Mixing 4:3 and 16:9 formats

[John]

Hi,

A friend and I recently went on a cruise. We both used video cameras on the
trip. He set his camera to 16:9 mode while I left mine on 4:3. We want to
combine the footage to produce a DVD for the other members of the group.
Will the fact that they were recorded differently cause problems? And if so,
is there anything I can do to make it look better. Ideally I would produce
two disks, one suitable for 16:9 and the other 4:3.

Thanks,

john

 

[PapaJohn \(MVP\)]

That's an interesting challenge for a project... which you can do.

My approach would be to run the footage through VirtualDub to crop and
resize the video files so they align, and then make two projects... one in
each mode. That would let me decide on the cropping points.

If he's a Movie Maker user too, let him do the widescreen project and you
the standard... then you can have two different but equally great discs...
he could favor more use of his footage, and you yours.

 

[John]

Thank you for your suggestion. I'll try that out.

John

 

[John]

I have used VirtualDub with unsatisfactory results. It could well be that
I'm not doing it correctly.

I used Resize to change the pixel setting to give a more 4:3 appearance and
I cropped the two sides a little. When I burn the resulting AVI (which has
grown incredibly by this process) to DVD, the picture is very
unsatisfactory. in places where he panned across, any vertical lines gate a
zig-zag appearance. When the pan stops, the lines are OK. The good thing is
that people are a normal shape again, but I can't use this file for the
other problem.

Could I be doing something wrong in the resizing?

Thanks,

John