Aspect Ratio of Letterboxed DVX100 Footage

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Level 1

49 points

Aspect Ratio of Letterboxed DVX100 Footage

I'm wondering if anyone knows what the exact aspect ratio would be of DVX100 footage with the widescreen matte turned on. In trying to measure it in Final Cut, applying the 1.66:1 and 1.70:1 mattes don't do anything, but the 1.78:1 matte crops off a slight additional amount of any shot. Using Compressor, the 1.75:1 matte also crops off slightly more footage than was originally matted by the letterbox.

If it helps, here are the numbers that Compressor provides:

Using 1.66:1 matte crops the top and bottom to a value of 47. Using a 1.75:1 matte crops the top and bottom to 57 and selecting 'Letterbox Area of Source' crops the top and bottom to 54.

MacBook Pro, OS X Mavericks (10.9), 2.66 GHz Intel Core i7, 8GB RAM

Posted on Nov 26, 2013 5:57 AM

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Answer 1

Studio X

Level 7

27,229 points

Nov 26, 2013 7:42 AM in response to willscarlett

What are you asking? What widescreen mask?

What is the image format of the DVX footage? DV 4:3 , DV 16:9 squeeze (aka anamorphic) or DV 4:3 letterboxed to look 16:9?

x

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Answer 2

willscarlett Author

Level 1

49 points

Nov 27, 2013 5:28 PM in response to Studio X

The regular DVX100 shoots in 4:3 with a letterbox mode to minic 16:9. However, it's just masked 4:3.

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Answer 3

Nov 27, 2013 6:46 PM in response to willscarlett

I can't tell you exactly what aspect ratio the DVX100 with the widescreen matte turned on. I can tell you what a 4x3 matted aspect ratio should be. It should be 4x3 1.77777778.

Figuring this out in NTSC broadcasting specs is a little misleading Eg: 4x3 1.33 native equates to 720*486=1.48148148148 or 720*480=1.5 due to non-square pixels. Conversion to square pixels helps. 640*480=1.33333333. for 16x9 640*360=1.77777778.

I wouldn't rely on a correct line count coming out of the camera or out of Final Cut without a profressional grade scope ie: Tektronix.

So, if what you're trying to do if place mattes to match your video I would suggest creating the mattes manually to line up with the existing mattes.

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