need to understand 16:9 DV format

[jmwismer]

Hi there,

So far I just used 4:3 and did editing with Studio8, used to it and happy with it.
I just got a new DV camcorder which can capture in 16:9 format. How does that work? I thought DV was a fixed 720x576 (which is 5:4 and not 4:3 in any case...), so how can DV be 16:9?

I just recorded 16:9 to see, edited and resaved it with my 4:3 Studio8. The image on the PC looked narrowed, but comes back perfect on 16:9 TV. Am I losing resolution in the process?

Also, when I add a picture in my Studio8 movie, then render it to tape, the image is expectedly widened. Not much i can do there with Studio8 I suppose...

thx,
j

[aedipuss]

same number of pixels, they are just shaped differently. wider. and it's 4:3 no matter what you think. again it's got to do with shape and the size displayed on a tv.

[thecoalman]

It's called anamorphic, the video cam records like this (note the people look tall and skinny and this is 720x480 NTSC):




You encode and author as 16:9, all this does is set a flag that it's 16:9. It doesn't change the resolution nor does it add anything to the video. The DVD player sees 16:9 flag and letterboxes the video adding black bars top and bottom which gives you this:




How you do it with Pinnacle i have no idea, also be aware that some cams (and software) will record a pseudo 16:9 where the black bars are added by the cam or software like in the second picture. You don't want that.

[jmwismer]

thank you guys.

This means I can shoot 16:9, edit with the skinny look, and render 16:9 with no probs (no change in resolution, just the 16:9 flag that changes).

I am left with the problem of pasting photos into my video editing. The photos come in a "square pixel" format, and hence look fat when rendered along with the 16:9 movie. One work-around would be to batch-squeeze my pictures. Any idea of a tool to do that?

thx again,
j

[gadgetguy]

I am left with the problem of pasting photos into my video editing. The photos come in a "square pixel" format, and hence look fat when rendered along with the 16:9 movie. One work-around would be to batch-squeeze my pictures. Any idea of a tool to do that?

thx again,
j

Irfanview

[jmwismer]

Thank you guys, IrfanView or FastStone Photo Resizer look like they should do the job. None propose a 4:3 to 16:9 conversion. Excuse my ignorance, but what scaling shall I provide to do the trick?

Here a try:

4:3 is 1.33333
16:9 is 1.77777

so if I want to compress my images to fake a 16:9 capture, I have to do a horizontal compression to 1.3333/1.7777 which is 75%, correct?