Hey guys,
I have another question about Pinnacle Studio 7.15. I shot my film on 16:9 on a Cannon GL1. How do I convert my film into a widescreen with the black bars on top and bottom with Pinancle?

You probably can't. The black bars are put on when you watch a movie on TV because of the way the image is formed. You should have filmed it 4:3 and then just cropped of an inch from the top and bottom, and added the black bars in post.

What will probably happen now, is when you try to watch the movie on TV, the left and right sides of your image will be scrunched.

Capture it in 16:9 format, though. Go from there, and good luck.

If you shoot 16:9, you actually have to have a 16:9 chip. Most cameras just crop the top and bottom to make it look like "widescreen," but when you watch it on TV the image will be squished in the horizontal direction. That's what my TRV950 does. When I select 16:9, it just crops the picture down, but the pixels stay the same. When I hook the camera into a TV and flip the switch, the image on the TV gets distorted - people look fat and tall, that sort of thing.

I have Premier, so I can capture in 16:9, but that doesn't realy do anything except make it so that when you're editing, it doesn't squish the image. I'm assuming Pinaccle has the same feature, though I'm not familiar with it.

Sony TRV950

No, you can and it WAS better to shoot 16x9 The Canons and some other cam that escapes me (trv900 maybe) shoot digital 16x9. Its not true anamorphic, but it still compresses the image giving you all the pixels, in a smaller picture. Cropping makes you chop off the top and bottom, loosing those pixels. (Most cams just chop for you, a waste of time) You need to compress the image, by resizing it. Look for a resizing tool, and compress (not crop) the image. Pinnacle should do that. Good luck.

Lee, your cam does the same thing. Loom for a resize tool. It is actually better to shoot in that mode. Now rendering it all squished will take longer then cropping, but you will have a better picture then if shoot regular and compress. Trust me, I was a "shoot and crop" guy until someone showed me how the compression works. Technically, the 16x9 has more concentrated pixels and therefore a better imgae then shooting and cropping. Niow I have DVX100 and it dosent have the digital 16x9. Oh well, even cropped it looks better, and I can get an anamorphic adapter so HA.
R. Michael

"Luck, is when opportunity, meets preperation." "There are 3 sides to every story. Yours, mine, and the truth, and none of us are lying" -Robert Evans

Tizz is correct.

A 70-73% resize of the 16x9 footage will turn it into letterboxed 4:3.

In Xpress DV (or any Avid) there is a 16x9 mode where you can edit in widescreen...however if you would like to output to tape you need to resize it so that it doesn't look warped on a TV.

-Chris
Studentfilms.com

Tizz, I know my camera shoots in true 16:9 and the pixels remain true, but when I hook it up to my TV, or play back a movie, the sides are squished. It even warns me about this in the instruction manual.

So you're saying that even though I can edit in 16:9, I still have to resize the image? So basically, I just size it down so that the image is smaller than the screen? So those black bars aren't really black bars, they are really just BLANK SCREEN?

I think I got it, thank you so much. I filmed a short when I bought the camera of just me waking up from a bad dream. I shot it in 16:9, but when I played it back on my TV only it was squished, then when I edited it, it was squished; so I became discouraged. Not that I'm disappointed with my camera's 4:3 performance - but I've always wanted to film in widescreen.

But I do know that the TRV950 and the X2000 do shoot with the correct pixels for 16:9, and therefore produce a better image, but I thought there was no correcting the stubbiness of it unless I actually transfered it to film or something. Anyway, one of the reasons I bought my camera is that it shoots in real 16:9.

So thanks a lot!

And for the record, I can get an anamorphic lens, too

PS Can Premier resize it for me? I can capture in 16:9, but I guess I still have to resize it. I'm not home now to experiment with it, so if you answer me, I won't have to waste my time with it when I get home. I get home in 3 days, and I'm anxious to make movies. I wanna know if I have to get a program immediately . Thanks

Sony TRV950

[This message was edited by LeeMarcotte on August 09, 2003 at 09:09 PM.]

Glad to help Lee. Youll end up with a better image that way. Yeah, the black will be blank space after the resize. Good luck.
R. M.

"Luck, is when opportunity, meets preperation." "There are 3 sides to every story. Yours, mine, and the truth, and none of us are lying" -Robert Evans

So Premier won't resize it for me? I won't have to spend money on a plugin will I? Not that it matters, I get my pluggins for free; but will I have to search long and hard for one? Can you tell me one off the top of your head maybe?

Sony TRV950