How Does FCE Handle 16:9 data on a 4:3 Camera?

[Dave Cook]

Sorry to resurrect an old thread, but I have a question:

Is there anyway to distort an entire sequence instead of having to do it with every clip? I already edited all my clips into the timeline and just now realized that I should have cropped them first...

<<<-- Originally posted by Boyd Ostroff : OK, now I understand. Here's what I would do in FCP, hopefully it will be similar to FCE.

1. After capturing your footage view its Item Properties and make sure the Anamorphic 16:9 box is set. This should already be the case if you captured it as 16:9. Open the clip; you should see a vertically squashed, letterboxed image inside a widescreen viewer window.

2. Click on the Motion tab at the top of the viewer window, then click on the little triangle next to the Distort property. This will reveal a set of 4 coordinate pairs for the Upper Left, Upper Right, Lower Right and Lower Left corners of the image. Modify the numbers in the right-hand column such that the eight boxes read as follows:

-360, -320
360, -320
360, 320
-360, 320

3. Congratulations, you now have created an anamorphic 16:9 image! -->>>

[Boyd Ostroff]

What do you mean by "distort?" When you say you "should have cropped them first" does that mean you shot regular 4:3 and now want to add black bars above and below so you end up with a cropped, letterboxed 4:3 image? What format is your video currently in, and what do you want to end up with?

Sorry, you need to be much more specific in order for us to help you.

[Dave Cook]

I used your method before on a test clip that I shot in widescreen mode on my camera which is really just 4:3 with black bars. By adjusting the distort properties you gave me I successfully "cropped" off the black at the top and bottom to create a 16:9 clip.

I think I know what I have to do to solve my current dilemma. I will export my sequence as DV then import it back into FCE - should be lossless, correct? Then I'll adjust the distort property and fix my movie for viewing on my 16:9 TV. Sound good?

[Boyd Ostroff]

That should work fine. However, I suggest you try a little test first. From what I've seen, most HDTV's have very good image scaling hardware inside them. If you just leave your letterboxed footage alone you should be able to select a widescreen mode on your TV that will enlarge it to fill the entire screen (on my Sony 16:9 LCD monitor this is called "zoom mode").

My guess is that you'll get a nicer looking image this way as compared to scaling with FCP/FCE which really doesn't do all that great a job. Try an A/B test with a couple short clips and see what you think....

[Dave Cook]

Thanks Boyd.