Want to convert 4:3 project to 16:9 and not have black bars on final Movie

Hi

If You used a 4x3 Camera and it was set to 16x9

Then You have to set Anamorphic in the Browser window.

a. You need to do a 16x9 project from start

b. When captured - You extend the Browser window to the right and see a lot of columns. On of the far to the right is Anamorphous - set/select this for Your captured material.

Now it should behave.

Yours Bengt W

If I get it right. Then only way is to enlarge the 4x3 so that instead of black sides
it goes out on top and/or bottom

Else the result will be "Stretched" - short and fat mens in opposite of 16x9 viewed
in 4x3 mode = Squeesed (Thin and long mens)

(Image + Wireframe and adjust size)

The result will be very quality reduced. I prefere black columns.

Yours Bengt W

You can with QT Conversion > Options > Size > Choose a SD 16:9 dimension (i.e. 720x480 16:9) then check the box "Preserve aspect ratio using" : from pop-down menu "Crop". Top and bottom will be cropped.
By using QT conversion you are applying a degree of compression to your movie (depending on codec).

Compressor is perfect for this kind of jobs too.

Luca

QT movie, Self Contained indeed if you want to use Compressor. QT Conversion if you wish to get your final output from within FCP. BTW. Just try it, for example an H.264 export, it takes two minutes and you can see that the final output will be 16:9 with cropped top and bottom.

In Compressor you'll bring the self contained clip and will use Inspector > Geometry Tab for your size modifications. With Compressor you can do a lot of size customization, however, not all types of compressions will allow that.

Do some check tests in either cases by setting an IN and OUT point to select a portion of your movie.

You can not convert a dv 4:3 project to 16:9 without some serious damage to the sharpness of the image if the final display is at full resolution (eg playing back from DVD) The resulting softness of the image from the uprez process will only show more dramatically when you play the material back on a large screen TV.

If you want to do this, the simplest way is to create a DV 16:9 sequence and place your 4:3 project in it. FCP may distort the image to fit, which is not what you want (it will look like everyone needs to go on a serious diet). If you have v7, when FCP tells you the sequence settings do not match the material, select NO, you do not want FCP to change them. Then drag the nested sequence into the viewer and click on the Motion Tab to set Distort>Aspect Ratio to zero and the Scale to 133. This adjusts for the pixel aspect ratio to make sure the people will look correct and will expand the image to the sides. The top and bottom of the image are cropped. You now have a 16:9 anamorphic DV/NTSC image (I'm assuming you are working in NTSC)

The overall effect to the image will be a serious softening as you are increasing the size of individual pixels by 33% - a very significant increase. When the image is blown up again to be displayed on a large screen TV or projector .... yikes. This is what happens when you throw away resolution - and DV doesn't have much to spare.

My advice is to simply export the thing as 4:3 (no letterboxing) and let HDTVs either pillarbox it (black bars on the sides) or use one of the more sophisticated justifying algorithms to stretch the image to fill.

ymmv of course.

x