Poblems with in-camera 16:9 in Premiere 6.0

[Brian Fischer]

I shoot footage on a Canon GL1 with the in-camera 16:9 mode, which stretches the image vertically, using the entire 4:3 frame. I do not capture to tape, opting to use a FireStore FS-4 instead, and I transfer the video files to the PC. Now, looking at the properties of these .avi files, their screen resolution is 720x480 (which is typical of 4:3 video as well). When I play these raw files in Media Player 9, the aspect ratio is automatically adjusted for viewing, and the video is excellent. Now I'm ready to load the clips into Premiere, and edit them in 16:9 mode, and export. Once I've completed this step, I view the clip from Media Player 9, and even though I've kept the resolution the same, my clips are viewed in 4:3, which is now unnacceptable. I use Nero Vision v.4.0.0.3 to author DVD's, and it doesn't recognize these clips as 16:9 (it will however process raw clips perfectly), and when I try to force the aspect ratio, the quality is compromised significantly. Is there a specific export resolution (or pixel aspect) in Premiere I should be using that I currently am not? I'm certain that it is in Premiere where things are getting convoluted. Is it because I'm not capturing from tape in Premiere? I've even tried to manually set the export resolution to 853x480, but that didn't work (I didn't think it would, but had to try). Basically, why don't my edited 16:9 clips look as good as the captured clips, even though I'm not using any compression, and why won't they be recognized as 16:9 by Media Player and other applications?

[Ervin Farkas]

Brian, I had this issue just a few weeks ago. Shot 16x9 with a GL2 to tape, imported into APPro, all settings fine - finished DVD was 4x3 viewed on my stand-alone Philips player and Proscan TV... or so I thought...

Turned out, the DVD was in fact 16x9 but my DVD player was set wrong, and now it plays fine after setting it right.

[Bart Walczak]

Try setting the pixels ratio in your export settings to 1,422 (widescreen).

[Brian Fischer]

Thank you both for your responses... But I figured out what I was doing wrong. I had my export settings set to "Microsoft AVI" instead of "Microsoft DV AVI". Once I adjusted that setting, everything was golden. I'm and idiot. I don't recall when I might have changed this setting, or for what reason, but apparently I had.

Thanks again,

[Tom Hardwick]

I always assumed that the 'pixel aspect ratio' was only relevant to the display of your Premiere projcct on your PC's monitor - in other words altering that doesn't in any way affect your output footage but simply shows you the timeline and preview monitor in the correct aspect ratio. Am I wrong here?

Also I find on my Premiere 6.5 / Canopus Storm setup that Microsoft DV.avi gives a degraded image, and that Microsoft.avi is better.

tom.

[Bart Walczak]

Tom,

Try exporting with different pixel ratios and see for yourself. It doesn't change the resolution, but it is a metadata that is embedded in the file. Some players will honor it and some won't.

About Microsoft DV - it's the only DV format available if you don't have any video editing card. In Canopus wouldn't you use Canopus DV? Microsoft avi gets you a choice of various codecs, it's only a wrapper. What codec do you use when exporting that gives you better quality?

[Brian Fischer]

Originally Posted by Bart Walczak

About Microsoft DV - it's the only DV format available if you don't have any video editing card. In Canopus wouldn't you use Canopus DV? Microsoft avi gets you a choice of various codecs, it's only a wrapper. What codec do you use when exporting that gives you better quality?

Indeed, I used to have a Matrox RT2000 setup, and there was a Matrox DV/MPEG2 etc. option available in that instance. The Microsoft DV AVI option exports a file identical in size/bitrate/visual quiality to the original captured clip (as far as I can see). The Microsoft AVI file was astronomical in size comparisson, and there was indeed a compromise in the visual quality.

When I went to author a clip edited in Premiere and exported in Microsoft AVI, and then loaded into Nero Vision 4.0.0.3, it recognized the clip as 4:3. So then I would manually set it to 16:9, and instead of adjusting the aspect ratio, it would put vertical black bars on the sides of the video, and the viewable footage was still in a 4:3 aspect. Setting the export to Microsoft DV AVI in Premiere alleviated this.

Thanks,