APPLE FINAL CUT PRO:

SD 16:9 to Letterboxed


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SD 16:9 to Letterboxed
by David Jahns on Dec 22, 2006 at 12:14:50 am

I've got a project that was shot entirely 16:9, some NTSC DV 24p, some DVCPRO 720p24. I've authored the (Standard Def) DVD with about 30 minutes of content - 7 different short films. Everything works great on the DVD, but for my archiving & delivery requirements, the want DigiBetas of all films, both in Anamorphic and 4:3 with letterboxing.

I have a KONA LHe card that looks great doing HD 16:9 down converts to SD letterbox, but there's no way to letterbox an SD Anamorphic signal through the KONA. I tried exporting the 16:9 SD sequences as Uncompressed QTs, then dropping them in a 4:3 timeline and letting FCP do the Aspect Ratio conversion, but it just doesn't look very good. All of the films are subtitled, and all of the type just looks like hell.

I suppose I could export a generic QT and re-do all of the titling in the 4:3 timeline, but what a pain...

Anyone have a better suggestion?

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Re: SD 16:9 to Letterboxed
by David Smith on Dec 22, 2006 at 3:46:17 am

What codec did you edit it in?

What happens if instead of exporting a QT movie and bringing it back in to a 4:3 timeline, you simply past the anamorphic clips into a 4:3 timeline?

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Re: SD 16:9 to Letterboxed
by sacci on Dec 22, 2006 at 4:55:47 am

Have you downloaded that lastest AJA drives for your card, I have the Kona3 and SD to SD now has option to letterbox just like up and down convert.

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Re: SD 16:9 to Letterboxed
by David Jahns on Dec 22, 2006 at 5:29:34 am

Sweet! That sounds perfect!

I'm always hesitant to upgrade mid-project, but I will try that out. Hope it works with the KONA LHe.

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Re: SD 16:9 to Letterboxed
by David Jahns on Dec 22, 2006 at 6:11:47 pm

Wow - sad to report that the KONA 3 SD Anamorphic to SD Letterbox conversion also looks pretty poor.

first time I've been disappointed in the KONA 3/LH cards. On the plus side, if I was doing a center cut version, that would have looked great, but the vertical squeezing adds lots of artifacting, especially on text.

So far, the best results have come from pasting the video and text clips into a 4:3 timeline, repositioning the titles, graphics, and re-rendering.

No short cuts, just reconforming for both aspect ratios.

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Re: SD 16:9 to Letterboxed
by David Smith on Dec 22, 2006 at 2:09:08 pm

I'm running Kona 3.3 on an LH card and remembered reading about that feature so I went and looked after reading David's post. It doesn't seem to be available on the LH card I'm sorry to say. It's only available for Downconverting from HD to SD. I would love to be proven wrong on this one if anyone has other information!

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Re: SD 16:9 to Letterboxed
by David Jahns on Dec 22, 2006 at 5:44:11 am

the footage was shot DV and DVCPRO-HD, but I did the subtitling & color correction in 8 bit Uncompressed.

I will try the copy/paste method - but as most of the films are combinations of HD/SD & 865 x 486 animations, I imagine there will be a lot of title repositioning and Distort/Aspect Ratio adjustments to make.

Thanks for the suggestion. I'll post again tomorrow to let you know how it works.

dave

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