maximum quality when converting 4:3 to 16:9
 

Hello,

I'm working on a project and using a lot of footage that was shot in 4:3 last year, and will be using 16:9 footage as well. This hasn't been a problem, because I just import my 4:3 stuff into Premiere and stretch it out.... but is there a better way of converting besides grabbing the grips and stretching.... could I do something else that would save quality of the images? I'm using premiere and after effects...

any help would be great!!
thanks,
Matt

Anytime you increase the size of an image, whether it's height - width - or both. You'll degrade your image.

To keep the 4x3 at their best, you'll have to leave them the same size, and just crop the top and bottom off so that they 'look' 16x9.

After effects is better at stretching than premiere, but it'll always degrade.

okay, so do I open the clip in a 4:3 file and then crop and xport again... then open it into a 16:9 file? will it come out the same size or smaller? I'll give it a try and post my results...

thanks for the help!