight all of them in the search results, then use the Inspector to modify the properties of all the clips at once. I have to change X-scale to 133% and Spatial Conform to "Fit", and now at least it fits the 16:9 timeline properly.
Thanks to both replies. I still hope Apple adds a way to fix the clip in the Event browser so that I don't have to do this workaround.

Aspect Ratio Help

I've tried to find this on my own, but to no avail. I am using a Canon XHA1 and shot footage in 16:9 HD format at 24fps. Imported it in using default Windows Video Import tool, then brought into Adobe Premiere Pro CS3 on Windows Vista.
The footage looks distorted (4:3) no matter what project settings I use. I tried using the Intrepret Footage per Adobe help, and while that does seem to get rid of the 4:3 aspect ratio, the preview window then for some reason shows a much smaller widescreen preview surrounded by a lot of black box.
I tried outputing a sample file, and sure enough, the final output shows a smaller version of the footage with more then normal black box surrounding it.
Any help in understanding what I'm doing wrong, or how to import the video correctly into Premiere is much appreciated.

Thanks Ann for the help. Forgive me as I'm a newbie and still had a few questions:
1. Should I capture with Premiere and not Windows Import? If so, where do I specify HDV split? Not sure what that means.
2. When and where do I choose the 1080i30 project setting? I downloaded the 24f Canon presets and those show up, but I wasn't sure what to choose initially when opening Premiere (either a Canon preset or the 1080i30).
I'm fairly new at this so step by step is kind of what i need to figure this out.
Thanks.

Aspect ratio help for a newbie?

Hi Everyone,
I've got a Sony DCR SR-32 camera (please don't laugh ) and shooting in its HQ mode, (9Mb/s) and 16:9 aspect ratio.
I can import the footage into iMovie and make a movie with no problems. But I've just bought FCE and am struggling to get the footage imported at the correct 16:9 aspect ratio. After trawling the discussions I've tried the log and transfer method, and all the other relevant discussion on importing AVCHD files directly into FCE but no success (I get file opening error ?). So I'm bringing the footage into iMovie, exporting it from iMovie as an FCE XML file and opening that using PAL anamorphic or NTSC anamorphic Easy setups.
Even so, I've got what looks like 16:9 video squeezed into a 4:3 aspect ratio with black boarders on either side padding it out back to the 16:9 size.
I'd welcome any advice other than "get a new camera "

Hi Tom, I seem to have a similar problem, not sure if you've seen this, but I have the new canon vixia hg 21 which is avchd and FCP 6 isn't recognizing it either. Using Imovie to recognize the files works fine, the problem is that when you export from imovie '08 into FCP via xml, it imports fine, but I also get the same display issue with the black bars surrounding the footage, only in the canvas. It appears fine in the viewer and in it's own sequence in the timeline. But when you mix the different camera footage together, the other being the Canon XH A1, it appears as a different aspect ratio??? What the?
ANy help would be greatly appreciated!

Why do premium movie channels alter the widescreen aspect ratio?

Why do channels like HBO HD and Cinemax HD change the aspect ratio of movies? I have seen movies that I own on dvd or blu-ray that are 2:35:1 or 2:40:1 aspect ratio (meaning very wide and you see some thin black bars at the top and bottom of your screen) but when they are broadcast on these movie channels it looks like the films are partially panned & scanned down to a 1:85:1 ratio (not as wide and the bars are gone).
This is really stupid, and the movies are not being shown in their full widescreen orginal presentation. What do they have to gain by cutting off parts of the picture? I have noticed some channels like showtime don't do this, but most do. Obviously this isn't verizons doing its the channel providers, but it's annoying.
And what's with all the logos all over the premium channels nowadays? These are paid channels the screen should be clear of any and all logos and any add overlays. If I want to know the channel and rating I'm watching I'll just press the guide button, it's overkill.

film11 wrote:
They do this for the OnDemand movies as well. I agree...it is VERY annoying. There is NO reason for it. Sure,there are some people out there who want their screen filled, but they can always use the ZOOM button to do that. It's a terrible practice and I never watch movies on channels that crop them (and am cancelling the channels that do it when my contract bundle expires). The only channels that show movies in the correct ratios are SHOWTIME, THE MOVIE CHANNEL, and HDNet MOVIES. (EPIX shows old movies in OAR but crop newer films.)
The others, Notably HBO that started this practice, do occassionally show OAR. But usually only when the director specifically had in his agreement that his picture would only be so displayed when marked to TV channels.

