Sony Z1 downconvert again (take 2, different poster!)
 

Ok, so when I go to ingest my video into FCP, I have 3 options: edge crop, letterbox or squeeze.

That's downconverting to SD, correct? If so, what if I don't want to downconvert?

Down Convert
 

You can choose to ingest straight HDV in FCP.
You must change your capture settings and Device control settings.
Then turn down convert off.


Matt Gore

If you are not downconverting, the options become meaningless. You will be capturing HDV at its native 16:9 aspect ratio.

Sorry for the delayed response. The response is... THANKS!

Next question: If I am going to downconvert my HDV video and wish to maintain the 16:9 aspect ratio, I understand that I should use the 'squeeze' option. My question is... why?

I'm using the HVR-M15U VTR for playback and downconverting thru it. It says that the squeeze option: 'Plays back with compressed horizontal screen image and maintains all images on display. Images appear vertically long.'

That confuses me. I imagine that my video will be played back on a 16:9 tv. Is it okay for the images to 'appear vertically long?' Shouldn't I just shoot in SD 16:9 to begin with? It seems like downconverting is defeating the purpose.

Educate me... please!

DV 4:3 and 16:9 have the same pixel resolution (720X480). But the pixel size aspect ratio changes. So to fill a 4:3 screen, 16:9 (wider pixels) is squished horizontally. However, when you play it over your TV, the TV (or DVD player if it's a DVD) detects the aspect ratio and plays it wide screen on a 16:9 TV, or letterboxed on a 4:3 TV.

So squeeze is what you want, to make it simple.

Letterbox forces it to be 4:3 video with black bars. You would have to actually zoom in to fill a wide screen TV.

Hope that's clear...

I think that makes it less confusing, Vito!

Riddle me this though... When I have shot and edited something previously in 16:9, when I play it on my widescreen tv, it doesn't fill the screen... it looks even more letterboxed.

I would have thought that it would have filled the entire screen.

Could be a few reasons. What are you playing? You are connecting your camera straight to your tv? Check the aspect ratio setting on your tv.

You are playing a DVD you made from your footage? Gets more complicated here. Could be you chose the wrong aspect ratio when you encoded the mpeg2 file. Could be you chose the wrong aspect ratio when you authored the DVD (though that's usually a 16:9 4:3 problem).

Check the options in your DVD player menu. Usually you can tell it what kind of tv you have, and the default is 4:3, which is wrong for you.

Check the aspect ratio setting on your tv. For example, mine lets me choose full (16:9), 4:3, zoom, and justified.

Thanks Vito!

If I'm ever in your neck of the woods, the first round is on me!

No worries. Hope it helped.

Well Vito, here's an update...

I had the settings on my DVD player incorrect. It was set for 4:3 rather than 16:9... which stretched the video wide (wife did NOT like that) and letterboxed the video.

Changed it to 16:9... and now it's exactly where it needs to be!

Yeah, I suspected something like that. I think many people don't even realize that's an option in DVD players.

Glad you got it sorted out...