Posted by Richard Crowley on 03/12/06 13:54

"Teeafit" wrote ...
> Can anyone explain what happened here? A colleague prepared a 16:9
> PAL
> feature, and brought it to me on DVCam for burning to a simple DVD
> (using Edition 6.1). I opened a new 16:9 project, but the Capture
> Tool
> refused to recognise the content coming down the FireWire as 16:9.
>
> In order to meet the client's deadline we imported instead through
> S-Video (Y-C) analogue, where the format WAS recognised. However, the
> picture quality was obviously not so good, with more fringing round
> verticals than I would have expected.
>
> I've subsequently explored further, and realised that it was possible
> to import through FireWire as 4:3, but then use the Clip Properties
> setting to force the Pixel Aspect into 16:9 (CCIR PAL). The feature
> now looks perfect, and we're re-burning the DVDs.
>
> Any thoughts as to why DVCam footage should appear in one aspect ratio
> in digital, and another in analogue? I put one of my own 16:9 tapes
> in
> the player, and the Capture Tool would recognise its format with no
> trouble, so it's not a machine/editor problem. My colleague's not had
> a chance yet to investigate the output settings of his (Media 100)
> editor to see if anything's 'slipped', but we've never had these
> problems with his tapes before.

There is no real 16:9 "mode" in DV/DVCAM/DVCpro.
DV, et. al. is defined only in 4:3 and computers cannot
recognize when the horizontal has been squashed
amorphically. It takes human intervention to identify
and "decode" the 16:9 picture stuffed into a 4:3 bag.
http://www.adamwilt.com/DV-FAQ-etc.html#widescreen

You didn't indentify which camera was used, but if you know,
you can refer to the URL above and see how various brands
and models cheat 16:9 (they do it differently, some better than
others).

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