Widescreen aspect ratio problem

I have a ASUS widescreen monitor and I'm having problems viewing images at the correct aspect ratio. When I see a 4:3 image it gets stretched widely. How can I fix this?

adjust your video card output resolution for widescreen mode i.e. 1440 x 900

Impoting from Quicktime to Imovie - widescreen aspect ratio lost

I have a Quicktime .mov file in widescreen format which I imported into iMovie HD6 for further editing. Although it plays perfectly in widescreen in QT, iMovie has imported it squashed to 4:3. iMovie was set to "widescreen Pal", and the viewing window is widesceen, but the imported video has been squashed to 4:3, with black columns at each side. The sides of the picture have not been cut off, the images are tall and thin.
The QT movie was created in Cinematize2 from a DVD created in iDVD in widescreen, its self from a widesceen PAL i Movie HD6 project.
I've searched the boards, but can't find this one specifically described. Apologies if it has already been answered somewhere, but can anybody help?
Albert.

HOW TO MAINTAIN 16:9 ASPECT FROM IMPORT TO BURN
This is the way I do it. There is no compulsion on you to do it my way, but this works (for me). I started this method before iMovie and iDVD were upgraded to 6.0.3, and because not all elements of the various iDVD themes (particularly the pre-iDVD 6 ones) are consistent in keeping to 16:9 throughout the process. I have for years shot in nothing but 16:9 widescreen, partly because it looks better (IMO), partly to future-proof my videos for the increasingly popular widescreen TVs. Living in the UK, I use PAL (25 fps). Wherever you see a reference to PAL in the following you may substitute NTSC (30 fps) in the various settings mentioned, the basic idea is the same. I still use this method, and take these steps, regardless of whether it is always necessary. Worst case scenario: it would have worked anyway. Best case scenario: it works perfectly where it otherwise wouldn’t!
The object of the exercise is to ‘fix’ all constituent parts of the project (video, titles, theme, effects, even audio!) in the desired 16:9 aspect to avoid producing a DVD where the movie is in 16:9 and the menu is in 4:3 or where other irritating surprises lurk in your project, which you only discover after burning a coaster!
First go to http://www.mydvdedit.com/index.php?lang=english and download myDVDedit. This is shareware although the download is free. Send the guy a few dollars/euros, he deserves it. While you are there, read all about it. Now install it in your Applications Folder. You will need it later.
You have finished your iMovie project with music, transitions and so on, and saved it to you Movies Folder. Before you started the project you naturally set it DV Widescreen.
Open iDVD. Give the project a name, and save it as Widescreen if it didn’t default to the same aspect as your iMovie project. Now import the iMovie project into iDVD, choose a theme (any theme you like, even if it prefers to stay at 4:3) and save the project. Do what you would normally do to the theme and its drop zones. Save the project.
Now save as Disk Image on your desktop. Leave it there for the moment when it has finished/appeared.
Open your Movies Folder. Create a new folder. Name it PROJECTNAME – TS FILES (where ‘projectname’ is the name of your project!). Close the folder. You can of course call it anything you like, but htis aids identification.
Now double-click the disk image on your desktop. It contains two folders: AUDIO_TS (which is empty, but please pretend that it isn’t) and VIDEO_TS. Drag and drop these to the folder you created in your Movies Folder. (This takes a moment).
Click on the AUDIO_TS folder and go to Get Info in the file menu. Right down the bottom is where you have to change the permissions. Under ‘Ownership & Permissions’ change this from Read Only to Read & Write. Click the small triangle next to Details, scroll down and click on Apply to enclosed items. You will be asked for your root password. When this has completed (fairly fast, as that folder was empty!), click on the VIDEO_TS folder and do the same. This takes a moment longer, as that folder is full of goodies with which you should not otherwise interfere! Close the Projectname-TS Files folder. You have now allowed yourself to change the properties of the contents of those folders, which leads us to the next all-important step.
Open myDVDedit. Go to File and open the projectname TS Files folder. By all means stare at it shock and awe, but don’t bother finding out what it can do, except for the following:
Top left you fill see a list of files. Lower centre you have a large window. On the vertical menu to the left of that, click IFO.
In the window at the top left, ignore ‘First Play’ (if there was anything to correct in that, myDVDedit will have done so and told you).
Click on VMG Menu en (English). Now the whole thing springs to life.
Set Coding Mode to MPEG-2
Set Standard to PAL
Set Aspect to 16:9 (not any of the other options)
Now save the file.
Click on VTS Menu 1 en (English) and repeat as above.
Click on VTS 1 and repeat as above.
You have now permanently ‘fixed’ the entire contents of the TS folder (the disk image) in 16:9 aspect. Close myDVDedit – you won’t need it again until the next project!
If you have Toast 7 Titanium, open it. ‘Select DVD-Video from VIDEO_TS’. Choose Select from the main Toast window and select your projectname-TS Files folder. You are now ready to burn! You can set the burn speed (2x recommended) before the burn commences. Allow Toast to verify the burn before you eject the DVD-R disk.
If you don’t have Toast 7, then I assume you can burn the projectname-TS Files folder (disk image) via Disk Utility. I say ‘assume’ only because I have never tried it that way.
Either way, you now have a DVD which will play as 16:9 widescreen on any TV set, even the old ones where you can’t ask it to letter-box.

