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imbored
02-15-2005, 01:52 AM
I am working on a documentary that is going to be exported as video in 16:9 widescreen. All my shots that were done be me are in 16:9. There are some news footage that I am putting into it, but it is in the 4:3 aspect ratio. What would be the best way, with the best quality, to convert this 4:3 news footage into 16:9? I use Adobe Premiere Pro 1.5 for editing. The current method that i use is to zoom in on the 4:3 footage in premiere until it fits in the letterbox. But that appears distorted and blocky during export. What would be the best method in order to preserve the original quality?
imbored
02-17-2005, 01:23 AM
Can't anyone answer this question?
jussing
02-18-2005, 11:57 AM
Well, I don't know how studios go about this, but I'll tell you what I know.

When converting 4:3 to 16:9, you are taking the 16:9 part of your 4:3 picture (meaning, NOT the whole resolution of your original picture), and scaling it back to a 4:3 resolution.

So, in other words, you are UP-scaling. Hence the blocking. It's inevitable, you have to lose quality. I take it some scaling algorithms are better than others, I've upscaled that way without significant loss in After Effects. How bad is your quality loss? Try posting pics.

- Jonas
suntemple
02-19-2005, 08:40 PM
I am no pro but I think jussing is correct about your options .

Broadcast stations etc use expensive equipment called ARCS (aspect ratio converters). http://www.eyeheight.com/products_by_type.asp#a here is sample product and there are many other models. These converters process and upscale/downscale the signal using sampling algorithms to output to various formats (I think). Still, you're sacraficing quality that you wouldn't have to sacrifce if you origianlly filmed in true 16:9 format using a 16:9 anamorphic lens converter attachment on your video camera (not that fake 16:9 lowend camera option that just black bars the image instead of using the 576 vertical lines available in true 16:9). Unfortunately, the aspect ratio of the news footage is beyond your control so you will have to zoom.
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