HD to BETA SP

[John Carreon]

Hey Folks,

 

Working on a commercial for basic cable. It only involves graphics and a voice-over. We were planning on creating it in an HD format on after-effects but found out that we have to turn it into the cable company on a Beta SP tape...

 

Here's my question: HD's native ratio is 16:9 and what will happen to this when transfered to an SD Format which is 4:3?!?

 

I hope this makes sense as I am somewhat confused myself and the Cable company has yet to return my calls.

 

Will the HD information just get scrunched making the image looked warped? Will it get chopped off? Is there any way to remain in the HD format without bad things happening? And we would hate to have to originate the images in an SD, 4:3 format as the colors die out and the sharpness of text deteriorates greatly.

 

I would love any help, recommendations, or suggestions that anyone might have.

 

Thanks,

 

John "extremely confused" Carreon

[Tim J Durham]

Hey Folks,

 

Working on a commercial for basic cable. It only involves graphics and a voice-over. We were planning on creating it in an HD format on after-effects but found out that we have to turn it into the cable company on a Beta SP tape...

 

Here's my question: HD's native ratio is 16:9 and what will happen to this when transfered to an SD Format which is 4:3?!?

 

I hope this makes sense as I am somewhat confused myself and the Cable company has yet to return my calls.

 

Will the HD information just get scrunched making the image looked warped? Will it get chopped off? Is there any way to remain in the HD format without bad things happening? And we would hate to have to originate the images in an SD, 4:3 format as the colors die out and the sharpness of text deteriorates greatly.

 

I would love any help, recommendations, or suggestions that anyone might have.

 

Thanks,

 

John "extremely confused" Carreon

Is this something that will still have a life beyond the time when this cable company goes Hi-def? If not, you're wasting your money shooting it in HD. As for the color and text problems, you are working from faulty information. Downconverting the HD to BetaSP in After Effects would look worse than originating the project in SP.

[David Mullen ASC]

16x9 HD material can be downconverted to SD either as 16x9 "anamorphic" (squeezed) although that is usually only for DVD distribution, or 4x3 with a 1.78 letterbox, or 4x3 full-frame, either using "pan & scan" or "center crop" to extract a 4x3 image from 16x9.

 

So you could compose the 16x9 HD project with dead space on the left & right side so they can make a center extraction to 4x3 SD and get a normal composition. Since the HD master has more resolution to begin with, you don't really lose any resolution by cropping the sides to 4x3 if ending up in standard def (for example, if you master is 1920 x 1080 pixels and you have to end up with 720 x 480.)

 

However, if this is a one-time project for 4x3 SD distribution only, then why not just do the work in 4x3 720 x 480 SD to begin with?

[Keith Mottram]

16x9 HD material can be downconverted to SD either as 16x9 "anamorphic" (squeezed) although that is usually only for DVD distribution, or 4x3 with a 1.78 letterbox, or 4x3 full-frame, either using "pan & scan" or "center crop" to extract a 4x3 image from 16x9.

 

So you could compose the 16x9 HD project with dead space on the left & right side so they can make a center extraction to 4x3 SD and get a normal composition. Since the HD master has more resolution to begin with, you don't really lose any resolution by cropping the sides to 4x3 if ending up in standard def (for example, if you master is 1920 x 1080 pixels and you have to end up with 720 x 480.)

 

However, if this is a one-time project for 4x3 SD distribution only, then why not just do the work in 4x3 720 x 480 SD to begin with?

 

In the UK 16:9 is frequently letterboxed then 'zoomed' into a 14:9 aspect ratio for 4:3 programmes originated in the 16:9 format. is this not the case in the US?