I've been trying to export a 720p video file as something comparable to a DVCAM PAL file. These files are for an editor with FCP.

No matter what I do the ratio comes out wrong, looking like 4:3.

I'm using Premiere Pro CS5 and my export settings are
Format: Quicktime
Preset: PAL DV Widescreen
Video Codec: DV25 PAL
Aspect: D1/DV PAL Widescreen 16:9

Any ideas as to how I can fix this?

Thanks,

Richy

Check your Sequence settings and Pixel Aspect Ratio does it match your video.

If you use quicktime player to watch the file - then it shows it as it is 4:3. There is no manual settings in the player to show it widescreen. Guess it is a flag that is not set right when exported but it does not matter for the final result .....

Hi Richy. PAL pixels are rectangular in shape as opposed to computers/HD which are square. The Standard PAL Pixel Aspect Ratio (PAR) is 1.07 and Widescreen is 1.42. but they are both always 720 pixels wide x 576 pixels deep. What this means is that if you are previewing a PAL video through a viewer which is using square pixels it will always look square and squashed.
Create a widescreen PAL composition in Premiere and import the footage into it - you'll probably find all is well.

If you use quicktime player to watch the file - then it shows it as it is 4:3. There is no manual settings in the player to show it widescreen. Guess it is a flag that is not set right when exported but it does not matter for the final result .....

Cheers for the replies!

That was pretty much it. Quicktime played it as 4:3, but once it was dropped into a FCP timeline it reverted to 16:9.

Richard, I've had a similar problem. Have a look at this...

Matrox RTX2 User Forum :: View topic - 16:9 plays at 4:3 (http://forum.matrox.com/rtx2/viewtopic.php?t=8689) and see if it helps.

Peter