I would really appreciate it if someone could direct me to a site where I could download a 16:9 matte to memory stick, or if someone could e-mail one that they have.

thank-you in advance
Myron

iwank4@hotmail.com

I remember coming across a site with about twelve mattes on it. I don't recall what it was called, but I think I found it by searching "widescreen" or "widescreen PD150" on google.

Sorry, the only one I know is this:

http://www.geocities.com/kin869/cinemascope

Mark and Gustavo, thanks to you I now have my mattes.

Regards, Myron

I have to say, I used to use mattes in-camera but now I realize how foolish that is. What NLE doesn't have a crop feature? Shoot full frame and crop in post for all these reasons:

1. you may need a full frame version someday
2. you can easily crop to 16:9 or 2.35:1 in post
3. if you crop in post, you can move the original frame around and reframe (give character some headroom) if necessary. You can't do that if you've already painted your frame black in-camera.
4. did I mention you can crop in post?

youll use less of your very limited dv25 bandwith compressing the matte... making the footage you want to keep better quality.
sur your stuck with your framing, but you can rewind and check before sending every one home for the day...

I like the fact that I can see how the shot actually looks like when I use a matte instead of just estimating and cropping in post.

And besides, rendering sucks. :)

I had a hard time getting mattes for my camcorder. I created a couple, 1.85:1, and 2.35:1 ... you can download them here...

http://www.fortvir.net/modules.php?set_albumName=album07&op=modload&name=gallery&file=index&include=view_album.php

I don't shoot with them on, but I do use them by turning them on before the shooting, getting my frame, and shutting them off right before I shoot. I then manually crop in my NLE later, with the added comfort that I could always reframe the cropping if I so chose. Better than electrical taping off part of the LCD while you shoot, and leaves you with the most options.

These templates' bars are created in Photoshop, and are RGB 9,9,9. They should work assuming you're cam keys out RGB 0,0,0, (the center) and retains info over 9,9,9. If not, you can create your own to your cams specific needs using a tutorial from this site. Just search these boards for ".TTL", or "Title-Mix" for more info.

> youll use less of your very limited dv25 bandwith compressing the
> matte... making the footage you want to keep better quality.

Are you sure of this? Doesn't the DV codec process chunks in 8x8 blocks or something like that for spatial compression? Thus, you end filling part of the data stream with many many zeros, I think. Am I wrong?

"youll use less of your very limited dv25 bandwith compressing the matte... making the footage you want to keep better quality."

I'd also like some feedback on this. It does sound logical. The blcak bars should get less of the bitrate...

I also have some masks up and a calculator (http://www.visuar.com/letterbox/calc.htm)

Rob, great tool. Thanks for putting the work in.