how to render HD into .avi file uncompressed
 

I'm using correct frame size 1440 x 1080, pixel aspect ration of 1.333, but it comes out squeezed. Any thoughts?

With SD projects I have always rendered .avi uncompressed then to .flv. Do I need to so something different with HD?

Same thing happened when I tried using .mpg4.

Jeff,

I'm pretty sure you need PAR set to 1.0, but I'm not able to check right now.

I also got .avi to .flv using FlixPro

Thanks Ken. As far as the flv goes I've got it covered, I use CS3 Flash Encoder.

This kind of thing is precisely why I recommend people work in square format when working in HD. Just removes this kind of frustration.

Your encoders are not correctly reading the Pixel Aspect Ratio (PAR) flag, they are just looking at the image dimensions in pixels. 1440x1080 video with a PAR of 1.3333 displays at 1920x1080. Simple solution is to render out using 1920x1080 with a PAR of 1.0, or render out at some other 16:9 ratio, like 1440x810, 1280x720, 1024x576, 960x540, 768x432, 512x288...

Thanks John, I'll try a setting your two you recommend. I did try 1440x1080 with a 1.000 PAR but the quality was relatively poor. WMVat 8mps was actually superior, but I cannot upload that file to my server, too large!

it's coming out distorted, even using convential widescreen settings. This is unfortunate.

I have, but don't use Premier Pro. It would be sweet if I could import a Vegas project into it and render directly to flash...

Think I'll try using the highest quality .wmv file, since it comes out perfectly. I'll see how it will render to .flv.

Jeff,

Rendering at 1440x1080 at a PAR of 1.0 will definitely give you a horizontally squished image. HDV has a PAR of 1.3333 which means that the pixels are rectangular, the 1440 pixels of the HDV image must be expanded by a ratio of 1.333:1 to display correctly. When playing back HDV on a square pixel device like a computer screen or an HDTV, somewhere in the chain it must get converted from 1440x1080 1.333 PAR to 1920x1080 PAR 1.0.

Since computer displays and HDTVs are all based on square pixels, they have a PAR of 1.0. Forget about maintaining the 1440x1080 aspect ratio of HDV, that's what's messing you up. For output think 16x9 or 1.7777:1, render to any of the specific image dimensions that I gave you before and it will look correct. Vegas is perfectly capable of doing this, with a lot less hassle than doing it in Premiere. Now, what bitrate you use to encode the video is entirely up to you based on image quality.

John

John, thanks for the patient explanation...1920x1080 at 1.0 seems to be just the ticket, thanks again!

Jeff, out of shere (sp?) curiosity, do you mind sharing what other settings you used when exporting to the .avi? I also wouldn't mind seeing some of your end results going from the uncompressed .avi format directly to an .flv. My experience has been met with random success. Sometimes, it came out great, othertimes not so much so.

I've found the most consistent results exporting to an .mp4 (mainconcept) H.264 codec at resolution of 1920x1080 (1.0 PAR) with a bitrate of about 20Mb/sec. At that point, having that compressed to flash via either Adobe Flash encoder, flix, whatever looks good and also uploading to either Youtube or Vimeo (which both convert to flash) seem to work great despite the 'double' compression.

Jon

Jon, link sent via infornet e-mail. Source was not HD, but was rendered from .avi to .flv.

Settings, I'm not sure. I had the darndest time with it, had to render many times, but I think it was NTSC DV Widescreen.

Love the website Jeff.. The link sends me to the home page, which video(s) are we talking about that came from the uncompressed .avi.

When I have toyed with exporting uncompressed, have you tried exporting to one of the Sony YUV codec's? I hear those are pretty good to export to prior to going to .flv as well.

Jon

All videos on my website come from uncompressed .avi to .flv.

Actually I have not tried the YUV codecs, but I saw that option. Hmmmm might try that out! Thanks!

Trying it out now, boy it renders quickly! Ok done, 2 min clip is 15GB. Won't play in MP...I'm encoding to flv now...let you know how it turns out after dinner.

Are you actually still shooting in DV on your new FX1000??? Everywhere I've read/heard says that shooting in HD and exporting to an SD resolution (if that's what you want to deliver) gives the best results rather than shooting in SD on these cameras (I own 2 of the FX1's).

As I read through some of your material on the website, I thought maybe it might be some benefit to you to add into your packages the option of posting your videos online for the brides/grooms family who weren't able to make the wedding to see and enjoy. Just a thought, probably not cost you much by the way of time and there are plenty of free places to post your work on the behalf of the client.

Jon