EDIUS 4 trial - wrong video size

[LSchafroth]

I have some DV footage that is 720x480.

When I view them in Media player and show file information they show it is a 640x480 file. If I load it into VirtualDub it shows as a 720x480.

When I load the file into EDIUS to edit, it pads black boarders to the left and right sides making it 720. Changing the aspect ratio and stretching the footage vertically.

Is this a problem with the DV codec EDIUS installs?

I'm using Vista Ultimate and have not installed any DV codecs as of yet.

LS

[guns1inger]

g-spot it to confirm the contents

[LSchafroth]

g-spot it to confirm the contents

The footage is directly from my MiniDV camera and is 720x480.

I did G-Spot, TMPGenc, Procoder 2, VirtualDub and they all report it as 720x480.

EDIUS and Media Player both see it as 640x480. Am I correct in assuming the only way Media Player in Vista will play DV footage is with the DV codec installed with EDIUS?

LS

[mats.hogberg]

I'd say the 640x480 you're seeing, is the video resized to 4:3 AR, not the actual video properties?

/Mats

[LSchafroth]

Here is the gspot info:

[LSchafroth]

Here is the codecs for DV:

[LSchafroth]

Apparently I pay attention as well as my team plays football!!

WORTHLESS!!

I was selecting the 16:9 profile when loading the AVI file into EDIUS. Once I changed it to 4:3 it no longer scewed the picture and added the black bars.

Media Player still reports it at 640x480, but that's not the real issue anyway. Everything else reports it correctly.

Umm....Nevermind???

LS

[JMMac]

Believe it or not, everything is working as you want it to.

The issue is PAR - pixel aspect ratio. DV is 720X480, but the pixels are NOT square. To see this your self, notice that 720 divided by 480 is NOT the same as 4 divided by 3 - and all standard def video is 4:3. The way this is dealt with is that the file contains the PAR value that tells the decoder/renderer/player what the right aspect ratio is. So, when media player gets a hold of the file, it knows it has to do some conversion to get 4:3 aspect ratio (since PC pixels ARE square). In your case, the player is squishing the video horizontally to get 640X480, which IS 4:3.

Yes, you lose some horizontal resolution. But your video isn't unnaturally stretched. That's the tradeoff you face...

This is probably one of the things tabout PC video editing that will continue to drive you mad forever. But its not nearly as frustrating as interlacing issues...

[LSchafroth]

This is probably one of the things tabout PC video editing that will continue to drive you mad forever. But its not nearly as frustrating as interlacing issues...

Speaking of Interlacing.....

Allof my footage is DV from my camera. 720x480. I will always be viewing it on a TV. The one I use the most is a 46" HDTV. I've heard you should always leave it interlaced if watching on a TV.

Since everything is headed for High Def, should I deinterlace all my footage and keep it progressive?

LS

[JMMac]

I wouldn't, for at least three reasons.

First, High-Def does NOT equal progressive. The "i" in 1080i means interlaced! And since your source is DV, you inherently have 480i content. Nothing you can do is going to truly make this source "hi-def".

Second reason. Display systems are made, at a hardware level, to deal with interlaced content (e.g. DVDs, SD broadcasts, etc.). They are REALLY GOOD at turning interlaced content into a good looking display. Trying to do this in software as well will be hard and time consuming.

Third, some content just looks better interlaced. My own experience with home DV stuff is that since there is typically a lot of camera shake, extreme panning, etc, the fact that interlaced is (in a way) giving you 60fps makes the video "smoother" than any 30fps format can be. Over the past 6 months I have tried a LOT of deinterlacing techniques, and none of them produce the fluidity of motion that you see in interlaced content.

I think there is a basic rule of format conversion - unless there is a compelling reason to do it, don't. You usually end up losing to much. As long as DVDs are around, there will be lots of display hardware capable of doing a great job of displaying interlaced content.