Exporting 16:9 to 4:3 letterbox in CS3 at DVinfo.net
DV Info Net

Go Back   DV Info Net > Cross-Platform Post Production Solutions > Adobe Creative Suite

Adobe Creative Suite
All about the world of Adobe Premiere and its associated plug-ins.

Reply
 
Thread Tools Search this Thread
Old September 18th, 2009, 09:45 AM   #1
Regular Crew
 
Join Date: Feb 2009
Location: Los Angeles, CA
Posts: 196
Exporting 16:9 to 4:3 letterbox in CS3

I have a project that was shot in 16:9 SD, and edited in CS3 in a 16:9 DV project. Now I want to export a sequence to 4:3 letterbox (720x480) in MPEG2. I have tried doing this, and the footage itself looks ok, but the graphics (lower thirds and titles) are not in the correct spots. Is there a way to export from the media encoder to get the proper framing (essentially 16:9 with letterboxing)?

The only other idea I have is to export a high-quality 16:9 version, re-import into a 4:3 project, and export that as 4:3, but since this is a something I will be doing every week, and the final sequence is 1 hour long, exporting two files could take about 4-5 hours, instead of half that.

Any ideas?
Natan Pakman is offline   Reply With Quote
Old September 18th, 2009, 11:00 AM   #2
Inner Circle
 
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: Woodinville, WA USA
Posts: 3,467
Why would you want to jump through all those hoops? Just do it as a 16:9 export and the DVD player or TV set will do the letterboxing.
Adam Gold is offline   Reply With Quote
Old September 18th, 2009, 11:27 AM   #3
Major Player
 
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Satellite Beach, Fl
Posts: 784
When I do commercials and have to send them to DG-Fast Channel that is what I have to do. I export it to Cineform and then reexport it to the DG settings (which are VERY specific) With Cineform the quality does not suffer. That is the great thing about an intermediate codec.
Jerry Porter is offline   Reply With Quote
Old September 18th, 2009, 12:19 PM   #4
Regular Crew
 
Join Date: Feb 2009
Location: Los Angeles, CA
Posts: 196
Quote:
Originally Posted by Adam Gold View Post
Why would you want to jump through all those hoops? Just do it as a 16:9 export and the DVD player or TV set will do the letterboxing.
The reason I NEED to jump through these hoops is that I am not delivering this video to a TV set, but rather to a server of a local TV station, that needs 4:3 footage.

Jerry, I don't use Cineform but in any case the process you describe takes 2 steps of exporting, which is what I'm currently doing. If anybody has a good idea of how to do it in one step, I'm all ears.
Natan Pakman is offline   Reply With Quote
Old September 18th, 2009, 12:20 PM   #5
Major Player
 
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Satellite Beach, Fl
Posts: 784
Quote:
Originally Posted by Natan Pakman View Post
Jerry, I don't use Cineform but in any case the process you describe takes 2 steps of exporting, which is what I'm currently doing. If anybody has a good idea of how to do it in one step, I'm all ears.
Same here!!
Jerry Porter is offline   Reply With Quote
Old September 18th, 2009, 01:09 PM   #6
Inner Circle
 
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: Woodinville, WA USA
Posts: 3,467
Quote:
Originally Posted by Natan Pakman View Post
I am not delivering this video to a TV set, but rather to a server of a local TV station...
Ah, got it. Sorry for the misunderstanding.

Are they requiring that it be delivered that way? I'm wondering if you could still just do proper widescreen and let them letterbox it when they send it out. Of course, then you run the risk of them squeezing or cropping or otherwise screwing it up.
Adam Gold is offline   Reply With Quote
Old September 23rd, 2009, 08:16 AM   #7
Regular Crew
 
Join Date: Feb 2009
Location: Los Angeles, CA
Posts: 196
Unfortunately the server that this local TV station does not play 16:9 footage properly (it vertically stretches it) so need to do 2 exports. There comes my next question:

Since I need to export once in 16:9, import that into a 4:3 project, and export again using specific settings, in what format should I export the video the first time around for it to be of the highest quality when re-importing into the 4:3 project?

I don't know if exporting to uncompressed avi (despite the file size) is what makes sense, or whether the same format (MPEG2) I will use to re-export the project, at a higher bit rate, is functionally equivalent.

Any ideas?
Natan Pakman is offline   Reply With Quote
Old September 26th, 2009, 11:23 PM   #8
Regular Crew
 
Join Date: Jun 2009
Location: Brisbane Australia
Posts: 114
Hi Natan. I apologise if I'm missing something but is there any reason that you are not creating it in a 4:3 project from the beginning?
Gregory Gesch is offline   Reply With Quote
Old September 28th, 2009, 10:02 AM   #9
Regular Crew
 
Join Date: Feb 2009
Location: Los Angeles, CA
Posts: 196
Quote:
Originally Posted by Gregory Gesch View Post
Hi Natan. I apologise if I'm missing something but is there any reason that you are not creating it in a 4:3 project from the beginning?
Greg, I am edited this project in a 16:9 project b/c the priority for the client is to have clips of this show on Youtube, and in my opinion, 4:3 video looks poor on Youtube (it's always letterboxed on the sides).

It really isn't that big of a deal to export the project as a high quality avi and re-import into a 4:3 project, to export a second time. It would, however, be nice if there was a way to do this in one step.
Natan Pakman is offline   Reply With Quote
Old September 28th, 2009, 06:11 PM   #10
Regular Crew
 
Join Date: Jun 2009
Location: Brisbane Australia
Posts: 114
Thanks for the explain Natan, yes couldn't agree more about YouTube. Have you tried opening a new 4:3 project and importing the 16:9 project into it and then scaling it? Not sure if you can do that in all versions but CS3 can.
Gregory Gesch is offline   Reply With Quote
Old September 29th, 2009, 07:45 AM   #11
Regular Crew
 
Join Date: Feb 2009
Location: Los Angeles, CA
Posts: 196
Greg, I can certainly scale the video, but that doesn't solve my problem, because I still can't export ONE TIME from my 16:9 project into a 4:3 file. Additionally, I will lose some parts of the image on the side, AND the quality will be reduced since it will be blown up.

In any case, I have absolutely no problem with the show being letterboxed; that was never an issue.
Natan Pakman is offline   Reply With Quote
Old September 29th, 2009, 05:37 PM   #12
Regular Crew
 
Join Date: Jun 2009
Location: Brisbane Australia
Posts: 114
Sorry Natan, please accept my apologies. Before posting yesterday I did a quick check that it would work, but mistakingly dragged footage not the project sequence.
Gregory Gesch is offline   Reply
Reply

DV Info Net refers all where-to-buy and where-to-rent questions exclusively to these trusted full line dealers and rental houses...

B&H Photo Video
(866) 521-7381
New York, NY USA

Scan Computers Int. Ltd.
+44 0871-472-4747
Bolton, Lancashire UK


DV Info Net also encourages you to support local businesses and buy from an authorized dealer in your neighborhood.
  You are here: DV Info Net > Cross-Platform Post Production Solutions > Adobe Creative Suite

Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search

 



All times are GMT -6. The time now is 04:51 AM.


DV Info Net -- Real Names, Real People, Real Info!
1998-2024 The Digital Video Information Network