cropping HD to SD
 

I have an HD project and one of the final deliverables is an SD version, 720x280 4:3. What is the best way to do this? Add black bars or crop it? I am using FCS 2.

I tried cropping it in Compressor, but its messing with the aspect ration.

Thanks.

If your ratio is 4:3 then you're gonna have a resolution of 720x480, not 280. I don't know if that's why you're getting a funky aspect ratio.

You can do the bars or the crop, depending on how you shot your footage and how much time you're willing to spend. The bars are easiest and fastest and will work no matter how you shot. But if you shot with the crop in mind, centering the subject inside the 4:3 "safe zone" then you can crop, and it might look better.

Really, it depends on the look you're going for and what you think the audience would prefer. When I go to local broadcast (for now), I prefer to crop and not have bars.

Thanks for the response. Yeah, 280 was a typo - meant 720x480.

It was shot with a 4:3 crop in mind, so we ended up going that route. The loss of quality is a real shame when you go from HD to SD.

In Compressor, how would you go about adding the bars. I couldn't figure it out.
Thanks.