Crop 16:9 to 4:3 (not in-camera)
 

Hi,

I know that you can downconvert via the camera to SD and also make 16:9 to a 4:3 output on the camera, but as my camera doesn´t like to take my finished off Avid timeline I have some trouble with that. Here´s my situation.

I shot HD 50i, edited HD 50i, but also need an SD DVD copy 4:3. When I shot I already framed having the 4:3 situation in mind.

Is there a possibility to also crop a finished off 16:9 project to 4:3 in software (Avid or Vegas)? I saw that there was some sort of image resize tool in Avid. Would that be the right one or does Vegas have a tool like that?

Thanks a lot,
Emanuel

HI Emanual,

its very simple in Vegas (easiest if you have ONE file to work with), give me a call , I´ll send you my nr. via PN.

ULI

What about a mixdown from your 16:9 timeline and drag it in a 4:3 timeline, do a resize to fit? You can even correct shot for shot if framing' not correct.

Hi guys,

thanks a lot for that. That helped a lot.
However, I do have to find out where the problem concerning HD output (writeback onto XDCAM) is. I´m working with Avid. When write-back´s finished Windows tells me that my xdcam disk is corrupt. Very strange. I did have issues with 25p material and Avid, now with this 50i project colour correction etc. was fine but output again seems to be a problem:-(

Emmanuel,

There are new CPR versions available for download on AVID's site. That is Adrenaline 2.7.2, XPressPro 5.7.2, etc... These updates should address most ot the "disc corrupt" errors you may have encountered.

Thierry.

Hi Thierry,

thanks for that. I thought that the new camera upgrade might have brought the problem. But I used a different version of Avid before, and now with 5.7 I had these disk failure notices quite often.
Thanks a lot, just downloading it.

Emanuel

Avid has made it very easy to reformat to 4:3 in the Effects menu under reformat. You can add another video layer with add edits and add the reformat effect over individual clips or over the entire timeline.

You can custom crop individual shots or use center cut for an entire timeline.
Very fast except for the render time as always.

If nothing else helps - you could alse use the write back feature integrated in Vegas (its not in the render menu but under TOOLS -> EXPORT TO XDCAM)

ULi

Emmanuel, I believe if the frame rates match you can drop your 50i HD timeline into a 50i SD project (no need for mixdowns). You would then just add another video track and do a re-format to 4x3. I think on Xpress Pro you would need to use the 3D PIP to do your centre cut.

I have Adrenaline with the HD board and the nice thing is if you work in DnxHD you can output live SD anamorphic or 4x3 centre-cut directly to tape/dvd.

Thanks, that´s great. Thanks for all your comments. Thanks also Thierry, the CPR did solve some issues but the main issue still isn´t resolved. Having 25p xdcam hd material in Avid Xpress Pro still causes problems when it comes to rendering:-(