widescreen mini-DV into divx?

[madrag]

hello all,

I'm kind of a newbee in terms of digital video, and I need help to figure out the following:

01. I've filmed some footage (16:9) with a mini-DV camera, all is well.

02. I then connected the camera to the mac via firewire, and have used iMovie to capture the footage, as widescreen, all is well, no problems here.

03. after all the captures, I can review my video in iMovie, in widescreen, as intended.

04. I need to compress as divx, because I would like to view my footage in my dvd-player (which plays divx); I don't want to create a DVD, just divx files.


Ok, the problem is right here!

My footage are captured with 960 x 540px, which is widescreen.
If I open it in quictime, it opens the files as having 768 x 576px (which is 4:3)...

I have installed divx 6.7, which also includes the conversion codecs, and I've made several trials:

A. converted to divx with 960 x 540px <- this doens't play on my dvd-player! and quicktime doesn't accept the width, so I used MPEG streamclip

B. converted to divx with 768 x 576px <- plays on the dvd-player, but as expected is 4:3, so I don't need this one.

C. converted to divx with 720 x 400px (16:9) <- plays on the dvd-player


--
my questions are:

01. why doesn't quicktime recognize the original widescreen format?

02. is the 720 x 400px resolution the one that I should use? or am I losing resolution compared to the original?


Any contribution is appreciated!
TIA!

 

[madrag]

anyone?

I don't want to loose more quality than I should by going the 720x400 route...

 

[huntercr]

hello all,

I'm kind of a newbee in terms of digital video, and I need help to figure out the following:

01. I've filmed some footage (16:9) with a mini-DV camera, all is well.

02. I then connected the camera to the mac via firewire, and have used iMovie to capture the footage, as widescreen, all is well, no problems here.

03. after all the captures, I can review my video in iMovie, in widescreen, as intended.

04. I need to compress as divx, because I would like to view my footage in my dvd-player (which plays divx); I don't want to create a DVD, just divx files.


Ok, the problem is right here!

My footage are captured with 960 x 540px, which is widescreen.
If I open it in quictime, it opens the files as having 768 x 576px (which is 4:3)...

I have installed divx 6.7, which also includes the conversion codecs, and I've made several trials:

A. converted to divx with 960 x 540px <- this doens't play on my dvd-player! and quicktime doesn't accept the width, so I used MPEG streamclip

B. converted to divx with 768 x 576px <- plays on the dvd-player, but as expected is 4:3, so I don't need this one.

C. converted to divx with 720 x 400px (16:9) <- plays on the dvd-player


--
my questions are:

01. why doesn't quicktime recognize the original widescreen format?

02. is the 720 x 400px resolution the one that I should use? or am I losing resolution compared to the original?


Any contribution is appreciated!
TIA!

It seems like it might be bug in the DiVX codec for quicktime, but then the high res clip doens't play on your DVD player ( It can't anyway.... assuming your player is NTSC, it's maximum resolution will be along the lines of 720x480 )

Make sure and look and see if there is an "anamorphic mode" checkbox for that 768x576 option. Your player is assuming it is 4:3.. it doesn't have to be.

If I were you, I would either author a real DVD in 16:9, or use your DiVX files in 720x400. You'll notice the compression artifacts of DiVX far sooner than you notice the resolution difference IMHO. Personally, I would go the DVD via iDVD route myself. Much higher quality video is possible with MPEG2 if you are are not looking to create smaller files.

 

[madrag]

thanks for the reply!

I forgot to say my player is PAL...

My goal is small file size and good quality, so a DVD isn't an option...

You say 720x400 is the way to go?