Yet Another AR/Resolution Question

[Nicho Void]

Greetings,

I'm working with the following source DVD footage data as described by DGIndex:

Frame Size: 720x480
AR: 16:9
Frame Rate: 23.976

Now I thought I had a handle on what that all meant, but my first AMV had an incorrect AR when I finished. If I'm reading the "A&E's Technical Guides to All Things Audio and Video (v3)" correctly, I need to re-size this footage to 640x480 right? My confusion comes when I'm setting up my project in Premier. There is no default setting matching my frame size and frame rate. Should the project be 720x480 or 640x480?

I'm sure this has been asked a million times. Thanks for any help.

[mirkosp]

At most it would be 848x480 seeing how it's 16:9 and not 4:3.
Anyway, you can either customize the settings, or edit at 720x480 and when you encode in zarxgui pick 16:9 from the SAR dropdown menu in the advanced tab.
In both cases, rember to crop(8,0,-8,0). For the first case, before resizing to 848x480, in the latter case, crop on the final export before flagging and encoding.

[Nicho Void]

At most it would be 848x480 seeing how it's 16:9 and not 4:3.
Anyway, you can either customize the settings, or edit at 720x480 and when you encode in zarxgui pick 16:9 from the SAR dropdown menu in the advanced tab.
In both cases, rember to crop(8,0,-8,0). For the first case, before resizing to 848x480, in the latter case, crop on the final export before flagging and encoding.

Ok, so let me see if my process is correct:

1. I'm scrubbing through my ripped sources in DGIndex and exporting the clips I want. A .D2V and a .AVS file are created for each clip.
2. I edit the AVS files and add the following lines for crop and resize:
   1. Crop(8,0,-8,-0)
   2. Spline36Resize(848,480)
3. I open the AVS in VirtualDub, set compression to a lossless, then save as .AVI
4. Clips are now the correct aspect ratio for.....a 720x480 project?

[mirkosp]

Mmmh... I wouldn't suggest that.
I would suggest make a single AVS file with the crop and spline36resize lines. Open that in vdub and THERE pick the scenes you want to use (you can help yourself with the job system of vdub, I think it's explained in the avtech).
Then, you use the lossless AVIs you made in a 848x480 1.0PAR project in premiere. You can customize the premiere settings, if you're using premiere pro or a 5.x/6.x version... you are using one of those, right? Because AFAIK the Elements editions are very limited as far as project settings are concerned.

[Zarxrax]

Yes, use custom settings, dont just use the presets.
There are a lot of presets there, but most of them arent useful at all.

[Nicho Void]

Still working on getting my head around this. Thanks for being patient.

When I Crop/Resize my source to 848x640, I'm doing that because it corrects the clips to account for a PC's square pixels instead of the rectangular (ish) pixels of a regular TV. Is that right? So then after I've done that, the PAR in my project settings needs to be 1:1 because my clips are now intended for square pixels?

Now what would I do if I didn't want the project to be 848x640, but instead had to conform to NTSC 720x480? Is that just a matter of scaling the clip at that point?

[mirkosp]

It's 848x480 not 848x640. And yes, square pixels for PC.
However, if you want NTSC 720x480 done properly for whatever reason, you're going to make your like much more complicated than you'd wish (it actually isn't all that complicated after you understand things, but since you're just starting out, it's best if you at least put it off for the time being). I'd say just do 848x480 1.0 FILM. To keep things easy and better looking.

[Zarxrax]

If you want to edit at 720x480, then just leave your dvd at its original resolution of 720x480.
Do the resize after you edit.

But like mirko said, its just easier to fix the resolution first, and edit at the fixed resolution.