Why is 960 x 720 really 1280 x 720???

It has to do with Pixel Aspect Ratio, or the shape of the actual pixels. Most of the time computers display their output with square-shaped pixels, but in video playback pixels are most-often not square-shaped. 1280x720 is 16x9 when square pixels are used, but 960x720 is also 16x9 because the pixels are non-square.

Another helpful link.

I believe DVCProHD reduces the horizontal resolution from 1280 to 960 (making up for it with non-square pixels) as a way to reduce bandwidth.

Not playing, just asking you to think and to investigate.

If you do this for a living, it seems like you'd want to do a bit of digging to find an easily found answer in a verifiable source rather than waiting on unknown people on an internet site to answer questions. It it clear from your series of questions your are very new at video. That's ok, everyone starts somewhere. Still, you can do yourself a big favor by sitting down and reading the manuals that came with your central chunk of software. There is a great deal of basic video information, terminology and wisdom contained in that 40# of documents. If you hate reading paper volumes, you can always read on line.

Even if you can not bring yourself to do your own research, take classes and/or intern ... you'd want to check anything that was said here, wouldn't you? You wouldn't be so naive as to take anything that you found on the internet to be true, +prima fasciae+ would you? So why not take the initiative and do the basic research first?

I stopped spoon feeding after my kids were a couple of years old. If you have the intelligence and drive to succeed in this business, you'll figure out how to use all the resources available to you.

No games, just reality.
Be a clever wolf.

Good luck.

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If you'd read the Terms of use, you would realize this is a site for supporting/problem solving technical issues with FCP. It is not intended to offer instruction in video 101.

Lyndia.com and ken stone's site offer a number of tutorials and other support mechanisms that you may find enlightening.

Good luck.

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fwiw - anamorphic originally refered to lenses that compressed the image horizontally but not vertically so that there was a non-linear relationship between the image in real life and what was recorded on film. The film had a 4:3 aspect ratio but, by using a lens that compressed the horizontal when recording and using the reciprocal lens when projecting, one could record and play back much wider aspect ratios.

What is relevant about that bit of history is that anamorphic has come to mean the recording of pixels that are wider than they are tall, with the result the 960 horizontal resolution pixels take up a 1280 space. Of course, you know video has always used a non-square pixel. In terms of Standard definition, it has been narrower than tall, eg DV SD is 720x480, which has a square pixel equivalent of 640x480 (a 4:3 ratio). Anamorphic 16:9 means the pixels are wider than tall. The specific width varies with the codec. It is a way to save bandwidth and to get more out of a limited format.

It's also called raster size a lot as well. Sony's mini DV based HDV records 1080i as 1440x1080 square pixels and then via those rectangular pixels displays it as 1920x1080. The higher end and/or newer cameras record "full raster" so full frame size 1920x1080 so no expanding is needed. Yes it's confusing but also in theory you shouldn't really need to know that, just pick your sequence setting (HDV if working with HDV, DVCPro HD if working with DVCPro HD, etc.) and let FCP do the conforming and pixel aspect ratio shifting for you.

-Brian

Anamorphic.

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When you understand the definition of "anamorphic", you'll have your answer.

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Good for you to look it up. What did it say? Did you look up another reference since you didn't understand the first?

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