Rotate Crop Aspect Ratio Help LR3

I know that i am missing something totally easy here...but none the less I cant figure it out. How do I use the crop aspect change short cut key (x) without flagging my photos?
I have made sure that I am in crop mode. When I hit the x key it flags the photo to discard.
Thanks for your help!

Thank you Hal!

720x486 widescreen aspect ratio

In After Effects, there is a preset for 720x486 widescreen. Is there a similar setting in Motion? I can't find it. Or is there another preset that does the same thing? Thank you.
Geno

Thanks a lot. This helped me a bunch. By the way, I just bought your book, "Motion 3" and it is a great source. I'm a long time After Effects user and I wanted to grasp Motion. I started the book last Monday and I'm halfway through it in a week. I've learned a lot in just a short period of time. I don't think there's an easier way to learn Motion (unless taking a course) than reading this book. It is a lot different than After Effects even though a lot of people say it's basically the same thing. I teach an Advanced After Effects class and I'll tell you, the way you do things is a lot different. You know what my favorite thing about Motion is? I can hold the last frame of a movie for as long I want. Simple, yet extremely useful. Thanks again.
Geno

OH MY GOD. Pixel aspect ratio HELP.

ok plain and simple, what should you composition settings be in after effects, in order to import the finished composition into adobe encore cs3, without any stretching, distortion, pixellation, etc.
i am about to kill myself with this issue.
all the settings i try either squish, stretch, distort, leave black bars on the top and bottom or left and right, or pixellate the image.
create a AE composition from scratch, draw a perfect circle on the background using mask. NOW HOW DO YOU GET THAT PERFECT CIRCLE INTO ENCORE WITHOUT LOOKING LIKE AN OVAL OR PIXELLATING THE EDGES??!!?!?!???!??!???!??!?

Are you working in PAL or NTSC?
Rick Gerard's Dr Strangepixel essay is a valuable resource:
http://library.creativecow.net/articles/gerard_rick/pixel_madness.php
Basically, stick with the PAL/NTSC presets and you can't go wrong. Just remember that computer monitors use square pixels and DVDs do not. So any PAL or NTSC file you look at on a computer monitor 1:1 will look slightly distorted, but will be fine on DVD.

How do I change the aspect ratio of source video in the event library?

