NTSC 4:3 DV footage to NTSC 16:9 DVD. Settings?

[RathO]

I would like to encode to DVD 16:9, footage i shooted in 4:3.

I use Ulead MediaStudio Pro 7.1 to edit my DV stuff. I use CCE to encode through Frameserver 2.0.

What are the cropping settings in UMP7 so my resulting MPEG-2 file is 16:9?

Regards

[scharfis_brain]

crop 120 pixels vertically.

this means, either 60 on top and 60 on bottom.

maybe 32 on top and 88 on bottom are more suited, cause you'll get a bigger chance, that heads & eyes aren't cut off.

then add each 60 pixels on top & bottom to get you video letterboxed.

then encode it as 4:3.

I do not recommend blowing up your footage to 16:9 anamorphic, cause it will damage the interlacing or will let your video getting shimmery and blurry

[RathO]

Thanks, it works, but with black bars, and i just can't stand black bars.

I think i would prefer 16:9 anamorphic. (Just looks cool heh! :p )

BUT

I found this FAQ about AR (http://www.hometheaterforum.com/home/wsfaq.html); is the "neutral space" from letterboxed movie encoded? or just added by the player?

If the "neutral space" is encoded, i think my next footage will be recorded in "fake" 16:9. It makes the conversion easier and i can get rid of this waste (black bars). I had some old "fake" 16:9 footage that i encoded to 16:9 anamorphic in CCE and i didn't see any interlacing problem when played in MPC.

[scharfis_brain]

what is fake 16:9?

the thing those cheap cams are putting out, when set up to anamorphic?

meaning cropped 4:3 upscaled to 16:9?

I've once seen this kind of 'fake' 16:9 and never would use it. it is the worst on earth....
(diagonals are jaggy in a 4 lines count and flickering may increase)

it is better encoding with black borders added.
it is no waste at all. the encoder can concentrate on the real image and ignor the black bars.

faked 16:9, especially on interlaced content, can confuse an encoder heavily.

[RathO]

"fake 16:9", looks like 16:9, but is not really..

Ref. the settings in UMP7, i mean cropped 4:3 upscaled to 16:9 anamorphic (without black bars in encoding). Any idea?

You can take alook @ this older thread ref recording to fake 16:9: this thread (http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=61317&highlight=fake), and follow the link for Ben Siverson under "How do you get 16:9 pictures?" (Mostly the last 2 paragraphs).

Check also this (http://members.macconnect.com/users/b/ben/widescreen/index.html)

Regards

[hendrix]

have you tried using Vegas 5? it does a good job upscaling 4:3 to 16:9 with interlaced material...i've used it on a couple of projects - it looks good, Vegas does an excellect job with interlaced materials

you can frameserve from Ulead into Vegas 5 for recomposition

[RathO]

I've heard of it, and i'll give it a try, they have a trial version on their website.

I can achieve Letterboxed movie with UMP7, but i really want anamorphic for this purpose.

Thanks

:scared: ... it needs .NET Framework (??!) crap crap crap....

[vhelp]

@ RathO

Assuming from a 4:3 mode shooting..

The way I've done it, is through virtualdub and frameserving it to TMPG.

Today, I would do the same thing inside vdub, but now I would post process
it and Save As an new .AVI file (using whatever codec works for you)
But extra hard drive space is needed of course :)

Inside vdub, I would:

* open my AVI file.
* Add in a Null Transform and Resize filter

Null Transform Filter
Use the Null Transform to crop off 60 pixels from the top and bottom
totalling 120 pixels, leaving you with 360 pixels.

OPTION A

Resize Filter - for 704 pixels captured.
I would make the following settings like this:
* New width [704 ]
* New height [360 ]
* Filter mode: [Pricise Bicubic ]
* [x] Expand frame and letterbox image
* Frame width: [704 ]
* Frame height: [480 ]

OPTION B

Resize Filter - for 688 pixels captured.
I would make the following settings like this:
* New width [688 ]
* New height [360 ]
* Filter mode: [Pricise Bicubic ]
* [x] Expand frame and letterbox image
* Frame width: [704 ]
* Frame height: [480 ]

Using the above TWO filter settings would give your final source using
either of Options A or B as:

* 4:3 - 1:78.1 Aspect Ratio and 704 x 480 pixel resolution w/ letterbox.

