16:9 and 4:3 footage combined, tips wanted

[Xymox]

I'm quite familiar with editing 4:3 DV footage and encoding it to MPEG2 for use in DVD authoring and DVD building.

I have a Sony HC20 and my brother in law has a Sony HC42.
The HC20 has a 16:9 option, but does it the 'wrong' way by just capping the upper and lower part of the video to simulate 16:9. The HC42 does it the right way, it uses a higher definition CCD and does no clipping.

On holiday, i shot my footage in 4:3 and my brother in law has shot in 16:9.
Now we want to combine our video's to make a nice holiday video DVD.

I have looked at several sites to find some info how to use 4:3 and 16:9 video and have found some stuff, but i still have some question concerning this issue.

I will explain what i have learned so far. Maybe insiders can correct some stated facts and could supply me with some tips and tricks to help me with this project.

My editing setup is :

Adobe Premiere Pro 1.5.1
CCE 2.70 plugin for premiere
Adobe Encore DVD 1.5.1

First of all, 16:9 and 4:3 video in DV format is allways in a resolution of 720x576 (PAL). The 16:9 footage is just compressed in this framesize. There are no more pixels in 16:9 mode.

When showing 16:9 footage as it is on a PC monitor (in a video editing application), the footage is compressed horizontally. So the image seems distorted. When playing the footage from camera on TV, the TV 'sees' which format it is and shows it 16:9 aspect ratio when it is a 16:9 TV. On 4:3 TV's the footage is shown with a upper and lower black border.
(is that true?).

To see a non distored footage on PC, the video editing application has an option 16:9 to tell the project the footage should be streched in a 16:9 ratio. This option has no effect on the actual resolution, it is only a GUI option. (true?)

When a project is set in 16:9 mode, when exporting it to MPEG2 (or when the DV avi is encoded using an external encoder like CCE) the 16:9 option is only used to set the MPEG2 with some extra info. This info is used by the output devide like a TV to determine how to show the footage.
MPEG2 video in 4:3 mode is equal to 16:9 mode except this extra info setting. There is no difference in resolution whatsoever (true?).

So how does the TV know when the footage is played directly from camcorder it is 16:9 or 4:3 footage ? Is there also a 16:9 option hidden in the DV stream ?

Now the combination of 16:9 and 4:3 footage in one project :
When the project is set to 16:9, how are 4:3 clips shown in the editor ?
Are they streched horizontally ?
Is it possible to set the mode (16:9 or 4:3) for each clip, so the editor allways shows the footage in the right aspect ratio ?

When exporting such a project to DV (for later editing) or to MPEG2, how does the encoder handle such mixed clips ?
What about using transitions between 16:9 and 4:3 clips ?

Is it possible to use mixed mode clips in one project at all ?
And what about authoring a DVD ? Are there issues ?

I hope there are here some people who can shed some light on this issue and maybe can help me use the right project/clip settings and how to encode en author the DVD the right way.

[guns1inger]

You can go a couple of ways - only two of which will give you truely acceptable outcomes. Your options are

1. Use the 16:9 footage as is, and pillarbox the 4:3 footage. This will give your 4:3 footage a black border all the way around and will certainly draw attention to the difference between the footage

2. Squeeze your 16:9 footage vertically and add black borders top and bottom (effectively letterboxing the footage) to match the 4:3 footage. This will make the footage match, however it is bring the better quality footage down to the lower quality to do this.

3. The best option (in my opinion) is to crop and resize the 4:3 footage to match the 16:9 footage. This preserves the quality of the 16:9 footage, but may soften the 4:3 footage due to resizing.

You really can't easily move between the two formats if you leave them as is, as when you output and author one will always be distorted.

If you choose to author the 16:9 and 4:3 clips seperately then you must use authoring software that allows for multiple titlesets, as 16:9 and 4:3 footage cannot co-exist int he same titleset.

[FulciLives]

You can go a couple of ways - only two of which will give you truely acceptable outcomes. Your options are

1. Use the 16:9 footage as is, and pillarbox the 4:3 footage. This will give your 4:3 footage a black border all the way around and will certainly draw attention to the difference between the footage.

Actually the 4:3 material will fill the screen from top to bottom and only have black on the sides ... when viewed on a 16x9 TV.

However, as stated by guns1inger, when viewed on a 4:3 TV the 4:3 footage will have black on the top and bottom as well as the sides.

See this thread for picture examples ---> CLICK HERE

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[guns1inger]

If the 4:3 is mixed with 16:9 in a single video, which I believe is the intention here, then it would be windowboxed as you can't vary the format during a single video.

[Xymox]

The footage will only be shown on 16:9 TV's.

Ok, is there a simple way to add those bars to the 4:3 clips in an easy lossyless manner in a 16:9 project ? Do i have to add them before inserting them in a project ?

I use Premiere Pro 1.5.1, is it possible to add those bars there ?
Does it affect the DV quality in some way or does this not affect the source DV quality at all ?

When i show 4:3 material (TV shows on DVD, TV signals in 4:3 etc) on my TV, it does stretch it horizontally. This reduces the side bars shown. It is a Loewe nemos 32 TV, so it does this 4:3 to widescreen quite nice without distorting the image too much (so not a complete 16:9 stretch).

When i add borders to the 4:3 material in a 16:9 project and build a DVD. How does the TV show the 4:3 bordered clips ? Does it see it is 4:3 and streches it like other 4:3 material or does it see it as 16:9 material and show as it is ?

[FulciLives]

Did you even bother to look at the link I provided?

It would answer most of your questions.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman