Exporting 16:9 HDV as 4:3 Letterbox

I am currently editing a project that was shot in HDV. I am using Final Cut V5. I need to output the finished sequence as a 4:3 letterbox. I know that exporting out into iDVD or DVD SP will automatically letterbox it, but it will also play it as 16:9 on a 16:9 monitor. I need it to play as a 4:3 no matter what (pillars on a 16:9 monitor). Everything I have tried usually ends up making the video look terrible. I like to call it blocky- looks like terrible resolution. I also lose a lot of color. Any thoughts on the best way to export 16:9 HDV footage as a 4:3 letterbox?

Thanks,

Carl

nomad27 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I am currently editing a project that was shot in
> HDV. I am using Final Cut V5. I need to output
> the finished sequence as a 4:3 letterbox. I know
> that exporting out into iDVD or DVD SP will
> automatically letterbox it, but it will also play
> it as 16:9 on a 16:9 monitor. I need it to play
> as a 4:3 no matter what (pillars on a 16:9
> monitor). Everything I have tried usually ends up
> making the video look terrible. I like to call it
> blocky- looks like terrible resolution. I also
> lose a lot of color. Any thoughts on the best way
> to export 16:9 HDV footage as a 4:3 letterbox?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Carl

Funny, I aked the same question on Roxio a day or so ago.

Here is the link

[forums.support.roxio.com]

This may not be Legal For Broadcast, but what I do is:

Bring the 16:9 footage into a 4:3 sequence...

DOuble-click on the clip to activate the Canvas WIndow, with wireframe. In the canvas window, you can move the mouse (don't click yet) until you get to one of the 4 corners (as in re-size by dragging)...

On any corner, when the mouse turns into a + plus sign + , hold down the shift key, and click and drag vertically disproportionately until you get the top/bottom of the image to the Action Safe gridline (80%)... or slightly above... while keeping the left/right at the boundaries of the frame.

Now you have 4x3 Letterboxed!

80% should do it... but depending on your content, and depending on how thick of black bars you want to give the customer for his/her money, you can cheat a bit: 1) Less black bars means more stretched image, which is not always a bad thing, especially in these modern times of obese people, and 2) if my content is mostly 'centered' with throwaway on the left/right sides, I sometimes extend the dragging to lose some of the left/right off the frame (think cropping), and in turn get more vertical image.

You can always UNDO until you get it the way you want.

(This is easier to explain in person than in text, like that first "text book" for radio DJing that tried to explain cueing up a record - put the needle on the record and spin)...

Independent photographer, film maker and Producer. In the wonderful UK.

[I need to output the finished sequence as a 4:3 letterbox. ]

For DV 16:9 to DV 4:3 -

1) Create an empty 4:3 sequence in the desired codec (DV-NTSC, 8-bit Uncompressed, whatever)

2) Drag 16:9 sequence straight into it-- unless you hold down Command while dragging, it'll arrive nested.

Voila, letterboxed, scaled to the longest edge of the 4:3 Canvas.

3) Render to taste (be safe and create high rez renders before exporting).
4) Export.

I think that's really all there is to it. You'll only run into scaling issues if bringing in a sequence of discrete clips. Any clip not shot 16:9, which you've scaled to fit widescreen (like photo scan inserts, graphics, etc) often rescale to the full frame height and look squished. For these you have to reset the aspect ratio (a setting in the Distort Motion set).

For HDV 16:9 to DV 4:3 I would scale the frame using the Motion Scale function and avoid hand tooling in the Canvas. Assuming you haven't applied an Anchor Point, you'll always scale around center.

1) Hold Option and doubleclick to load the imported nest into the Viewer
2) Scale in the Viewer Motion tab.
3) Render to taste
4) Export.

- Loren
Today's FCP keytip:

Toggle your Timeline Filters bar with Option T !

Final Cut Studio 2 KeyGuide? Power Pack.
Now available at KeyGuide Central.
www.neotrondesign.com

Thanks for the tips. I have tried sending the 16:9 timeline into a new sequence set at 4:3 and resized the footage. (I usually just enter -33 into the aspect ratio rather than manually resizing with the wireframe.) When I export this, it works but... The color is usually really washed out and there seems to be a field dominance issue. I have double checked to make sure the field dominance is set correctly in both the original 16:9 sequence and the new 4:3 sequence. Still, nothing worth sending to the client.

Field dominance issue... HD is upper, NTSC SD is Lower. When you drop the HD sequence into the SD timeline, a shift fields filter must be applied... Though, if speed changes were applied to any clips, you're likely to encounter field tearing issues on those clips.

Color wise, is that due to the filters being corrected for 709 specs and now it's rendering in 601?

One option is to drop the HDV sequence into a ProRes sequence and export a SCQT movie. Then reimport that into FCP and drop the quicktime movie into a 4:3 SD timeline, apply a slight channel or Gaussian blur to taste and re-export.

Alternatively, you can also drop the ProRes sequence into Compressor and use the Letterbox filter to downscale.



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