I’ve imported video to iMovie 08 from a Canon Mini DV MD235 video camera. The video is recorded in widescreen format and plays back in widescreen when viewed from the iMovie event library (prior to doing any video editing). However, when I delete rejected frames from any particular video clip in the event library the video clip is automatically pillarboxed (i.e. switched from widescreen to 4:3 format). This squashes the video horizontally, stretches it vertically and leaves vertical black bars to the left and right of the video during playback. This automatic change in aspect ratio is occurring to the source video in the event library.
I’d be grateful for any help / advice on how I can convert the edited clips back to widescreen aspect ratio, so they display in the *event library* as they did when first imported into iMovie.

I don’t really want to clog up my hard drive with unwanted video and it’s easier to edit it from within iMovie.
Have you considered manually importing only portions of the clips you actually plan to use? Or, if you must import the entire clip, have you considered trimming externally in an application like MPEG Streamclip which will allow you to set frame level in/out points and then perform a "Save As..." operation that stores the select range of frames to an MOV file container retaining the proper flag?
Is there anything I can do from within iMovie to activate the 16:9 setting for these as yet unedited clips, so the same pillarboxing doesn’t happen?
Not sure what you mean by "unedited" here. If the files have been destructively split, the flag is gone and there is nothing you can do about it but re-compress. If you mean they are imported but as of yet whole and still contain their flags, then you have two options. The first is to edit non-destrctively within iMovie '08 and the second would be to do the trimming externally.
This second option is really fairly simple. Just close iMovie '08. Open MPEG Streamclip and load a clip you want to trim. Set your in and pout points, select the "Save As..." option, and store the files in the original Events folder with a new name. I would also recommend you perform these trims in their original time sequence so the "creation" date time groups (Finder attributes) are in time order also. When done with the loaded clip either delete it from the "Event" folder or move it to an archival location. When done with the last clip, close MPEG Streamclip, delete the Cache and Thumbnail folders from the Event folder, open iMovie '08 again, and go get a cup of coffee or tea while the files are re-thumbnailing. DO NOT DO THIS TO ANY EVENT WHICH CONTAINS FILES ALREADY USED IN ANY PROJECT. (I.e., this must be done before you start the actual project editing process.)
It seems odd to me that iMovie is doing this.
I suspect that as the application was originally written as an NLE, non-destructive, "by reference" application, the writers/updaters "overlooked" this facet when adding a "destructive" routine and did not provide for checks of this flag nor provide for copying it re-written segments.

Really bad text quality,photoshop, is it pixel aspect ratio?

when doing dvd's i often use psd files for menus or title boards, quite often at 16x9, now the problem lies with the quality of the text in photoshop and when transferred to dvdsp. In photoshop with a 1024 x 576 sq pixel canvas the text looks crisp and sharp, however when transferred to dvdsp the text feels like it has gone through a verticle interlace, each letter is chopped up and shifted stretched and compressed. Going back to photoshop and making a 720x 576 comp with a widescreen pixel aspect ratio seems to do the same thing but this time in photoshop aswell. The text quality problem is not the usual dvd compression issue that is frequently discussed on these boards where text looks fuzzy, this looks much worse than fuzzy or jpeggy
Is there a standard, a combination of aspect ratio and canvas size in both photoshop and dvdsp? It is really frustrating.
Thanks in advance
Henry

My issue is particular to the crossover between photoshop and dvdsp, it may also be particular to pal dvd's and relating to the pixel aspect ratio, if you try and create a 720 x 576 document in photoshop with widescreen aspect ratio turned on and try adding text you will notice the issue. This also crosses over into dvdsp no matter what i do unless the image uses square pixels in p/shop the text is awful. I was really wondering if anyone else had found a combination of setups that avoid this wierd occurance in both programs.
The issue is not the standard 'my font looks bad on an apple display' issue which is often discussed on this forum, i understand that apple display resolutions are so far superior to standard def tv's that it is impossible to compare. The typesize on these projects are 24pt bold sans serif so well above the 18pt generally accepted standard and the canvas size is pixel perfect for pal resolution no images have been reduced or enlarged. The font looks almost illegible rather than just fuzzy.

Home movies at wrong aspect ratio???

