Shooting widescreen video.

[Anonymous]

OK, I’m pretty sure someone’s asked this question before, so bare with me if it has been. I’m shooting video that’s intended for final use at 16:9 aspect ratio, but am unsure at what ratio I should actually film at. I’ve been told you should shoot at 4:3 always, but would it be better to shoot native 16:9 if that’s all I’m planning to use it for?

[birdcat]

If your final is 16:9 then shoot at 16:9. Also is your final going to be HD (web or BluRay)? You can shoot in 16:9 (some cameras) even if it’s SD.

I almost always shoot in HD 16:9 now (1920 X 1080 @ 60i).

[Anonymous]

I’m going that way as I do more work for web clients. They are all moving to 16:9 for standard web playback. So it seems I’ll have little choice. But my current SD equipment is more than adequate for internet playback, so I just shoot & post in 16:9 and everyone’s happy. And I’m liking that web players show the entire image, I can frame using the entire screen. No more “safe zones” and always 16:9 displays. Woo hoo!!

[Rob]

like birdcat said, if you’re intending on displaying it as 16:9 in the end, then shoot 16:9. I don’t know why anyone would tell you to shoot 4:3 even if you intend of delivering in 16:9.

What you can do is author your DVD so that the image will fill a 16:9 screen and 4:3 letterbox on 4:3 screens instead of just squeezing it.

[blumantaray]

And I’m liking that web players show the entire image, I can frame using the entire screen. No more “safe zones” and always 16:9 displays. Woo hoo!!

I’ve been thinking about that as a serious advantage to editing for online consumption. I’m only just getting into HD so I’m not sure, but are “safe zones” any different when editing for high def LCD/plasma tvs? Do they scan/display differently in that respect?

[Rob]

I believe the safe zones are the same. Action-safe is still 10% from the edge and title safe is still 20%, does that make sense?

[birdcat]

It’s a really good question – Does this still come into play for the new LCD/Plasma TV’s? Since they play at 1920 X 1080 is there still that edge that gets chopped off you need to be careful of? Is it the same for playing via HDMI vs. Composite? What about BluRay?

Anyone doing this with a definitive answer?

[Author]

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