iMovie converting 16:9 DV-AVI and DV Tape to 4:3 *.dv files.

[Cyrax9]

I'm not sure whether to stick this under "Mac" or "DV and HDV" so please feel free to move the thread if it's in the wrong forum.

I recently "finished" a project for college using a Dell running Windows XP and Adobe Premiere Pro 2.0; I have saved all of my master footage, as well as an exported movie in the DV-AVI format. Furthermore, I printed the whole video to tape using the following settings:

- NTSC 16:9 DV Widescreen - 720x480
- 16-bit 48kHz Audio

The tape (and the entire project) was shot using a Sony DSR-PDX10 in DVCAM mode using the DV Widescreen setting. The original footage was captured on my Mac using iMovie, and shows up just fine as 16:9 DV Widescreen. The final project was exported using Adobe Premiere Pro 2.0 on the aforementioned Windows PC (Dell) using 16:9 DV Widescreen.

Here's where things get confusing. The tape I made using Adobe Premiere Pro 2.0 displays on the camera as 16:9 Widescreen, as does the original AVI file under Windows XP in Windows Media Player, and Mac OS X 10.4.9 in Quicktime. Using Mac OS X 10.2.8 however, I get a "4:3 Fullscreen" image that's "squeezed" during playback.

I decided to try using my Mac Mini running an Intel Core 2 Duo Processor and OS X 10.4.9 to export the original AVI to two more tapes, but I'm running into a problem. Everytime I import the movie into iMovie, either via DV Tape (DVCAM Mode) or DV-AVI file, I get a "pillarboxed" image with black bars on the left and the right "squeezing" my video. When exported to tape and played back over the Sony DSR-PDX10 I now have a "squeezed" image with black bars on the sides on an SDTV. I had previously checked off the "automatic pillarboxing & letterboxing" setting in iMovie, so I unchecked it and tried this again with the same result -- iMovie refuses to recognize my NTSC DV Widescreen video as Widescreen and keeps squeezing it. I no longer have access to the Dell, and so far, I've had the recording playback as follows:

- Sony DSR-PDX10: Tape recording plays back as 16:9 DV Widescreen in DVCAM mode and looks the way it's supposed to.

- Dell PC running Windows XP: Video plays/records to PDX10/DV-AVI in Widescreen using Adobe Premiere Pro 2.0, video plays in Widescreen using Windows Media Player.

- PowerBook G4 running OS X 10.2.8: Video plays in Quicktime, but is recognized as a 4:3 file and subsequently "squeezed," although no black bars are visible anywhere on the video. There's no room to attempt to record onto this machine and iMovie only supports 4:3 on OS X 10.2.8

- Mac Mini running OS X 10.4.9: DV-AVI video file plays in Widescreen in Quicktime, again no black bars are visible anywhere, but the shape of the video is 16:9. Attempts to import the movie into iMovie to copy to tapes yeild a pillarboxed image with black bars on the left and right of the screen. Attempts to capture from the DV Tape in DVCAM Mode 16:9 Widescreen also yeild a pillarboxed image.

So here's my question, does anybody here know why...

1. My Camera plays the tape just fine, but my Mac won't import it properly?

2. My Mac Mini plays the AVI file just fine, but imports it and pillarboxes it?

3. My PowerBook plays the file in 4:3 rather than 16:9 while my Mac Mini does not. (Is this due to the age of OS X 10.2.8??)

4. A workaround to this problem using the equipment I have since my video was intended to be displayed in Widescreen and I'm trying to make NTSC DV Widescreen tapes in DV SP Mode but can't do so until I can work around the pillarboxing issue.

I no longer have access to the Dell, the equipment I still have access to is as follows:

- Sony DSR-PDX10
- DVCAM Mode Tape in 16:9 DV Widescreen (plays properly on the PDX10) -- this works just fine in the PDX10.
- Mac Mini running OS X 10.4.9 and iMovie
- AVISynth lacking an "export to tape" ability.

