4:3 to 16:9 conversion...

[vasudev71]

Hi,

Is there any free/professional software that can take a 4:3 DV AVI and convert it to 16:9 (widescreen) format with no loss in picture quality? Also, will the converted 16:9 MPEG-2 smoothly run on all NTSC DVD players and also on PAL DVD players?
I heard that PAL doesn't support 16:9 (widescreen). Is this correct?

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

- VS

[jAyVId]

you may have noticed that 16/9 is 4/3 x 4/3?

if you get your 4/3 footage into say adobe premiere and vertically stretch it by 4/3 = 1.33333 then you have achieved what you seek, at least that is what my sony dvcam seems to do - the widescreen option is not wider than 4/3

[mpucoder]

If you're talking about shooting video with a normal aspect camera and then showing it as widescreen, and having it look normal, just crop it to 720x405. Then mark it as letterboxed. 4:3 monitors will show it as letterboxed, and widescreen monitors (if the player is set right) will show it full screen.
Or you can do as above, but mark it as anamorphic.

[fletch]

Hi mpucoder,

Interesting suggestion, I will try that tonight.. What do i crop to for PAL video ?

Thanks

Fletch

[mpucoder]

Oops (shit happens when it's late) wrong values. For NTSC letterboxed crop to 720x360, PAL is 720x432.

[Jestorius]

jAyVId - do you use the 16:9 option in the DVCam or do you have the real 16:9 optic?

[jAyVId]

Jestorius

I used to use the 16/9 option in the DVCAM but realised I was actually shooting less screen area because it doesnt give anymore real estate but in fact less!! Vertical rsolution is better though, thats why 16/9 looks a bit sharper

nowadays I shoot everything in 4/3 and stretch in premiere as above, if required, ok the vertical resolution is slighly less but not all my customers can tell

would love to afford the optics, but I dont favor screw on attachments

[Jestorius]

I use the 16:9 from Centuryoptics. It gives me real 16:9 with all the pixels on a PD150. You miss a range of the original zoom but it works well. What value you use in premier to strech the picture? Because if I grab a picture from the DVD it is 1024x576 but what I get with the optic is 720x576 with 16:9 pixel aspect.

[jAyVId]

Jestorius

as i mentioned above i use 1.333 vertical stretch and recan it as anamorphic ( if fielded the operation is a little more complicated, XL2 no prob)

how much light loss is there thru your 16/9 lens?

[Jestorius]

I didn't noticed any. http://www.centuryoptics.com/products/video/digital/dig16-9.html