Turning 16:9 to 4:3

[shiiko]

Hi,

Have searched the forum and found turning 4:3 to 16:9 but not the other way around. Do you have any suggestions on how to convert and output between these ratios? This assumes that I am willing to crop either from the left or right (or both) of the frame in order not to squeeze the final image.

Thanks!

[plasma_video]

The layout tool is your best friend for this. Create your project settings in SD DV, and place your 16:9 clip on the timeline. Add the layout tool, and crop each side of the image so the width is 720. If you do it correctly (I'm not at the editor right now) by not choosing to keep aspect ratio, the picture will crop and you will not have the squeezed look.

I have done this and saved the setting as a preset in the layout tool for future use.

Hope this helps.

Tom

[Blast1]

In addition to what Tom said, you might want to make some slight adjustments in the way you are shooting also to help if you have to crop the image maybe a tad extra headroom, and other stuff like dat.

[shiiko]

The layout tool is your best friend for this.

Thanks, Tom! Just want to add, for future generations that may read this post, that turning on Settings > Application Settings > Show Safe Area > 4:3, is a good way to judge the aspect ratio for the crop.

[plasma_video]

. . . . . . and, you can keyframe the layout tool, if you need to pan the clip a bit to compensate for things that are out of the 4:3 crop. Very handy - kind of like is done on widescreen movies that are cropped to 4:3 and then panned between actors to get all of the action in. I used that technique for adding a slight pan across a choir shot in 16:9 and cropped for 4:3.

Yep, I turn the 4:3 "safe area" on too. Thanks for the reminder.

[pjsssss]

In the Layout tool, look under the Preset drop down list and select Fit to Height. It will scale to fit and then you can adjust side to side if needed

[plasma_video]

Yes, thanks Pat. I forgot that's how I first laid it out.

Hope you and George had a good dinner last night.

Tom