How embed 16:9 flag in QT files?
 

Hi guys, my anamorphic footage is being displayed as 720X480 but is not viewing onscreen as widescreen...my guess is the anamorphic flag is not present allowing QT to know it's widescreen footage- is there a way to get QT to play my anamorphic footage in it's correct aspect ratio?

AFAIK, Quicktime does not understand that flag. It is normal behavior for anamorphic 16:9 DV files to appear in a 720x480 window on a computer screen. You will probably have to render them for square pixels (eg: 852x480) to correct this.

I'm not sure, but this may be codec-dependent. I haven't worked much with h.264 but I think it may correctly display as widescreen using Quicktime. However widescreen DV files exported from Final Cut Pro will not display in the correct proportions. But note that this is also the case for 4:3 DV footage. It also displays as 720x480 but with square pixels it would need to be 640x480.

Widescreen .avi's play back at 16:9 in the Quicktime 7 Pro player on my system without any issues. If you go into "show movie properties" under the "window" menu, then highlight "video track" and go to the "visual settings" tab, you'll see a check-box marked "preserve aspect ratio." If you check it, it will see the 16:9 flag and display the video properly. I forget how I managed to get that check box to stay checked by default, but I pulled it off somehow, and now anytime I open an anamorphic widescreen .avi it plays back correctly automatically.

I'd also add that you can adjust the AR setting in VLC on a case-by-case basis as well, so there's no reason to render with square pixels... between VLC and QT, there are two ways at least to watch 16:9 anamorphic video on a computer.

As an aside, I find it odd that the Quicktime 7 player will display a 16:9 anamorphic .avi at the correct ratio, but at the same time it doesn't seem to do the same for QT-encoded .mov files at web-ready resolutions without adding a hard-coded letterbox. Seems a bit strange.

Excellent responses- will look into the video track and see if I see the line you're referring to- thanks again.

Thanks Boyd & Jarrod.

Tried it and nothing happened....QT just can't seem to understand the change in aspect ratio....well at least FCP displays it correctly and that's what is important anyway.

Thanks all.

Weird. It works perfectly for me. Of course, I'm on a PC. Seems weird that QT would work better on a PC. :)

Try VLC though, it's available for Mac. It will literally play any kind of video you throw at it. And if you go into the preferences, you can force it to display video at 16:9.

Or you could just manually enter "1024 x 576" and disable "preserve aspect ratio" in video track properties. Make sure "Highest Quality" is selected as well while you're there. Then save the QT Movie. That should do the trick.

My guess is that you have put in some incorrect settings when exporting the footage out of your NLE. Double check your settings.

If you're still having issues, post the settings used here...

Yes, this is how I do it. **although 1024x576 might not be the values you need**

Change the values in the video tab in QT Pro to the correct values and hit command S - this will simply re-write the header and not change any data as such (and because of this even a 8 gb movie will save in a second or two - ie: no need to re - export)

Works for me too:

Movie Properties -> Video Track -> Uncheck Aspect Ratio -> enter 853x480

480*(16 / 9) = 853

You can then recheck the preserve aspect ratio and save the movie. Should work with no issues.

I am wondering why your anamorphic footage is not being displayed properly by QT from the get-go. How did you acquire it?

More than likely because of a "double negative". The timeline is anamorphic, and then you export as 16:9, which sort of cancels each other out creating a 4:3 QT Movie. I don't know the actual technical reason behind it, but that's the general conclusion I came to.

As I said, re-check your timeline and export settings. If you enter everything CORRECTLY, the movie will work without any of the changing of movie properties.

Anamorphic footage is 16:9 squeezed into 4:3. The timeline in FCP stretches it back to it's 'proper looking' shape, but technically it's still 720x480.

the word anamorphic comes from anamorphosis, which means (one of it's meanings) a distorted projection or drawing that appears normal when viewed from a particular point or with a suitable mirror or lens.