Hello,
I have a lot of home movies that were recorded onto a Verbatim Hard Drive Recorder in a .mpg format.
These movies are in the proper widescreen aspect ratio when played back on my TV, however, when I transfered them to my Mac the .mpg video files became fullscreen.
I had to use MPEG Streamclip and the MPEG-2 Playback Component to create true widescreen .dv files for iMovie.
However, I was forced to to do an erase and reinstall of Leopard last week and I lost the MPEG-2 Component.
I was upgrading to Lion though, and I had heard that the Component was no longer necessary as Lion had the capability to playback MPEG-2 files.
I had assumed that Streamclip would also use this built-in MPEG-2 Component.
I have upraded to Lion just today, but Streamclip cannot open any of the .mpg files claiming it needs the Component.
Is there another Streamclip equivelant that can correct the aspect ratio with requiring me to buy another Playback Component?
Or better yet is there any existing application on Lion that can correct the video shape?
Cheers.

Can Quicktime Pro adjust aspect ratios?

What are the ideal specs for a DigiBeta master tape when authoring a "widescreen anamorphic" 16:9 SD DVD (original aspect ratio is 14:9)?

I just received the masters for a new SD DVD. I would like to author a "widescreen anamorphic" SD DVD horizontally squeezed widescreen image stored in a standard 4:3 aspect ratio DVD image frame. (On 4:3 displays, mattes should preserve the original aspect ratio. On 16:9 displays the image will fill the screen at the highest possible resolution.)
Below I've listed the specs of the Digi Beta master tapes the producers have sent to me for digitizing. I'd like to know this: What are the ideal specs for a DigiBeta master tape when authoring a widescreen anamorphic SD DVD, using material with an original aspect ratio of 14:9?
I've also listed my guesses below. Please let me know if my guesses are right. If not, please suggest alternatives (and if possible explain why.)
TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS OF EXISTING MASTER:
Tape: DigiBeta
Original Aspect Ratio: 1.55 (14:9)
Vid Rate: 29.97 fps
Pixel Aspect: NTSC - CCIR 601
Frame Size: 720 x 480
Anamorphic: Full-Height Anamorphic (16:9 image displayed in letterboxed, non-distored 4:3)
Display Format: 4:3 Letterbox
MY GUESS AT IDEAL TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS (for a DigiBeta, that is):
Tape: DigiBeta
Original Aspect Ratio: 1.55 (14:9)
Vid Rate: 29.97 fps
Pixel Aspect: Square
Frame Size: 720 x 540
Anamorphic: YES
Display Format: 16:9 Anamorphic (horizontally squeezed widescreen image)
Please feel free to ask for clarification or further information you need to answer my question.
Thank you so much in advance for your help!
Best, Noetical.
BTW, I can't wait for the day when everything has gone digital and we get digital intermediates instead of tapes to digitize!

Hi Nick...thanks for taking the time to reply to my question.
Nick Holmes wrote:
What you have there is a mess.
NTSC pixels are never square.
NTSC is 720x486, even when it is Anamorphic.
You shouldn't be using an already letterboxed master to make an Anamorphic version. Get the master that was made before the letterboxing stage.
When you make an Anamorphic DVD it should display as 16:9 full screen automatically on widescreen TVs.
The same DVD will automatically letterbox on 4:3 TVs.
Um yeah...duh. That's exactly what I was trying to explain in the preface of my question. I'm sorry if I didn't make it clear...all these things you mention are the reasons I'm putting together a list of the technical specs of the DigiBeta I need so I can have them send that instead of the stupid letterboxed version.
Look, I'm sending this request to some intern at their offices in England, asking for a master with which I can make an Anamorphic DVD. They already sent me this master, which as you and I both agree is an idiotic asset to use for these purposes. As such, I was hoping for advice on a more precise way of requesting the master that I need than asking for "the master that was made before the letterboxing stage." Upon reflection, perhaps I'll just do that. If you or anyone else has a suggestion about something I should add to my request that would improve the odds of them sending the tape I need, please repond. Thank you!
BTW, It's been a long time since anyone has responded to something I've written or said as though I'm an idiot. I remember now that I don't really like it. (Moving along...)

Widescreen aspect ratio help

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