Exporting 16:9 Footage for the Web
by Brittanie in Instructional, Video Production and Publishing / 11.06.08
Ugh, why are these things so complicated? I hate having to scour through forums online only to see how many other people have my same problem.
Recently, the MindBites production team had to rip a widescreen DVD into an editable format for Final Cut Pro and then export for the web to a site which has a 4:3 pixel aspect ratio.
My problem was that I needed to export a 16:9 sequence from Final Cut Pro and post it online to a site that only hosts 4:3 video. Each time I tried to export a 16:9 anamorphic Quicktime movie it would turn out “anamorphicized” or squished on my computer monitor. Some online video-hosting sites accept 16:9 files but MindBites has yet to implement this feature (coming soon!).
So, I had to export a 4:3 movie from a 16:9 sequence. The solution was to “nest” the 16:9 sequence into a 4:3 sequence and export using the 4:3 settings. My outcome was a 4:3 video that I could use online and specifically, post on our site. Here are my exact steps:
1. Edit 16:9 footage in normal sequence settings.
2. Make a new sequence that is 4:3, web-friendly pixel aspect ratio. Use these settings:
3. Drop 16:9 sequence inside 4:3 sequence. This should create a letterbox and maintain the 16:9 anamorphic pixel aspect ratio.
4. Export using 4:3 sequence to Quicktime movie and use your current settings.
5. Compress movie in Compressor or you can export to Quicktime conversion from Final Cut Pro and make your ready-for-web video there. (My production team batch compresses videos so we use Compressor to save time.)
Hope this tutorial was helpful for you and if you have an alternative method to turning 16:9 footage into 4:3, please leave a comment explaining or linking to it.
Do you have video tips and tricks? Post the info in our Forum, or make a MindBite!
Yeah - letterboxing is your best bet most of the time. I don’t even bother producing 16:9 stuff, and if my staff sends me stuff in 16:9, i end up cropping it for a 4:3 resolution, simply because not doing so severely limits how far I can distribute it.
I figure I’ll give it another six months to a year before I seriously consider moving over to 16:9 as my primary resolution.
I have the opposite problem - I have to use 4×3 footage in 16×9 projects. So I either Zoom In to fill the 16×9 screen, loosing some of the image a the top and bottom of the frame, or place the clip in the 16×9 frame so it fits top and bottom, but leave black strips left and right ( pillar box format ) AGHHHH - Who’s bright idea was it to switch aspect ratios ?
Thanks, this is what i’ve been trying to work out for a while now ! It sucks that we have the latest HD camera only to be disadvantaged because everyone else has not caught up yet ! I’m totally lost as to what way to deliver my movies ? But this tutorial has helped me so thanks.
I have a project that was shot 16:9 and needed to be viewable on 16:9/computer and 4:3. I was using iDVD to encode and burn. It took me a while of trial and error(I have a stack of tester dvds 3 inches tall)but here is what seemed to work best for me.
I did try nesting the 16:9 sequence in a new 4:3 project but found the loss in resolution quality to be more significant than the option below.
What I did instead was open a new 16:9 project and put the 16:9 sequence from my original in it. I then simply clicked on the wireframe and dragged the image size down so that it fit inside the title safe zones. This then automatically letterboxed the image when viewed on a a 4:3 and added a black frame all around the image on a the 16:9 which looks okay.
Don’t know if this is the best, but it worked for me.