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tvining
10-05-2005, 10:31 PM
I want to render for a simulated letterbox effect for an animation to be cut in FinalCut Pro and shown on NTSC/DVD, but I'm a little confused. To render for a full-screen NTSC, you render at 720x486 at 0.9 to 1 pixel ratio to account for the square/non-square pixel issue. For letterboxing, one can apparently just render at, for example, 720x328 and when it goes to NTSC, the image shows up with the black bars above and below (letterboxed). What is confusing me is that when I render to this pixel dimension, using 0.9 to 1 no longer works--it comes out looking too squished when I get it to NTSC. Rather, leaving the pixel ratio at 1 to 1 when I render actually looks about right. What gives? Is there a formula I don't know about to calculate the rendered pixel ratio for specific pixel dimensions?

Thanks--T
FredSpeaks
10-06-2005, 12:39 AM
Render out at 720X486 at 1.2 to 1 ratio. When you bring it in to FCP, get info on the clip and activate wide screen (or something like that. I dont have FCP in front of me at the moment.) Just make sure in DVDSP that your setup is for a widescreen disc as well.
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