If anyone can please help me get my video to keep the proper aspect ratio I'd appreciate it. This is driving me nuts, especially since I have to finish the tapes before I start making the DVDs of the project and I need to have iMovie stop pillarboxing my video. I have no money for more software, so please attempt workarounds using the software I have or other free software if iMovie can't be worked around. I'll be getting Final Cut Studio 2 in the fall, but I don't have the money for it just now and I need these tapes finished soon. Thank you all in advance.

Regards,
Cyrax9

NOTE: I'd have never used a Windows PC if we weren't in Windows labs, I have no idea why the footage is randomly changing the AR when imported into iMovie or older versions of quicktime. The camera plays it correctly, and the DV-AVI file was exported correctly, and the original Project File was an NTSC 48kHz DV Widescreen file too, so there's no reason this video should be displaying anything in 4:3 when the 4:3 AR was never even touched during production or post production.

[havema-1]

iMovie doesn't recognize the 4:3 vs 16:9 aspect ratio of AVI.

It does recognize the 4:3 vs 16:9 aspect ratio of of DV files if they are flagged with a recent (v7?) version of QT.

So: Open the AVI with QT Player Pro 7.x or MPEG Streamclip and export the AVI as a 16:9 flagged DV (.dv stream).

Then import it to iMovie, or use this shortcut to save time and HD space:

http://www.sjoki.uta.fi/~shmhav/iMovie_HD_6_bugs.html#quick_DV_import

[Cyrax9]

havema-1, thank you for you tremendous help! I didn't know that about iMovie and was becoming increasingly frustrated and perplexed as to why the 16:9 footage wasn't being treated as 16:9, again thank you.

Your suggestions worked perfectly and the "Import workaround" was much appreciated -- I've been trying to figure out how to do that since I started using OS X 10.4 in December after running a machine with OS X 10.2.8 in the past. I'll be getting a new NLE in October with OS X 10.5 on it, but until then I'm using a Mac Mini and holding off on my purchase of Final Cut Studio 2 and the Adobe CS 3 Master Collection. Ahh well, what can I do? iMovie is a toy (a very good toy, but a toy nonetheless,) the editing labs I used Premiere Pro in are having their roof replaced, and the Dells in their are so old that the dust has collected dust inside of them, and Windows sucks. (Yes -- I'm partial to Macs and 'nix-based systems.) At least I won't have to deal with this in October -- in truth, had my old Alienware PC not died, it'd still be in use until October and I'd be going insane right now.

Again thank you for your help. One thing I forgot to mention though that should probably be noted for future reference. My video was a little over 17 minutes long -- I had to split the AVI in AVIDemux because MPEG Streamclip only supports Type-I AVI files and their 2GB limit. My file was just under 4GB and wouldn't import without being split -- not a problem, I just split it and converted it and it's fine. Just a word to the wise for anyone else who might use this workaround to get their 16:9 footage back into 16:9. I'm so glad I can watch this without it being "squeezed" anymore. Thank you again.

[tomlee59]

Matti is too modest to advertise this fact, so I'll do it: His website is a rich source of knowledge and wisdom (not only for video stuff, but Mac things as well). The material there, plus what's scattered throughout the posts of this forum, cover pretty much what you need to know, and then some. It should be bookmarked on your browser.

[havema-1]

I'm glad you got it working, Cyrax9!

Thanks for the tip about AVI. Is MPEG Streamclip limit really 2GB for AVI? Its manual says:

"MPEG Streamclip makes an AVI 1.0 file, with all the limitations of this format (for example, the file cannot exceed 4GB). And many video and audio codecs are not supported in AVI files. Supported video codecs are DV, Cinepak, BMP, JPEG, DivX 6.5-6.6 and 5.2.1, 3ivx and XviD."

...and thanks for the kind words, tomlee59! I started the video page as a personal memo when (XS)VCD tools for the Mac were almost non-existent and difficult to use. There are no inline images because a text-only page is easier to maintain. I try to include cook-book-style instructions to compensate the images for those that are eager enough to read

http://www.sjoki.uta.fi/~shmhav/SVCD_on_a_Macintosh.html