Converting video from 4:3, 25i to 16:9, 25p (PAL)?

[spinnerlys]

Hello.

I have shoot a documentary about children improvising with music, and had to use the Panasonic DVX100 AE / BE for the first time. With the first tape I accidentally recorded the footage with 4:3 aspect ratio and at 25i in PAL, but all the rest footage is in 16:9 aspect ratio and 25p PAL.

I have Avid and FCP at hand, and want to convert the 4:3 footage into 16:9 video.

Is there any way to do this without loosing too much information?


I thought about cropping the 4:3 footage, but what about aspect ratio and the like?


Thanks in advance

 

[arjen92]

I don't think you'll have to change the aspect ratio (it will look weird, I suggest you crop, I did that, but I didn't looked to nice. well, judge for yourself). But in case you need to, and you didn't know yet. In the motion tab of viewer, you can use distort. Wide screen is 33 or -33. Just try, it's pretty obvious to see which the right one is.

 

[RemarkabLee]

Yeuch! I hate it when people crop a 4:3 to fit to 16:9.

Best solution would be to just display as is, or create a composite of the 4:3 on the 16:9 aspect.

Examples: http://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/faking_it.html

 

[spinnerlys]

Thanks RemarkabLee.

I will try that, although I have to do it first in FCP and then edit all the footage in Avid, as I'm more comfortable with Avid, and it doesn't need to render as much as FCP with simple effects (transparency and such).

 

[treehorn]

I'm with RemarkabLee on this. (and thanks for the link - had a few ideas I hadn't considered). Blowing up 4:3 footage so you can crop it into 16:9 is a recipe for disaster - not only will that footage be a different quality level as the rest of your footage, as the size will be well over 100% but unless you lucked out and shot the footage so that everything you want is consistently going to be in frame when you crop it...

I think finding a creative solution is the best option - and may just bring a new dimension to the film (I know many of my most creative moments where when I was covering my butt or someone else's over a mistake...)