OT: 16:9 on PD170?

cervama wrote on 4/16/2007, 8:16 AM
Has anyone of you shot 16:9 on a PD170? I know the PD170 is not a true Widescreen camera but I was wondering how it compares to true widescreen. In Vegas I know putting the black bars using pan and crop feature, how does that compare to 1:85? What are your experiences and how does it look? Meaning shooting 16:9 on PD170 and using the features on Vegas.

Thanks for your expertise.

MAC

Comments

Dreamline wrote on 4/16/2007, 10:10 AM
From what I understand, the pd 170 shoots okay 16:9 if it is viewed on a 4:3 set. But if it is viewed on a 16:9 set it will no look very good.
cervama wrote on 4/16/2007, 10:47 AM
how will it look on a 16:9 screen tv? will it look squished, distorted? Thanks for your help.

MAC
Laurence wrote on 4/16/2007, 11:33 AM
I use the 16:9 setting on my VX-2000 when it's too dark for my HVR-A1. It's nowhere near as good as a true 16:9 picture unfortunately.
Dreamline wrote on 4/16/2007, 1:50 PM
It will not look squished or distorted on a 16:9 set. It will fill the screen as intended but it will be a little more blocky on a 16:9 set, than a 4:3 set.

Mind you the 4:3 set needs to be setup for 16:9 or else it will be squished.
cervama wrote on 4/16/2007, 2:43 PM
Thanks for your help.

I was watching the Miami Vice flick on widescreen and looked terrible, it seems as if some of the heads where cut off on some of the scenes. It look like it was done using pan crop and not adjusting it.

MAC

Laurence wrote on 4/16/2007, 3:32 PM
Just a little perspective on the vertical resolution you get from different ways of arriving at 16:9 SD widescreen:

PD150: 180 lines of resolution:

top and bottom 60 lines are thrown away (120 total). That gives you 360 left, but remember that an interlaced SD camera averages even and odd lines for extra gain, so you really only have 180 lines of vertical resolution.

DVX100A: 360 lines of resolution.

top and bottom 60 lines are thrown away, but since the image is progressive there is no averaging of even and odd lines, so you do get the 360 lines of vertical resolution.

HDV: this gives you the full 480 lines of resolution.

From a standard 1080i HDV project you can render a SD DVD mpeg in either progressive or interlaced that has the full 480 lines of vertical resolution. I usually render my projects as 30p so that the uprezzing circuits of the TV and DVD players work their magic (they don't really do much uprezzing with interlaced DVDs)