Shooting footage in 16:9 mode, but w/ good results.

[vhelp]

Shooting footage in 16:9 mode, but w/ good results after all

Hi all.

I just noticed something this past weekend. hmm..

In my quest to get my Windows 98 Gold and Firewire working w/ my
DV cam and ADVC-100 devices, I did some random test of the following:

* 4:3 captures, and
* 16:9 captures.


Actually, what I did was ran an S-Video cable into my Canon ZR-10 's
S-Video out, and into my ADVC-100 device. Again, I was experimenting.
Anyways. After setting up my ZR-10 to shoot in 16:9 mode, and when I
shot some random footage with my cam, and then captured the video
(via DVIO) to a DV .AVI file and encoded the DV to MPEG-2 in 16:9
mode, I found that there were:

* No color artifacts, and
* No harizontal stair cases (aka, saw-tooth'ness) to the encoded MPEG-2 clip.


I was shocked for a while, and played around with this a bit. After re
thinking my theories on 4:3 mode vs. 16:9 mode, when shooting footage
with your DV cam, it finally dawned on me that there may be other
(reasonable) factors at play here. For instance, the following could
explain the Difference or Reason for artifacts etc:

* make/mode/brand of DV cam
* CAM's 4:3 mode vs. 16:9 mode (internal circuitry) handling of these
...two modes (ie, A - some make Interpolate the CCD and/or add to it, that they
...may only use a partial of the CCD during the 16:9 mode footaging and squeeze
...the video inside your 2" screen, B - while others may use the full
...CCD and stretch the video to fill the whole 2" screen, but produce better
...DV .AVI source files - - at least in my testing from last nights discovery.

Mind you, I'll have to do more testings. Last night, I was testing on very
low light conditions, and as you all my know, the Canon ZR-10 has poor low
light quality. But, even considering this fault, I was shooting footage at
my NEC 15" LCD screen (showing my DVIO 's capturing window) and I noticed how
the Diaginals were not saw-thooth nor color-artifacts, such as those that are
produced when I shoot w/ my Sony TRV-22 cam in 16:9 mode.


So, I guess that in a sense, I am possibly correcting myself on this issue
w/ shooting 16:9 mode in your DV cam. I think it depends upon your cam.
.
However, I theorize this..
.
If you cam's 16:9 mode squeezes the display and shows black bars inside your
view screen (on mine, it's a 2" screen) to give you the issusion that you are
shooting footage in 16:9 widescreen mode (mind you, that an Aspect Ratio of 1.778,
standard for the majority of home DV cams out there) You can bet that it will
have those issues I layed out above (ie, color-artifacts and/or saw-thooth'ness
to your DV .AVI source files)
But, if your cam shows a full screen, but Bloated'ness inside your
viewscreen, then its safe to assume (or theorize) that your source will NOT
have any of the issues I laid out above :P , and I'll go on.. to add.. that you'll
have good quality 16:9 mode footage output.., hence you should USE IT in
this case if you plan on widescreen realism.
But remember, setup your encoding for an Aspect Ratio of 1.778 processing.

has any of you all experienced this exciting finding (wakeup) as I have ??
Share your experience if you like.

Thanks for reading my latest endeavor,
-vhelp

[johnells]

All lowend DV cameras shoot letterbox widescreen not anamorphic. That is they are masking some vertical resolution and adding the black bars. Some of the mid-range cameras may process this internally (extrapolate) to 480 pixels. Then when it is played back it is stretched again horizontally to give you a full 16:9 frame.

You can do the same thing in TMPGENC. You just encode the letterboxed AVI as 16:9 AR and crop off the black lines that were added by the camera.

I think the quality of the resulting video would depend on the quality of the camera's scaling processors or the scaling software. Some are better than others.

But then again I could be wrong.

John

[vhelp]

I actually lost this thread, when I had additional findings to post, ..and I just
got lazy in bothering w/ it :P

Anyways. It dawned on me that I was in zoom mode when I was experimenting
with the first init post above. So, I was wrong with my last paragraph
theories. But, you never know. There could be some weight to it

My ZR-10 doesn't show black bars. When its firewired (or analog captured) it is
720 x 480 and would take TMPG's Video Arrange Method to re-work this to
its true 16 x 9 (1:78.1 AR) output.

But with my TRV-22 it shows the black bars (in the viewfinder window) but
when I firewire it (or analog capture it) it too is 720 x 480 as well.

The stairs case effect is still there (for both cams)

It was late that night, and I was half tired I guess.

On another note, I purchased a regular wide angle lens, which (this time)
came with ring attachements, and the lens finally fitted my TRV-22 cam.

I had originally wanted to experiement w/ my home-made 2:35.1 AR from
my 4:3 footage. But, I had a huntch that I could get slightly more detail
from the wide ange lens, (from my home-made conversation to 2:35.1 AR)
I just havent' found the time to mess with this experiment. Only bits and
pieces, as time allows. I'm in no rush. I realize that it could never replace
a TRUE 2:35.1 AR Anamorpic lens (which costs over $200 minimum)

Cheers,
-vhelp