Movie editing software that supports widecreen (1 Viewer)

[Len Cheong]

I am wondering if most movie editing software can edit movies taken in widescreen. For instance for the pc, does adobe premier have the option of editing and outputting widescreen movies? What about the imovie on the macintosh? Thanks.

 

[Jeff Kleist]

Do you mean letterboxed widescreen, anamorphic widescreen or what?

Yes, you can output either using Premiere

 

[Vince Maskeeper]

As Jeff said-- especially if you're talking matted letterboxed in a 4:3 frame, the editor treats the balck as picture area- so it could care less.

If you're looking to matte 4:3 material you've shot, you might need after effects to do it with any degree of control-- but if you're just talking editing letterboxed material, it won't make a lick of difference.

-Vince

 

[Jeff Kleist]

I personally use After Effects to matte stuff I shoot. I never do it in-camera anymore

 

[Len Cheong]

Jeff, Vince, thanks. I did not know you could matt the 4:3 material. My camera can do anamorphic so that's the mode I've been using but would you suggest I just use 4:3 and then apply the matt? The problem is that if I output an anamorphic movie, I always have to play it on a widescreen tv which I do have anyway but if I want to play it on a 4:3 tv like in a friend's place it will look all squished. I guess I should decide.

If I start out 4:3, I can at least apply the matt or not. But if I start out anamorphic widecreen, do I have the option of cropping the sides and making it pan and scan with a program like after effects? Why would I want to do this? Well maybe I wont but can I do it anyway? Thanks.

Vince, have you received my MO yet??

 

[Jeff Kleist]

Don't use the anamorphic feature of your camera. Basically it takes a 16:9 area of your CCD and squishes it, so you're losing picture resolution (think non-anamorphic DVD blown up to fit a 16:9 one). Plus you then lose the framing flexiblility you have with 4:3 for the same resulting picture resolution.

You could chop off the sides with After Effects, but again, why would you want to?

 

[DonRoeber]

On the mac, iMovie can't do it, but Final Cut Pro can.

 

[Len Cheong]

Jeff, are you sure about the lost resolution? When I put it on my widescreen it's pretty damn good and looks like my anamorphic dvds as opposed to my nonanamorphic ones that look terrible upon zooming. If what you say is true, I'm switching back to 4:3 filming.

 

[Jeff Kleist]

Unless you havea $5,000 pro camcorder, you have a 4:3 CCD in there, and as you know you can't make 16:9 from 4:3 w/o cutting

 

[Ken Garrison]

I wish premier would let me capture from my USB Dazzle unit. I know, this thing's a POS, but it's all I got now. Next PC I build will have one of them Geforce 4s with TV IN and OUT.

 

[Len Cheong]

When I play my videos on my widescreen tv, they come out anamorphic since the image fills up the tv and not widescreen that has to be zoomed out to fill the screen.
When I play it on a 4:3 tv it comes out squished with no black bars. However, my camcorder is not a $5000 camcorder so I'm sure it's only got a 4:3 chip. Check the following link
Link Removed

The OpTex anamorphic attachment is a high quality optical assembly that will horizontally squeeze the image by to produce the desired aspect ratio, using the entire CCD with no loss of resolution. The camera's 4:3 viewfinder displays a stretched image, but when displayed on a 16:9 monitor the image will appear natural.

Could my camera be doing the above?