Aspect Ratio Converter

[Gareth Watkins]

Hi

Anyone know of a good Aspect Ratio Converter (ARC) software?
I'm editing in PPro and looking to output some 16:9 footage to 4:3 in order to make up a DVD of film clips....

I've found River Part on the web, but quality is not great...

Any others out there that, or filters that might work in Premiere?

Regards

Gareth

[Ed Smith]

Hi Gareth,

I take it that you are looking at letter boxing 4x3?

If so, Rob Lohmans aspect ratio calculator should do the job.

www.visuar.com/letterbox/calc.htm

Cheers,

[Gareth Watkins]

Hi Ed

I'm not acutally looking to letterbox the 4:3 to look like 16:9, but rather to use an aspect ratio convertion software to convert the 16:9 AVI's into 4:3 with no cropping.

As I said I've messed around with the River Part Aspect Ratio converter, but it's quality is not great.

I was wondering if there was a software out there that would do this well enough to give acceptable DVD results

Regards

Gareth

[Robin Davies-Rollinson]

Gareth,
Take a look at this site:

http://www.mykaskin.freeserve.co.uk/myksvideopages/plugins.html

I think that they are just templates for Premiere, but I tried them some time ago and they seem to work.
Not quite the same as a Snell & Wilcox mind...

Of topic, but I'm soming round more and more to the FX1 ;-)
I'll email you some time soon for a chat,

Blwyddyn Newydd Dda!

Robin

[Ed Smith]

Ah I see,

Robin's link is excellent. However I don't think they will work in Premiere Pro.

The way I used to do it was to capture in at 16x9 create a 4x3 project import the 16x9 footage and then choose maintain aspect ratio from the video options on each clip. However once again I can't see the maintain aspect ratio option in PP.

The other way to do it is to use the motion effect. Add your 16x9 clip to a 4x3 project timeline then in the effects control window select motion. You shouild then see resize boxes appear around the program monitor frame. If you click and drag the top-middle one, into the middle, you'll see the frame resize. simply resize it so that the 16x9 clip fits the left and right hand of the frame.

Hope this helps a little,

[Robin Davies-Rollinson]

Ed,
I think that the templates to which I linked will do exactly as you suggested. They are in fact settings for the Motion effects dialogue.
I've used them in Premiere 6, but I can't vouch for Pro.
It'll be a pity if they don't work though...

Robin

[Gareth Watkins]

Hi Robin and Ed

I in fact found this page on the net but can't see how to work it in PPro as the Video Options menu doesn't seem to have Motion Effects options of Prem 6, as shown on the webpages you mention.

Or Perhaps I'm missing something....????

I shall look to using the resize adjustments... and see how that works

Robin, I look forward to your finding on the FX1. Not had much time to shoot over th eFestive period and the weather has been indifferent.

Je te souhaite une bonne annee 2005.

Gareth

[Ed Smith]

Adobe decided to do things differently in Premiere Pro. Although much of the motion controls are available they are done in a completely different way to 6 or 6.5. I could not find any button that would allow me to add a motion control template, nor could I find anything in the help file.

Currently the only way I can see to do it, using Premieres controls, is to manually adjust as I mentioned in my last post.

Cheers,

[Gareth Watkins]

Hi Ed

Thanks for that... tried it and it works fine...

Do you think there is any loss of resolution by doing this?

I am currently making a DVD copy of a sequnce treated as you suggest to see if I can see any noticeable difference on a TV set.

Regards

Gareth