How Bad Is Fake Widescreen On Consumer Cameras?

Mick Foley · December 21st, 2005, 08:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Michael Wisniewski

Yup, you're camcorder is recording anamorphic widescreen video. Now all you have to do is to format it properly for widescreen DVD output.

... basically tell your NLE/DVD creation software, that your video is anamorphic widescreen - fyi, your camcorder won't letterbox the anamorphic video for you, you'll have to burn it to a DVD or play it back on a computer or widescreen TV to see it displayed properly.

Visit our Premiere forum for assistance with your software.

Thank you so much Michael! :)

Mick Foley · December 21st, 2005, 10:06 PM

I just thought of something right now. I'm able to turn on the "fake widescreen" as well as the stretch kind at the same time. Would this mean I could have a 2.35 image?

Adam Woodworth · January 3rd, 2006, 08:55 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Michael Wisniewski

If the image fills the screen but looks squished like an old spaghetti western, your camcorder is recording true anamorphic 16:9 video. If the image is letterboxed, then your camcorder is recording 4:3 letterboxed video.

This is not necessarily true. For example, the Sony DCR-TRV33 and Canon XL2 shoot true anamorphic 16:9, and will display the video in letterboxed format on their LCDs.

Also, note that the Canon XL2 uses true 16:9 CCDs.

Happy New Year!
Adam

Mathieu Ghekiere · January 3rd, 2006, 09:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mick Foley

I just thought of something right now. I'm able to turn on the "fake widescreen" as well as the stretch kind at the same time. Would this mean I could have a 2.35 image?

You mean cropping to 2.35?
You would loose much resolution... and with DV you haven't got much to even begin with...
But for watching on a usual television screen it can be enough.

Marco Leavitt · January 3rd, 2006, 09:08 AM

"This is not necessarily true. For example, the Sony DCR-TRV33 and Canon XL2 shoot true anamorphic 16:9, and will display the video in letterboxed format on their LCDs."

Ditto for Optura 60.

"I just thought of something right now. I'm able to turn on the "fake widescreen" as well as the stretch kind at the same time. Would this mean I could have a 2.35 image?"

I experimented with this on our old GL1 and it does indeed seem to work, but keep in mind with the pronounced resolution loss that you get that a 2.35 image isn't going to look so hot. DV in general isn't real well suited to wide panoramas IMHO.

Christopher Lefchik · January 3rd, 2006, 09:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Marco Leavitt

I experimented with this on our old GL1 and it does indeed seem to work, but keep in mind with the pronounced resolution loss that you get that a 2.35 image isn't going to look so hot. DV in general isn't real well suited to wide panoramas IMHO.

If one used an anamorphic adapter (one of those that attaches to the front of a camcorder lens) plus the camcorder's built in true ("stretch") widescreen mode you could get high quality 2.35. Of course the problem would come in editing such footage. I don't know that any of the prosumer apps would understand such footage to properly process it. Any text one added wouldn't look right, etc., unless you added it after the letterboxing process (you'd have to add the extra letterbox bars so that your 2.35 footage would play back properly from DVD).

Boyd Ostroff · January 3rd, 2006, 09:42 AM

This topic comes up regularly, see the following:

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthrea...&threadid=3069
http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=18917
http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=39732
http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=23390
http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=22798
http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=18905
http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=13696

Jim Rog · January 3rd, 2006, 08:01 PM

Hello

can the FX1/Z1 be up scale to 35mm without loss? also are these cams true widescreen? how can you tell?

Boyd Ostroff · January 3rd, 2006, 08:30 PM

By definition, high definition is widescreen (16:9). It should be a safe assumption that any camera which shoots HD (Sony HC1, A1, FX1, Z1, Canon XLH1, JVC HD10, HD100, Panasonic DVX200) all have native widescreen chips.

Look at the aspect ratio that they work in:

1920/1080 = 1.778
1280/72 = 1.778
16/9 = 1.778

Not really sure what you mean by "upscaling to 35mm without a loss"...

Jim Rog · January 3rd, 2006, 09:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ainslie Davies

If you are going to film then maybe your camera is true 16:9??? If not then the image produced by the camera may not be up to the massive scaling to 35mm

was quoting the last bit in this post

December 21st, 2005, 10:06 PM	#17
Mick Foley New Boot Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: Indiana Posts: 17	I just thought of something right now. I'm able to turn on the "fake widescreen" as well as the stretch kind at the same time. Would this mean I could have a 2.35 image?

January 3rd, 2006, 09:08 AM	#20
Marco Leavitt Inner Circle Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Albany, NY 12210 Posts: 2,652	"This is not necessarily true. For example, the Sony DCR-TRV33 and Canon XL2 shoot true anamorphic 16:9, and will display the video in letterboxed format on their LCDs." Ditto for Optura 60. "I just thought of something right now. I'm able to turn on the "fake widescreen" as well as the stretch kind at the same time. Would this mean I could have a 2.35 image?" I experimented with this on our old GL1 and it does indeed seem to work, but keep in mind with the pronounced resolution loss that you get that a 2.35 image isn't going to look so hot. DV in general isn't real well suited to wide panoramas IMHO.

January 3rd, 2006, 09:42 AM	#22
Boyd Ostroff Wrangler Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Mays Landing, NJ Posts: 11,787	This topic comes up regularly, see the following: http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthrea...&threadid=3069 http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=18917 http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=39732 http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=23390 http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=22798 http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=18905 http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=13696

January 3rd, 2006, 08:01 PM	#23
Jim Rog Regular Crew Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: PAL Zone Posts: 188	Hello can the FX1/Z1 be up scale to 35mm without loss? also are these cams true widescreen? how can you tell?

January 3rd, 2006, 08:30 PM	#24
Boyd Ostroff Wrangler Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Mays Landing, NJ Posts: 11,787	By definition, high definition is widescreen (16:9). It should be a safe assumption that any camera which shoots HD (Sony HC1, A1, FX1, Z1, Canon XLH1, JVC HD10, HD100, Panasonic DVX200) all have native widescreen chips. Look at the aspect ratio that they work in: 1920/1080 = 1.778 1280/72 = 1.778 16/9 = 1.778 Not really sure what you mean by "upscaling to 35mm without a loss"...