Max Aspect Ratio for Rendering to 16:9

[vizbiz]

kazuni, I'm not a guru but I am rendering an animation right now for 16:9 NTSC. I have set my resolution to 720 x 486 with a 1.2 pixel aspect ratio. This will render the image slightly squeezed horizontally, and looks good on a regular TV, normal on widescreen.

Hope this will help till a real pro gets in here.

[kazuni]

kazuni, I'm not a guru but I am rendering an animation right now for 16:9 NTSC. I have set my resolution to 720 x 486 with a 1.2 pixel aspect ratio. This will render the image slightly squeezed horizontally, and looks good on a regular TV, normal on widescreen.

Hope this will help till a real pro gets in here.


Thank you VizBiz, I believe I have also found answers on this thread: http://www.cgtalk.com/archive/index.php/t-211046.html

thanx

[JohnnyRandom]

Simplest solution would be to choose custom in your render dialog and enter 16 pxl X 9 pxl, then lock the IMAGE aspect ratio, enter the desired size generally 1280x720 for hdtv... don't mess around with your PIXEL aspect ratio, either choose 1.0 or 0.9 to avoid any distortion.

Also going back to size it depends on what your end format is going to be... SD/HDTV, film, ect.
this will have alot to do with what render size you choose...

FYI the most common setups are already in max for you under the render output size preset drop-down menu. ;)

[Backenbotten]

Yeah - it is a mess to understand. Have done a few things for 16/9 broadcast.

Alternative 1: anamorphic 16/9 (best quality, makes best use of the vertical resolution, not compatible or non-optimal for 4/3 tvs). Anamophic refers to filming with lenses that squeeze the image horizontally, to make a wider view fit a narrower medium. Of course, when displayed, you need the opposite of that lens to "de-squeeze" it. In theaters, this is done with optical lenses for movies filme with anamorphic lenses. For 16/9 tvs, this is done "automatically" since the image stretches over the whole screen, although its resolution is really that of the old 4/3 tvs... if you see what I mean. In your digital "environment", you can very easily equip your virtual camera with an anamorphic lens: simply by adjusting its pixel aspect ratio (see below). A tip is to use "safe frame" in the viewport if you want to see the 16/9 image frame.

Image aspect ratio: 1.777777 (=16/9)

Resolution: 720 x 486

Pixel aspect ratio: 1.2 (= 0.9 x 4/3)

The pixel aspect ratio of your regular TV is 0.9, and its image aspect ratio is 4/3 = 1.333. A "widescreen" tv has 16/9 image aspect ratio = 1.77777777. The 16/9 aspect ratio happens to be exactly 4/3 of the old standard (which is 4/3), so therefor you need to multiply the pixel aspect ratio of 0.9 by 4/3 to get it right when you render for display on a 16/9 monitor (0.9x4/3 = 1.2. For your reference, the pixel aspect aspect ratio of 1 is that of computer monitors (they pixels are square). When viewing the renders on your computer monitor (with 1 pixel aspect ratio) they SHOULD look sqeezed, or compressed horizontally - just think about it - the "pixels" on your widescreen TV are wider than they are tall (by 1.2), and the pixels will be stretched horizontally and the image look right there, .

Alternatively, if you want to work with square pixels in a compositing or editing application (and resample it to anamorphic 720x468 in a last step), you could use:
Image aspect ratio: 1.777777 (=16/9)
Resolution: 832 x 468
Pixel aspect ratio: 1

That might be simpler, depending on what app you are using. It will increase render times and disk space need though.

Alternatively, if you want to make letterboxed 16/9, which is compatible with older 4/3 tvs you use:
Image aspect ratio: 1.777777 (=16/9)
Resolution: 720 x 405
Pixel aspect ratio: 0.9

In your editing app, make sure you set the pixel aspect ratio of that clip to 0.9. Black will automatically be added to the top and bottom as that space is "empty" if you see what I mean.

For broadcast though, I've found that they (over here) often go with 14/9 letterboxed, normal 4/3 tv pixel aspect ratio to increase compability with older tvs (though severly impairing possibly quality on 16/9 tvs).

Phew, I am used to work with PAL, so I'm not used to those NTSC numbers...
Good luck...

[michaeljr]

you are right on, just remember when you author your DVD, make sure to use 16x9 and make sure the software realizes the footage is 1.2 pixel / 16x9 footage. this will encode the DVDs IFOs to know that it's 16x9. if you screw up and make the DVD file, you can edit the IFOs and tell it to be 16x9 and just reburn without having to reauthor without having to recompress anything.


then your DVD player will know if to either put black bars on the top if it's a 4x3 TV setup and then it will play right out if it's a 16x9 tv setup

[TimWoods]

to achieve 1024 x 576 PAL

set to 720 x 576 with a pixel aspect of 1.422

job done. :)

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