16:9 wide screen format

MovieExpert wrote on 4/12/2012, 3:35 PM

I am processing footage shot by an old Sony camera recorded on Hi8 mm tapes. The footage is captured as avi. The format is 720x576. Now I wish to produce the result in 16:9 format. What is the best approach? I may use the pan and crop function on video events and cut the upper and lower parts of the frames, but then some of the original subtitles or other details may be lost. Certainly there are other techniques. Please advise. Thanks.

Comments

Steve Grisetti wrote on 4/12/2012, 4:05 PM

Well, there's no way to cut 4:3 to 16:9 without losing something from the top and bottom. What are you willing to lose? If not the bottom (because of the subtitles) then you have to lose the top.

The alternative is to just "float" the 4:3 over a color or still background that fills the frame -- but I don't think that's what you're looking to do.

Chienworks wrote on 4/12/2012, 8:32 PM

One can also stretch the 4:3 out horizontally to filld 16:9 without cropping, as long as one doesn't mind short'n'fat people.

Personally, i'd probably use a combination of all three: stretch the video a little wider, cut a little bit off the top and bottom, and then fill the little pillars on the side with something. Depending on the scene i might use more or less of each of those techniques in varying combinations.

MovieExpert wrote on 4/13/2012, 1:48 AM

Thanks for the suggestions. Concerning the tool to be used if I use the event crop it is a long process for many hours of footage. The track motion tool may serve the purpose. Is there anything else that I can use?

Chienworks wrote on 4/13/2012, 2:39 AM

Pan/Crop is the correct tool. It's more accurate for resizing, especially if you end up making the image larger than the original. It's probably also the fastest tool, adding only a few percent to the rendering time.