Converting old 4:3 to 16:9

[pehrbau]

Five years ago I made a 55 min DVD in 4:3 covering a veteran railway. The people that run the "museum" railway want me to make a 9:16 version. Unfortunately all 15 hours of my video material is in 4:3. I have made some tests in Edius which I think looks rather promising by expanding the size to full width in 9:16 and moving the clip vertically to best showing the significant parts. Only a small part of the video has to be filmed again with the correct setting. I use XL1 and XM1 with no real 9:16 settings.

The downside seems to be a slight loss of quality which I think very few viewers will notice.

Has anybody tried this and is it a big mistake to put lots of hours in the conversion process. The alternative is getting new cameras and putting at least two summer seasons for filming. Besides there are three parts(events) which are not possible to film again.

Anybody?

(Sorry for the Edius Pro 4.5 below. Will change that!)

[Bluetongue]

Converting SD 4:3 to 16:9 HDV

I have had the same problem and have overcome it to some extent.
I use a Sony HDR FX1 and edit in HDV, adding clips taken earlier with a Sony TRV900 in 4:3 DV seems to be relatively easy.
Make sure the Project settings are for HDV then bring the clips in and add a sharpness filter set to between 30 and 45 MAX!
Some clips can't be used due to original focus problems, EDIUS resizing is superb even in sizing up! and when the finished video is rendered back to DVD it looks pretty good providing you have assessed your clips carefully.
In HDV the sharpness filter can really be swung into gear with good results.
When the video is played back in HDV, most people have problems distinguishing the DV video. Focus is the key and bad focus cannot be made up in post, another problem that occurs is where a lot of detail is present cut back the Sharpness filter or the picture will look terrible with huge amounts of white edges.
Best of luck
regards Barry

[pjsssss]

I assume you are using the Layout Tool for this. That would be the best and quickest way.

[lauri]

How are you resizing the 4:3 footage without it looking so stretched out?

[DigitalDave]

There are several ways of handling 4x3 in 16x9 and most will be a compromise.
The best way is a proper hardware Aspect Ratio Converter, Snell and Wilcox AC 100 or 150....expensive. Quantel even more expensive.
The poor mans way is to use layouter. Do understand that you have to use it shot by shot to get the best parts of the picture and that you are chopping off from either or top and bottom to get the sides to fill the "16" width. THERE IS NO MAGIC WAY TO GET A 4x3 SHOT to 16x9 without losing some of the shot. (If you try it will distort.) The height "12" is chopped to "9" so you are losing 25% of the picture and zooming to fit the sides. Some sharpening might be required. Results are source dependent i.e. If its crap to start off with it will look dire when Arc'd.

The alternative is to use 4x3 footage AS 4x3. Leave it pillar boxed with black bands or as I sometimes do add it over a 16x9 backgound. This can even be the original picture, stretched with a massive dose of soft focus to blur.

DD

[GrassValley_MD]

Along the lines of digital dave...

I would use the layout tool and shot by shot I would pick which part of the shot I would want.

It takes longer but it is better than letting something pick for you. This keeps everything looking the way it was shot.

[GrassValley_MD]

You can save some time by creating the layout the way you want it on the first clip and then copy that layout to all of the clips and then just open the layout on each and adjust it up or down.

[lauri]

I have tried all those ways the problem is having the shot fill the 16:9 aspect
so when it is watched on a HD or 16:9 tv it fills the screen. I was trying to avoid having to use any sort of black bands around the footage...

[jaegersing]

I have tried all those ways the problem is having the shot fill the 16:9 aspect
so when it is watched on a HD or 16:9 tv it fills the screen. I was trying to avoid having to use any sort of black bands around the footage...

If your project is 16:9, the Layouter tool lets you zoom in on a 4:3 clip until it fills the screen width. Of course you will lose part of the image at the top and bottom, and you might need to adjust the vertical position to make sure that you don't lose anything critical. However you should get a full screen image without black bars.

Richard