Hi! I have a question: how would I go about making a standard video widescreen? I'm using Final Cut Express now, and if I use the widescreen filter, will it simply add the black bars (so if watched on a widescreen tv bars will be added to the left and right sides)? TO make it actually widescreen should I re-import the video and set it to widescreen before doing so? Any help at all would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

The responsibility for putting up black columns when showing SD 4:3 on a 16:9 TV should belong to the TV.

The is no data in the video to "make widescreen", and SD 4:3 and SD 16:9 both are 720x480 pixels. If you physically add black bars to the sides (by making a 16:9 SD project and centering a 4:3 source in it) the rendered DVD (presuming you are going that far) will be losing data (since you are squeezing the black bars and the video into the pixel space used by the original video itself).

Well, I just simply switched it to anamorphic in the easy setup window, but now whenever I export it as an AVI file (and even as a quicktime movies when I want t preview it) it automatically reverts to a different aspect ratio, stretching the video vertically. Is this just because teh programs I'm using to watch the AVI file automatically stretch it out (I'm using quicktime and VLC)? THanks alot.

I have pretty much the same problem. I'm using FCP for the first time (never had this problem on FCE), and i shot anamorphic 24p video that I can't seem to export at the best quality without it being squeezed. I think i understand that this makes sense-its the nature of anamorphic. But my ultimate goal is to turn this into a DVD, and iDVD (the '06 version at least) refuses to recognize that this is an anamorphic video, even if it is set to "widescreen." I don't have DVD studio pro, so I'm wondering if that is the missing link for me, or if there is some workaround.

thanks!

AVI files have no pixel aspect ratio (PAR) information, therefore most programs assume PAR 1. When you watch such a file on a computer, select 16:9 video aspect ratio explicitly in your viewing program.

But what about if you plan to burn to DVD and watch on TV? Would one just need a better DVD authoring program than iDVD?

I don't know much about iDVD. The DVD container files are not AVIs, they do contain aspect ratio information in them, it is up to the encoding program to set them properly. Have you tried making a real DVD and watching it on a TV?

I have, and the result has been a squeezed picture. I think I will try that again though, just because last time I tried was four or five months ago and I don't quite remember the settings I used to export from fcp. I will try that and get back.


(btw, thanks for the prompt responses! its very helpful; if i had known about this site I would have started posting about this issue long ago...)

I burned a DVD and the result was still squeezed, both on tv and when playing the DVD on a computer (though OSX's DVD player's zoom options allow you to fudge this a bit).

any other ideas?

thanks!