I tried to import the footage via firewire as 1.0 aspect ratio and stayed 1.0 in NEL but somehow I get footage that is 1.5 aspect ratio anyway. Can someone please give me a instruction as to how to turn dv footage into 1.0 ratio so i can webbed the footage into 320x240 instead of 360x240.

DV (NTSC) has a 0.9 pixel aspect ratio (non-square pixels). Don't try to change that in capture. You can set your export frame size for multimedia in the encoding parameters you choose once you're ready to compress a project.

I am so confused with this .9 aspect ratio thing. The footage shot in DV is 3:2 ratio where regular NTSC is 4:3. But people says it's good to turn my video into DV 3:2 ratio to 4:3. But when I do that, people in the video looks squished. Am I suppose not to change it from .9 to 1.0?

Maybe I got so used to watching .9, 3:2 video on computer monitor that correct ratio is now looking funny?

If you incorporate the 0.9 pixel aspect in the resolution of the DV
you will get a 4:3 frame aspect, so it is correct. For output to TV
you should not change your pixel aspect (or frame aspect/size)!

All NLE's know that the aspect is 0.9 (or 1.067 for PAL) and will
(if I'm not mistaken) show the footage correctly. If you want to
output to a digital file that does not understand aspect ratio
(MPEG will for example) you can resample the resolution to 640
(or 648) x 480. That should give you correct aspect on a computer
screen.

<<<-- Originally posted by Rob Lohman : All NLE's know that the aspect is 0.9 (or 1.067 for PAL) and will (if I'm not mistaken) show the footage correctly. If you want to output to a digital file that does not understand aspect ratio (MPEG will for example) you can resample the resolution to 640 (or 648) x 480. That should give you correct aspect on a computer screen. -->>>

I see. Well I just installed WMP9 and it started playing back my DV footage @ 640 x480 instead of 720 x 480 like WMP 6.4 did. And the result of 640 x 480 footage looks strangely squished. So I imported DV footage again using Vegas Video 4.0 as 0.9, and Then re-sampled it (on time line, right click and check box says resample and turn the ratio to 1.0 multimedia) and it look just about the same (all squished).

What am I doing wrong here.

Did you shoot it at 16:9 by any chance?? Can you put up a still
picture or e-mail me one?

<<<-- Originally posted by Rob Lohman : Did you shoot it at 16:9 by any chance?? Can you put up a still
picture or e-mail me one? -->>>

Yes, I'll email a picture. Thank you.

If you want 1:1 aspect ratio footage, you are going to have to shoot withing a 1:1 ratio box and then crop the video to that ratio for your application. You cannot adjust the dimensions of the video in order to make 1:1.

If you have a PD150 you can load a 1:1 mask into the memory stick and overlay that over your video.

Uh Ha!

So 360x240 IS the correct aspect ratio for encording streamable video over the internet played on computer, if the original footage is shot in DV (PD150 normal mode). No wonder anything I read made any sense. 720x480 3:2 ratio looks normal to me. So it only make sense to encode video in 360x240 which is also 3:2.

Thank you,

Anne the Ragady