Up until now I have only worked in SD DV-AVI 4:3 aspect ratio in PE8, either shot myself or converted to it using Prism Video converter. I am now working on a project in which I have some of that type of footage, but have also been handed a segment shot by someone else in the following format: MOV 1920x1088 23fps.
I thought it might be nice to preserve the 16:9 aspect ratio of the MOV footage, but downconvert it to SD. Then the resulting project would have some 4:3 and some 16:9 segments, but all SD. I was able to create a SD project in PE8 that has the aspect ratio of 16:9 and could still put my 4:3 footage into the frame (and got the expected black bars). But I ran into trouble trying to convert the MOV footage to SD 16:9 DV-AVI format.
I tried doing this with the Prism converter but I could not get the settings right and the resulting files won't play. *CAN* I use the Prism converter to convert the HD MOV footage to 16:9 DV-AVI? If so, what settings do I need?
If I cannot do this with Prism, what software should I use? Free is the best price, but I am willing to pay a little bit if there is some good shareware software. I also must sheepishly admit that I own, but have not yet installed, the Adobe CS5 Production Premium so if there is some software in there that can do the conversion for me, please let me know which one.