Resolution woes

[newsphotog]

With this new age of online video and exporting in various file types, I've run it my misunderstanding of resolutions. My biggest question is about a setting in Premiere Pro - 720x480 Widescreen. How can it be widescreen 16:9 when 720x480 is a 4:3 ratio?

What's the significance of 854x480? Anamorphic vs. Square Pixel?

[poisondeathray]

anamorphic is non-square pixel. So the video is "stretched" on display to 854x480 (which gives you 16:9 AR), because of the display flag

Computer monitors have square pixels, so on display , the image has to be "stretched" to ensure the proper aspect ratio

720x480 with square pixels gives you 1.5 AR, not 4:3

720x480 with 4:3 display flag will playback at 640x480 or 720x540 (depending on media player), giving you 4:3

720x480 with 16:9 display flag will playback at 853x480 (or 854x480 depending on media player), giving you 16:9

For online video, everything should use square pixels 1:1 for compatibility. So you might resize 720x480 16:9 source to 720x400, for example. The AR will off a bit @ 1.8 vs. 1.778

[jagabo]

DAR = PAR * SAR

DAR = display aspect ratio, the final shape of the picture
PAR = pixel aspect ratio, the shape of individual pixels
SAR = storage aspect ratio, the frame dimensions

For example:

DAR = PAR * SAR
4:3 = 10:11 * 704:480
4/3 = 10/11 * 704/480
1.333 = 1.333

16:9 = 40:33 * 704:480
16/9 = 40/33 * 704/480
1.778 = 1.778