Rendering for 2K widescreen / aspect ratio question

[BrianHarbauer]

First of all if you're only going to dvd then I wouldn't render out at 2k, i'd render out at a much lower res and save render time. As far as apect ratio, it would depend on what works for your project. If you want a really epic look, then sure, 2.35 is nice. The standard aspect ratio for movies isn't 2.35, it's whatever it needs to help tell the story.

As far as pixel aspect ratio. If you want a 16x9 widscreen dvd, don't put black bars on the top and bottom. Instead you want to squeeze the widescreen picture (864x480) to 720x480 and then when you render it out, tell the codec it's pixel aspect ratio is 1.2. When you take the file into something like adobe encore, it will interpet the footage and encode that aspect ratio into the mpeg. So when the dvd player reads the file down the line, it will also read the pixel aspect ratio and un-squeeze it, or put letterbox depending on the viewing device.

Basically if you do the squeeze, you'll end up with sharper picture than if you rendered a letterbox 4x3 file.

[mixermanic]

Hi Brian,

Thanks for the reply. That makes things slightly clearer!

So, assuming I go for a 16:9 ratio for DVD, what are my render settings? 864x480 with a pixel aspect ratio of 1.2; or 720x480 with a pixel aspect ratio of 1.2?

Cheers,

Martin

[mixermanic]

Ok, so if I wanted to go for 2.35:1 (for that "epic" look :rolleyes: ), what would my render settings be?

Surely general DVD is not particularly high res? If, for future-proofing, we wanted to go with HDTV resolution (which is 1920x1080 standard), what would we render out at for the 2.35:1 image, and what would the device and pixel aspect ratios be?

Many thanks!

Martin

[mixermanic]

Hey ho - it's me again...!

I've been reading around on the net a bit, and have come up with this. Tell me if it's stupid!

As far as I can tell, for DVD there is no need to render anamorphically. I should just render out at 2.35:1 with pixel aspect ratio of 1 (square). Because there are going to be a few explosions etc in some scenes, I'll add 5% to the frame size to allow camera shakes and other effects.

Which leaves resolution. I'll render at 720i (width 1080). For this project there really is no need to go to 1080i.

So - should I (as I am planning) render direct at 1080x460 (which gives me 2.35:1), or render at 1080x720 with a "streched" vertical image, and then get my DVD software (I'm using DVD Architect) to squeeze it down to 460?

What then if it is played back on 16:9 or 4:3 systems. Are black bars added?

Sorry to keep posting questions, but this is horribly confusing me!!

Thanks,

Martin

[Integrity]

You're confusing resolutions.

For DVD the main resolution used in the industry is 720x480, which as far as I know is the highest DVD is capable of. HD uses 1920x1080 and 1280x720.

I'll assume you really meant to use 1280x720 not 1080x460 (it seems you got the width and heighth mixed up). I suggest rendering at square pixels (ratio of 1) at 1280x720 (for 16:9) and worry about stretching the image later for anamorphic DVD in your editing software or DVD authoring package. Since 720x480 (DVD resolution) is smaller than HD and you're rendering at HD there will be no quality loss when you shrink down and you'll also have your square pixel ratio HD res original ready when you need it.

If you are going to use the "epic" look of 2.35:1 (just a hint, some will argue it's really 2.39 or 2.4) then it's just simple math...

1280 / 2.35 = 545 (rounded off) so the resolution you'll want to render at is 1280 x 545.

The same can be applied to 1920x1080...

1920 / 2.35 = 817 (rounded off) so the resolution you'll want to render at is 1920 x 817.

When you finally get to editing and authoring with your 2.35:1 render, you'll just simply need to import your render into whatever application you're using inside a 16:9 image ratio that has a pixel ratio of 1.2 due to DVD's resolution, and select square pixel ratio for the render and the application should apply black bars automatically in the 16:9 frame. When playing back on a DVD player, as another has said, the DVD player will choose what to do with the 16:9 flagged frame (which it should play it in a letterbox format if playing on a 4:3 television or full screen if a 16:9 television, depending on how the DVD player is set up).

[mixermanic]

Thank you!! That's made things much easier for me :thumbsup:

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