Anamorphic compensation with Compressor's 100% Source setting

I've created a Compressor droplet that encodes one Small and one Large 16:9 H.264 files. The Small file encoded pixel dimensions are set to 50% Source, the Large file is set to 100% Source. All other settings are the same.

However every time I compress anamorphic material, the Large compression remains visibly anamorphic, tall and thin. The Small compression is correctly proportioned.

Is this intended behaviour? How do I work around it?

Any help much appreciated,
Nick

I wish I had an answer-- I've set up 16:9 Compressor 2 settings (I know, I know) and they are sometimes not honored. I end up having to go into QuickTime Pro, unlock the aspect ratio, and type in the proper width (I use 864 X 480 for full size DV and 432 X 240 for half size. This being NTSC. The problem is, I can only save it out as a .mov! Weird stuff. Works okay, tho.

- Loren
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>However every time I compress anamorphic material, the Large compression remains visibly
>anamorphic, tall and thin. The Small compression is correctly proportioned.

Where do you intend to play the H.264 back? If the destination is computer screens, resize the clips to square pixels to avoid confusion on some players (manually set the size). The proportions on Anamorphic settings are determined by a flag. Yup, it's strange that the flag doesn't seem recognized much (not on M2Vs), but since DVDSP adds an anamorphic flag, that ultimately makes the difference.



www.strypesinpost.com

Once you apply your setting in Compressor go to the Geometry tab and select Frame Size/Custom 16x9. Adjust your Width and the Hight will adjust itself accordingly. Your finished file will now have the correct aspect ratio.

Michael Alberts
Ambidextrous Productions

Thanks for the help, so it looks there's no way around it, except entering manual settings which (to digress to another Compressor annoyance) introduces jaggies... Sigh.