GL2 footage not quite filling my NTSC monitor's screen
 

After downloading footage from a GL2 into a PC (P4, Vegas Video 3.0, ATI 8500DV video card...), I viewed the footage on a 27" flatscreen Sony NTSC monitor. The footage looked very good, but it did not fill the entire screen. It had a hybrid aspect somewhere between 4:3 and 16:9. I am still very new to the world of PC based NLE and MiniDV cameras, and therefore, I am not sure if this is normal for 720X480. If my calculations are correct, this footage would need to be about 720X525 to fill the entire screen.

In addition, I have seen some comments about de-interlacing and progreesive rendering in Vegas. I am interested in learning more.

Thanks.

Brad - Stick this on the Vegas site:

http://www.sonicfoundry.com/forums/ShowTopics.asp?ForumID=4&MessageID=141465&Page=1

You should get a swift reply.

Seeyah there

Grazie

Brad, you will need to make sure that when you imported/captured the footage you specified that it was DV aspect ratio. DV pixels aren't square, so if you import it as square pixels (1:1) aspect ratio you will find that your picture is not right.

Cheers
Aaron

Aaron, do you know how I can change this from 1:1 to the ratio needed for standard TV? Do you know what the proper ratio is to fill a standard TV with DV?

The options in capturing video from composite and S-video are many, but capture from a MiniDV source on Vegas seems to be somewhat rigid. Could be that I am not looking in the right places for these settings.

Brad

Hi Brad. I'm not really a Vegas User but if you go to File->Properties you can see the aspect ratio of your project. I assume you've set that up correctly as an NTSC project? (Assuming you're in NTSC land which I assume by the GL2)

Also if you right click on the clip in your media pool and select properties, then you can see the aspect ratio of the clip. If it doesn't match the project then there's your problem.

Hmm, I've just noticed something that I didn't pick up from your original post. Is the aspect ratio OK when just played on your VGA monitor in Vegas video? If so then you probably don't have the problem I mentioned.

The problem isn't just a simple matter of adjusting your monitors horizontal/vertical sizes is it? I don't know much about real video monitors.

Cheers
Aaron

Thanks for all the help Aaron. It now appears as though it was Windows Media Player the whole time. When I used the "Print to Tape" comand in Vegas, the video produced had the correct aspect. When I played an .avi rendered file in ATI's File Player it also had the correct aspect. I really like Window's Player, but I suppose life is all about change.

The correct aspect ratios are (according to Premiere):

NTSC has a pixel aspect of 0.9 and 1.2 for 16:9 widescreen.
PAL has a pixel aspect of 1.067 and 1.442 for 16:9 widescreen.

Hope this helps!

Originally, I was mildly disappointed with the wide angle footage (no lense add-ons) from my GL2 viewed through my computer's video card onto either monitor (equipment listed on my user profile). That was up until I burned a DVD+R with about 30 minutes of test footage. The resulting video was great. Has anyone else seen their video at less than optinal quality through an .avi file, and then seen a much improved quality through a DVD?

If your screens are OK then this should not happen. Ofcourse it
will look a tad different, but it should not be that huge a difference
in quality. Is the AVI file the one you got from your camera or is
hits an output file from an NLE for example? If so, what codec
did you use?

The files from both my captured camera footage and from my NLE (Vegas Video codec also encrypted to .avi) appear blurred when taking wide shoots at a distance of 10+ feet from any object. The close-ups have looked great all along.

My best guess now is that my computer/video card was over taxed trying to play the video at the fullest quality possible directly out of an .avi file, and the lower data rate of an MPEG2 made viewing full quality possible.

An aside related to the original issue: earlier I captured using the Vegas Codec which might explain why Windows Media Player had difficulty showing it in the correct vertical aspect.

Your thoughts and advise is always welcome.