Multi format editing in EDIUS, Overview

[Fred Dwyer]

If someone can help me sort out the EDIUS 4.5/6 workflow options for editing 2 streams of SD video plus one stream of HD it would really help me to move ahead. I will be using the multicam feature. Which of the following are potentially workable?

1. I can of course shoot in SD with my new HV30 and that would end the discussion.

2. I believe I can shoot in HD and have the camera convert to SD as the footage is captured by my editing computer, but I suspect (camera not delivered yet) that will be wide-screen SD. Then the question just becomes, how to deal with mixed aspect ratios in EDIUS .

3. If I understand correctly, EDIUS will allow me to put HD and SD footage in the same project. Now by HD footage I really mean HD converted to Canopus HQ, but again I'd have the mixed aspect ratio challenge.

Obviously #1 will work, but I doubt that it will result in the best footage for the final product.

From what I've read here and on other fora #2 will not result in much if any better footage than #1 and I have no idea how to deal with the mixed aspect ratios.

So some variation of #3 seems the most promissing if that's at all possible. I have read the very extensive thread about converting from HD to SD for DVD burning, but that doesn't help much with my mixed SD/HD and mixed aspect ratio confussion. I believe I can figure out the "how to" details if I just understand the concept of what I'm trying to do. Any thoughts???

[Bluetongue]

The solution is quite simple
Bring the HDV footage into the project
Right click and select layout
Select the vertical alignment button next to the window on the right hand side and the clip will be cropped left and right and fill the screen vertically
You could get some artifacts but that will depend on how sharp the camera is
Regards Barry

[Rusty]

Fred,
Most new cams let you shoot SD 4:3, but if you wind up shooting 16:9 HDV, just frame for 4:3 and you'll be fine.

If you use Layout in an SD project using HDV footage you may not notice any degradation. (No experience here, just a hunch)

[Fred Dwyer]

Barry and Rusty:
Thanks for the info. Feel better now that I'm clued in regarding the 4:3/16:9 mix fix. Haven't got the HV30 yet, but as soon as I get it I'll shoot some 30p HDV footage and try to integrate that with some SD. Got to figure this out for an early May shoot.
Thanks again.
Fred

[Rusty]

I'm not sure I' mix interlaced and progressive, that'd look pretty weird.

[Bluetongue]

Fred
There shouldn't be a problem mixing the Progressive and Interlaced so long as you right click the progressive clip and make sure in Properties / Video that the Progressive tag is not set to interlaced, and Edius will look after it and interlace it perfectly or vice a versa if you are looking to make the video in Progressive.
But interlace in Progressive does really look bad as any movement will be shown as a double image!
The Progressive could look a little jittery, I would be interested if this was the case as it would confirm my findings
Regards Barry

[Fred Dwyer]

Rusty, Barry:
This is great! I really appreciate all your thoughts on the matter. I'm going to have a bunch of experimenting to do. DV was easy. Never had to think about issues like this. Just used EDIUS with default settings and all was well. While waiting for the HV30 thought I'd try 16:9/4:3 SD mixture. With project settings displaying pixel ratio of 1.2 the wide screen stuff looked great, but the 4:3 was squished (technical term there). Then with project setting of pixels at .9 they both looked fine and the wide clip displayed clipped to 4:3 automatically. Yes I've got some learning to do, but you guys sure help.

[Fred Dwyer]

OK!!! Got the HV30. Been experimenting with it and EDIUS 4.61. Thought maybe I'd resolve the mixed aspect ratio challenge by shooting in wide format with my 2 SD cameras. Then all three would be 16:9. I've done that and it may be a good way to go BUT a point of confusion. If I set EDIUS project settings to 16:9, the overlay displays just fine, but the output (through an ACEDVio card) to my 4:3 video monitor is not letter boxed, it's squished. On the other hand, if I set EDIUS project settings to 4:3, the overlay shrinks down but displays the full image letter boxed and my video display shows the image properly letter boxed. Any words of wisdom about this? I suppose I need to burn a DVD or two to figure it out.

[Fred Dwyer]

More information: If I write to DVD with 16:9 specified in Project Settings, the DVD plays on a 4:3 TV without distortion, it simply crops the image width. On a wide screen set it fills the picture vertically, but leaves black bars at either end, resulting in an actual picture about 14:10 on the small set I tried it on.

If I write to DVD with 4:3 specified in project settings, the DVD plays properly letterboxed on my 4:3 set, and plays a nice 16:9 with black bars on all sides on the wide screen set.

Is this what I should expect? Am I messing up somewhere along the line?

[Bluetongue]

Fred
First a reply to your ACEDVio problem
The same occurs if you use an ADVC100 it does not recognise the difference between 4:3 and 16:9 so you need to connect an appropriate TV for what you are editing and it will fully scan the TV
Second question regarding DVD playback
There seems to a problem with the Aspect flag or the setup between the TV and Player
1: Make sure the widescreen TV is set to 16:9 not AUTO some get it wrong in AUTO I have a large TV that requires the format to be reset for the current playback mode when used with one DVD player and have not been able to resolve the problem other than not using that player, rather a pain.
2: On the DVD player make sure the video output or TV is set to 16:9 (There are 3 settings 4:3 Letterbox, 4:3 Pan & Scan and 16:9) from your description it seems the player is set to 4:3 Pan & scan which cuts the sides off.
Hope this is of help
Barry

[Fred Dwyer]

Barry:
Thanks, you've given me a bunch of things to think about. I didn't even know my DVD players had settings. To me they were just boxes I brought home and plugged in.
What makes no sense to me is that the results I get when the project is defines as 4:3 seem more valid than when it's 16:9. I realised after running these tests that many of the cable channels I view also display 16:9 images with the black borders all around just like my DVD. Got to try this on the big pricey set, but it's a pain cause I have no DVD player on that one. Oh well, tomorrow is another day. If I can figure this out in the next week or so I'll be alright. The HV30 shooting 30p is going to do a good job as my B roll, even though My system is too slow to import the footage except as SD. The SD is sharper and the color is much better than the Optura Xi it replaces. Will match up well with the GL-1 footage.