Hi all,

This might be an off topic, but I am having this wired problem where my final deliverable of video is squished horizontally. It all make sense because DV format is 720x480 (?) so that is 3:2 ratio where the final video I make available via web is 4:3. People told me things like I must have taped in wide mode but I really didn't. It just seems natural that the 4:3 video made out of DV is horizontally distorted.

So my question is how can I keep the aspect ratio of 3:2? I use Vegas Video to make .wmv but whenever I put things like "480x340" which is 3:2, the encorder turns the video into 4:3 anyway. The same things happen when making DVD. The resulting DVD mpeg2 files are horizontally squished when played back though PowerDVD or WinDVD4.

My wild guess is that when importing DV footage to my NLE, I wasn't supposed to inport as 720 x480 ?

What you are most likely experiencing is a pixel stretch (or squash rather). When you create video to be viewed on the computer you must specifically tell it to make the pixel aspect ratio 1:1 (or square) by default the video or TV signal is .9 (rectangle).
If you have access to a Macintosh computer try to view your video on it. Most of the time the Mac will display it properly, it knows to display it for a computer screen.

Just an FYI, TV's use rectangle pixels and computer monitors use square pixels so you have to compress your footage for the proper end platform. If it's going to end up on a computer use square pixels, if it's going to end up on TV use rectangle pixels.
It really can get much more complicated than that too because then you have to take in to account for GAMMA settings for each device too. PC's are typically 2.2 (as is TV) and Mac's are 1.8 so before you compress the video and call it good, test it for everything you expect it to be displayed on.

That's the other question I had. When I use tmpgenc there is a setting to make video color scale from 0 to 255 ? instead of 8 to 242 or something. I read, and read, and read, and decided that DV footage is already in TV color scale so it will make better dvd if I tick that option and encode as 0 to 255.

But then when I played back from computer screen the video is SO DARK. Then I went around and start cranking up gamma setting and all my video turned into very grainy (of couse).

Am I supposed to set it to 8 to.. when my target audience is strictly using Standalone player with TV.

Depending on your editing tools, DV here in the US should run between 16 and 235 (for my system) or apparently 8 to 242 for yours. When you set it to 0 to 255 you are setting the video levels too low and high for NTSC video in the US and it will cause problems somewhere along the line.

A computer screen is not a great tool for evaluating video. For that you either need a NTSC monitor or at least a television set. Hopefully connected via the line or S-Video (even better) inputs.

Hello,

My follow up question is that when importing DV footage for the purpose of making streamable video via the Internet, would I set the pixle size to 1.0 or .9?