Sequence setting for upscaling

Hi, I'm wondering what would be the best 16:9 frame size for SD 4:3 clips using a picture in picture effect. I'm technically not upscaling, or uprezing the format, at all....
just a little resizing the 4:3 to use the 16:9 real estate. I'll be outputting for dvd, and also web streaming on Vimeo, etc.

Does it matter which frame size I pick?

It looks like whatever I do, it will involve lots of rendering.... would I be better off using the 4:3 footage in a 4:3 sequence, and then upscaling the finished product instead?

Are there any considerations in doing this I may not have though of?

Thanks again as always for the help.

What do you mean by "use the 16:9 real estate"?

Generally, if you should edit in the native format (4:3 if your footage is acquired in 4:3), but since your output is on DVD (and web), you should edit in an SD 4:3 sequence as DVD is SD anyway.



www.strypesinpost.com

I'd like a 16:9 shaped frame for my final product though.

Maybe I'm missing something, but you seem to be aiming for an ideal in your head that doesn't match your format.

If your footage is SD, then it's 720x486 or 720x480. It will not fill an HD frame, which would be 1920x1080; it would be a tremendous blowup that would result in worse picture quality, not better.

You said you wanted a "picture-in-picture" effect. That would suggest that you're putting a 4:3 720x486 image inside a 1920x1080 frame with black all around. I don't really get how that would "use the 16:9 real estate".

If you made an SD-sized 16:9 frame, then either you're talking about anamorphic (720x486, with image distorted) or you're talking about 720x405. Again, you're talking less "screen real estate", not more.


www.derekmok.com

Okay, I'm certainly confused but I think part of it is I'm not explaining myself right.

What I would like to do is end up with a 16 x9 frame size - 1280x720 or 1920x1080.

I figured I could shrink my Standard DV 4:3 image to 70-80% to get the side by side picture, with the picture in picture.

If I were to do a picture in picture with 2 boxes in a 720x480 screen, I would have to shrink it down to 50% or less. I would then have to stretch it to get to the 16x9 everyone expects these days. I'm trying to figure out how I can start with that 16x9 and finish on 16x9 instead using footage the multiple boxes of picturing inside the frame.

OK. probably the best way for you to understand what you need to do to achieve this is to make a sequence with the settings you would like to export in, then drop in one of your 4:3 clips.

Then double click the clip in the timeline to load it into the viewer, then go to the motion tab in the viewer, and make sure the scale is set to 100%. Also check under 'distort' that the aspect is at 0.

This will give you a fullsized 4:3 clip inside your widescreen frame. Move, resize and add additional clips at will.