Pal Widescreen

[Helen]

Hi
I have captured some video footage that was shot in Pal Widescreen and not sure if this is how it is supposed to look on the PE screen. I used the Pal Widescreen preset for the project and when I captured it as well.

The footage does not reach to the safe margins and I was wondering will this look ok when I create a dvd or do I have to change some other setting when I capture the footage. This is the first time I have captured and used the widescreen as I normally only use standard.

Widescreen Scree.jpg

[Chuck Engels]

Hi Helen,
Double check the project settings, the video should fill the whole screen.
You can scale it up to at least the outer safe margin but I am thinking the project setting might be off.

[Helen]

Chuck, what are the correct settings for a Pal Widescreen?

This is a screen shot of the project settings. I just used the default that you select when you start a new project. As far as I can recall, I have never changed or played around with this as I always use standard.

Project Setting Screen.jpg

[RJ Johnston]

It looks as if somebody has already scaled down the video so they could view the whole thing on a standard TV. Did somebody write back to tape from another video editor, I'm wondering?

Are you capturing from a mini-dv camcorder in Premiere Elements 4?

[Helen]

Yes, I am capturing from a mini-dv in PE4.

The tape is not one of my own, but one that someone has given to me. I wouldn't have thought that anyone had written back to the tape, but you never know. It is from 2002 and it is a bit hard to find out what has happened. I have also been given a couple of short movies made with various sections of that tape and they are all in standard and not widescreen format, so maybe someone did write back to the tape.

If you or Chuck can confirm that my project settings are correct, I will just leave the captured file as it is and carry on with my little project.

[RJ Johnston]

Since it's still a PAL widescreen video, you have the correct project preset.

[John 'twosheds' McDonald]

You could use the Motion>Scale effect to resize the clip(s).

[Helen]

Thank you

Not sure if I am using the whole clip yet, so I might just resize the bit I am using or the other option would be to add a border/background. Will test out a few options and see what works best.

[Chuck Engels]

Scale the clip up to at least the outer safe margin and then maybe export a piece of it to make sure it still looks ok. Someone must have done something to the original to make it look the way it does in Premiere Elements, the video should cover the whole screen. Hopefully scaling the video up won't hurt the quality at all.

[Steve Grisetti]

I'm actually a bit concerned about the clip in general. Scaling it larger will put a band-aid on the problem, but it won't resolve the more basic issue.

In your original screenshot, the clip is not only too small for the video frame but it has a red line above it on the timeline. This should not be the case with miniDV footage!

How was it captured, Helen? Is it possible that it was captured incorrectly?

Can you open it in G-Spot and post a screen cap of the G-Spot report?
http://www.headbands.com/gspot/

Rather than just tweak it, I'd like to get the bottom of the issue, if that's okay.

[Chris B]

Hmm. I wonder. I read somewhere that older (cheaper) camcorders sometimes did widescreen by simply chopping off the top and bottom of the standard 4x3 frame. So instead of 720x576 you actually got 720 x 405 video. This might be presented as 4x3 to PE which would be about right for the width of the video. Because this is only a 4x3 frame PE needs to re-render. I'm just guessing - but it seems reasonable.

[Chuck Engels]

Yes, that is true Chris. Older camcorders did a "Fake" widescreen and that could be what we are seeing here.

[Helen]

Steve, I have attached the Gspot report. I hope it is the right screen shot from Gspot.

Gspot widescreen.jpg

[Paul LS]

The SAR, PAR & DAR are correct for PAL widescreen.

[Steve Grisetti]

I agree, Paul. When this file is loaded into a project that uses Helen's specs, it should appear with NO red line above it on the timeline.

Helen, if you go to Edit/Preferences, is Scale to Frame Size checked? It shouldn't make any difference when working with this type of footage -- but there's definitely something odd going on here.