Aspect Ratio

[Denisse]

Hello Everyone!
I have a question about aspect ratio. My Camera shoots in 24f mode 16:9 native and I've been using that combination. It's my first time seeing what the 16:9 looks like. When I play back the footage on my TV set, the images are kind of elongated. Not terribly so, but enough where I notice a diference. When I do ECU shots I don't notice it, but I'm sure that's because it's so close.
Is it the 16:9 aspect ratio that's causing that? What is the standard 4:3 right? I am a newbie, so please bear with me.
I took a class, and sadly to say all that was mention about 16:9 is that it's wide screen, and there was mention about an anamorphic lense that squeezes the image then upon editing it releases it. Well I am not using that lense, so I guess that's what native means. But is it posibble that the image is sligthly squeezed and that's why it looks long, because it's unedited?
Also, which aspect ratio is considered standard, and if there is no standard perse, then from your experience when do you suggest I use each?

 

[David Mullen ASC]

In standard definition video, pixels are not square, and this is particularly true for 16x9. You see, whether a standard def video signal is 4x3 or 16x9, they share the same pixel dimensions (720 x 480 for NTSC, for example.)

It's just that the pixels in a 16x9 NTSC recording are skinnier than the ones on a 4x3 NTSC recording. When the signal is sent to a 16x9 monitor, it looks correct, but when it goes to a 4x3 TV monitor, everything will look skinny. It has to be converted from 16x9 "anamorphic" to a 4x3 "letterboxed" image for display on a 4x3 monitor. A DVD player does this automatically, or through the menu controls, but a tape deck doesn't. So unless you put this 16x9 recording on a DVD, you will have to make a version from the 16x9 master that is a conversion to 4x3 letterbox, for putting on tape for example.

 

[jjb456]

I actually just shot an entire short using the 16:9 feature on my mini-dv camera, only to find out after it was all edited, that it would be shifted back into 4:3 and elongated (like you said.) I read up somewhere that it does it because the mini DV tape is automatically 4:3, so no matter what you put on it, it will be projected as 4:3, and therefore, stretched vertically. The best I could say to do is, if you really want the 16:9 look, shoot everything in 4:3 with a lot of breathing room, and then manually letterbox it, to give it that widescreen feel.

 

[David Mullen ASC]

I think you're missing the point: 16x9 "anamorphic" standard def video IS the same thing as 4x3 "elongated". 16x9 and 4x3 in standard def video share the same pixel ratio, only in 16x9, the pixels are skinny. This looks correct on a 16x9 monitor, but on a 4x3 monitor, it looks skinny unless converted to a 4x3 letterboxed image.

It's not a Mini-DV issue, it's just that DVD is one of the only standard def recording formats where the players automatically convert 16x9 to become a 4x3 letterboxed image when the signal is set to a 4x3 monitor. Tape decks don't have that feature, so a 16x9 recording will not be converted to a letterboxed image simply by playing the tape.

What you wanted was not 16x9 -- what you wanted was 4x3 with a 1.78 (16x9) letterbox, which is different.