XL2 16:9 footage "anamorphicized"

[Kathryn Dennen]

I shot a dance recital on my XL2 in 16:9. Uploaded the footage into FCE. Created the movie, then "dropped" it onto a program called an "anamorphicizer" in order to letterbox the entire movie for import into iDVD. When playing the footage (after burning to DVD) - the scenes where the people are moving fast are somehow digitized --- theie bodies are all jumpy and the footage looks odd. The rest of the movie is fine. Why does this happen when there is fast motion in the shot? Any clues. Burned 100 like this--- help. Need to fix now! P.S. The original footage looks fine --- and I can import that footage into imovie -- which takes literally HOURS to letterbox my 2 hours of footage -- and then burn it using iDVD - and then the footage looks fine.

[Andrew Todd]

if you shot it in 16:9 why would you want to letterbox it?

[Kathryn Dennen]

I need to letterbox the footage for viewing on a 4:3 tv -- not everyone is yet up to date with widescreen and I have 150 orders -- UGH! I have a headache about this. The footage with regular motion looks fine - its the fast-motioned stuff that is digitized... or something.

[Andrew Todd]

wouldnt 16:9 footage viewed on a 4:3 screen look the same as letterboxed footage? Your footage is already 16:9.. you wouldnt have to letterbox it. i dont think

[Kathryn Dennen]

When you import 16:9 footage into FCE and work with it - it is 16:9 footage. In order to burn that footage to a DVD, and be able to play it on a 4:3 screen, I had to save the movie as a QT movie. Then I "dropped" it onto this droplet called an "anamorphicizer" which is a program that letterboxes the footage for display on a 4:3 screen (with the black bar at the top and bottom). If I don't letterbox the footage, it gets squeezed vertically for display on a 4:3 screen (not bad for some of the heavier kids, but not ideal). Anyway, after using this program called anamorphicizer, the footage was then imported to iDVD, where I created and burned my 100 DVDs. Only to learn later that some weird thing happens with the video that has people running fast -- they look all digitized.

[John C. Chu]

The new version of iDVD supports anamorphic widescreen projects--and not just from iMovie.

The new iDVD '06 will flag your footage correctly, so that the DVD player will either letterbox it automatically for 4:3 sets, or send out the glorious widescreen footage for 16:9 sets.

Edit:
Ooops.. that "anamorphicizer" is just letting iDVD know to make an anamorphic dvd[ie setting the flag correctly.

I thought you were "hard letterboxing" your footage.

This the utility you were mentioning:

http://homepage.mac.com/sith33/FileSharing34.html

[Kathryn Dennen]

That's right - I used that great utility --- but the problem is that any footage that has fast-motion in it becomes weirdly digitized after I used the anamorphicizer. Has anyone ever heard of this problem? It is only obvious in fast-motion scenes. I don't know how else to export a 16:9 movie from FCE to burn it to DVD (for appropriate letterboxing on a 4:3 screen). Any suggestions or ideas?

[John C. Chu]

Have you rendered all your effects in FCE? I would think that is why it is all "jumpy"

You have to render all that effects before exporting a final movie to be used to for making a DVD from Final Cut Express.

[Kathryn Dennen]

I thought I had rendered all effects - and like I said, its only the fast-moving stuff. I checked the raw footage and it is fine. I imported the same 3-minute piece into imovie, let imovie letterbox it, and then burned that to DVD and it was fine. I just don't get it. This happened on 2 projects - the same digitizing when people are moving fast.

[Cal Johnson]

It sounds like you may have some compression being added to the file on output. Are you sure you are using "uncompressed" for your settings on the Quicktime export?

Also, if your footage was shot in 16x9, you should be able to output from Final Cut to iDVD without using the anamorphisizer software, and still have it make a 16x9 DVD that will appear letterboxed on a 4:3 television.

I'm not a heavy FCP user, but with the Premiere/Encore DVD work flow, I edit in Premiere with it set to wide screen. When I'm finished editing, I output to an AVI file that is 720 x 480, and squished. When I import that AVI file into Encore, I set the transcode settings to 16x9, highest quality, and it burns to DVD such that it will letter box on a 4:3 set.

I would think that FCP/iDVD should be able to do the same, only you'll be exporting it as an uncompressed Quicktime file. Hope this helps!

[Greg Boston]

Kathryn,

DVD players have the ability to letterbox widescreen material for display on a 4:3 set. If you set the anamorphic flag when you burn a DVD, the player will see it and take the appropriate action if the end user has gone into their player's video set-up menu and selected which type of display they own.

Sounds like the plug-in your using has a bug and you might want to contact the author to let them know or to find a solution.

-gb-

[Cal Johnson]

The reason I say it might be the compression settings is because its only happening when people are moving fast. Kathryn, how long is the over-all piece in your time line? If you're compressing a lot of video so it will all fit on to one DVD, you may encounter artifact issues when there is a lot of motion in the shot, which it sounds like you are. It would also explain why you can take the same 3 minutes and put that on a DVD, and it plays fine. How long is the finished movie that you are trying to put on the DVD?

[Bob Zimmerman]

since I don't have 16:9 yet not sure but just looking at my imovieHD and the iDVD, you should just be able to edit and burn a DVD. Then a TV does the rest. I''m hoping it is that easy.