Betacam J3 Sony output as 16:9

[Loganp]

How do I out put the stream to 16:9 .. I’m trying to record using black magic video assist but it’s doing it as 4:3 .. I want it in 16:9

[dellsam34]

You can't, If the frame is 4:3 it has to be captured in 4:3, Stretching it horizontally is wrong, The engineers who designed this stuff are not stupid.

[Loganp]

No the video says 16:9 in the colour bars section .. I should have mentioned this .. so I basically want the output the same

[dellsam34]

16/9 means letterboxed, As far as I know there is no anamorphic for the Betacam format, this is not a function of the J-3, You would have to capture the video as is in 4:3 with the black bars, then in software crop the top and bottom sections to obtain 16/9 frame, Otherwise post a small clip or screen shots of what you see so we can take a look at if you want help.

[Quint]

@LoganP
J3 can play 4:3 and (stronger) anamorphic 16:9 formats without problems, and DigiBeta cassettes can contain both. (Sorry @dellsam34, I fear you are wrong there)
I don't know if your software flags the output correctly, but it should, when I used it the last time f. e. the old Blackmagic capture software "Media Express" did (but only 2ch-audio).
Also you should just see if the video is 16:9 - if strong eggheads then it's 16:9...

By the way: Color bars text must not be right, I often saw the wrong format there.

[Skiller]

How do I out put the stream to 16:9 ..

There is no technical difference between 4:3 and anamorphic 16:9. Hence, you may interpret the capture as either one (well, the correct one) when doing the encoding or post-processing. It doesn't matter what the capture software thinks it is. Flags can be ignored and changed, no big deal.

[dellsam34]

@LoganP
J3 can play 4:3 and (stronger) anamorphic 16:9 formats without problems, and DigiBeta cassettes can contain both. (Sorry @dellsam34, I fear you are wrong there)
I don't know if your software flags the output correctly, but it should, when I used it the last time f. e. the old Blackmagic capture software "Media Express" did (but only 2ch-audio).
Also you should just see if the video is 16:9 - if strong eggheads then it's 16:9...

By the way: Color bars text must not be right, I often saw the wrong format there.

No, and as skiller mentioned there is no 16:9 in any Betacam SD formats, 720x486 or 720x576 is all what you can get out of it, I'm not aware that the J-3 which I have one supports WSS flags natively, If it does I would like you to show me a demonstration. Or point me where I can get a tape with 16/9 flag to demonstrate on my channel.

[Quint]

I had a lot of these to work with, you can believe me. If there is any FLAG set in the DigiBetacam-format I don't know, but it is very common that you get anamorphic content, at least in Germany.
And by the way: Why shouldn't? Who prevents you from taking an anamorhic source and put it on a DigiBeta cassette?

[Skiller]

Yep, that's what I meant with "there is no technical difference between 4:3 and anamorphic 16:9" maybe add "to the player and any kind of output signal from it".

[dellsam34]

If there is any FLAG set in the DigiBetacam-format I don't know

Anamorphic recording is not the point I was making nor the OP quest, The question is whether the J3 can output 16:9 by sending a WSS flag or not, Obviously this is not the case and you failed to prove it and falsly acusing me of being wrong. Can I record anamorphic into a 4:3 frame? Sure, I've done it numerous times with almost any SD format, But that's not what the OP is doing, He is capturing not recording.

[Skiller]

For the capture I don't see how anything could go wrong here. You can only capture what's on the tape because the player has no means of changing it (it cannot letterbox for example). The capture process is the same as always. Afterwards you look at the capture and determine what you got and treat it accordingly.


Btw, the WSS line can be recorded to tape and output during playback without the player knowing or caring about it. But it's not changing anything for capture, it's for making connected displays switch aspect ratio automatically.



This is what the WSS signal actually looks like, it's a sequence of short and long dashes (=Bits) in the first half of the first line:


[Attachment 63575 - Click to enlarge]

And if you read this out it says quite a lot:

WSS status @ line 0 (23):
Run-In-Code found @ 7
Start-Code found @ 36
Group 1 (Picture Format) start @ 60:
* 4:3 full format, 576 lines, full screen
Group 2 (Picture Enhancements) start @ 84:
* camera mode
* standard PAL
* no helper
* reserved (0)
Group 3 (Subtitles) start @ 108:
* no subtitles in teletext
* no 'open subtitles'
Group 4 (others) start @ 126:
* no surround sound
* no copyright/unknown
* copying not restricted

[Quint]

If there is any FLAG set in the DigiBetacam-format I don't know

Obviously this is not the case and you failed to prove it and falsly acusing me of being wrong

Too sick to answer any more. You are right. Be happy.

[dellsam34]

Btw, the WSS line can be recorded to tape and output during playback without the player knowing or caring about it. But it's not changing anything for capture, it's for making connected displays switch aspect ratio automatically.

Some consumer VCR's mainly in Europe did have WSS feature via a button on the front labeled 16/9, Also some consumer camcorders did have the widescreen feature. As far as pro equipment I have the S&W TBS-800 capture device that can write WSS into tape along an external video source and read it from a tape during capturing, but never seen a SD Betacam machine with 16:9 option, So unless the OP has one of those capture devices I mentioned he will have to do this in software, Also he may have letterboxed tapes with active black bars recorded as part of the video, I have few Betacam SP tapes like that, Those have to be cropped in software for a pure 16:9 frame.