The above is your standard 16 x 9 widescreen.

What you will see on your TV set will depend on what setup you have.
Widescreen TV vs. Standard TV.

On a Standard TV set, you'll get a letterboxed look
On a widescreen set, and depending upon your ws tv set settings, you'll
get either a 4:3 letterboxed look (either centered or other) or you'll
get an auto 16:9 look, hopefully w/ out the boarders. I don't know for
sure on this because I don't have a WS TV set, and this project is based
on a 4:3 encode.

There are other alternatives to 16 x 9 processes, but the above is what
you were looking for, and the method that I have used before.

Good luck,
-vhelp

[scharfis_brain]

my own experience tells me never using scaling on interlaced video, cause interlaced scaling is evil.
also the pseudo or fake interlaced 16:9 of the most DV-cams is crap.

so, I strongly suggest just letterboxing the 4:3 to 16:9 and then encode as simple 4:3

you'll save bitrate and quality.

let your 16:9 TV do the scaling. it is better and saver that way

[joshbm]

Here is a script I made and use:


function AspectRatio(clip a, float "ratio", float "top", float "letterbox", bool "stretch")
{
orig_width=a.width
orig_height=a.height
ratio=default(ratio,(16./9.))
top=default(top,30)
stretch=default(stretch,false)
letterbox=default(letterbox,0)
recip_letter=(letterbox!=0) ? float(1./letterbox) : 1
anewheight2=(recip_letter*orig_width)
topbot2=round((orig_height-round(anewheight2))/2.)

recip=float(1./ratio)
anewheight1=(recip*orig_width)
topbot=round((orig_height-round(anewheight1))/2.)
shift=-round((top/100.)*topbot)
cuttop=(topbot+shift)
cutbot=(topbot-shift)
dosub=(round(anewheight1)-(orig_height-(Abs(cuttop)+Abs(cutbot))))
cuttop=(cuttop!=0) ? cuttop-dosub : cuttop
cutbot=(cutbot!=0) ? cutbot-dosub : cutbot

a=a.Crop(0,cuttop,-0,-cutbot).Crop(0,0,orig_width,round(anewheight1))
a=(stretch==true) ? a.LanczosResize(orig_width,orig_height) : a
a=((stretch==true) && (letterbox!=0)) ? a.Letterbox(topbot2,topbot2) : a
a=((letterbox!=0) && (stretch==false)) ? a.AddBorders(0,topbot,0,topbot).Crop(0,0,orig_width,orig_height) : a
return a
}


Parameters:

float ratio: The desired ratio of the clip.
default: 16:9

float top: Center the picture vertically. -100 bottom, 0 middle, 100 top.
default: 30, This is usually a good number because it will not chop off heads.

bool stretch: Sometimes you want to stretch it back to original height after cropping it, so that you can flag the file later as 16:9.
default: false

float letterbox: Without this setting your movie is resized to your ratio (ex. if NTSC 720x405 = 16:9), else it will letterbox it for you back to your original input (if NTSC 720x480).
use: 0=no, 1=yes, if stretch is true, this value can be used to letterbox it over your stretched image (ex. 1.77777).
default: 0

#Example of anamorphic:
AspectRatio(ratio=2.35,top=40) # if clip=NTSC it would yield 720x306

#
AspectRatio(ratio=2.35,top=40,letterbox=1) # if clip=NTSC it would yield 720x480 letterboxed at anamorphic ratio

[bb]

Never upscale letterboxed 4:3 to anamorphic 16:9, no matter whether it is interlaced or not! All you can achieve is to loose quality and blow up video file size.

bb