How do create a 2.39:1 ratio on a 16:9 TV screen to create a cinema wide scree effect|?

trevor-money wrote on 1/14/2016, 4:55 AM

Hello,

I wish to present a video on a 16:9 TV screen which is modifed to look like a 2.39:1 ratio cinema stock. However, I wish to achieve this without distorting the image of the base video material (which will be shot in16:9 ratio).

I appreciate that I will have to shoot the video material baring in mind that the appropriate top and bottom portion of the image will be "masked" during in editing. My camera has a set of lines in the view finder showing the required shooting boundaries for 2.39:1.

I have heard you place a black bar top and bottom on the screen during in editing. However, I am not sure of the size of the bars or how to do it. e.g Would it be a Mask or overlay in Track 1?

I have Video Pro X6.

I would really appreciate some guidance on this matter. thanks.

Comments

browj2 wrote on 1/14/2016, 12:36 PM

Hi,

I'll take a stab at this.

You can try to change the resolution of the project to close to the size. For mpeg encoding, the V and H numbers have to be evenly divisible by 8. Thus 1920 and 1080 are both divisible by 8. The size that closely fits gives a ration of 2.4. This would be 1920 wide x 800 high. You can do a test by changing the settings to this, and doing the same upon exporting. You would have to zoom in on the video to get the width to be 1920 and the image centred vertically. I haven't tried this so I don't know if it will actually work, and if it does, can it be played back on a BD. A DVD would have to be downsized to 720 x 300.

The other way, and more easily done IMO, would be to use a mask. Below are links to 2 that I did. I used a width of 1920 and height of 803.38, which gives 2.39:1. The png file is transparent and only has the black bars, so you should place it on the highest numbered track to cover the underlying video. Alternatively, the jpeg can go on a lower numbered track and you have to give it a chromakey alpha effect (appending _alpha didn't work for me). However, if you have composite images that go above or below the bounding box, then you would need multiple instances of the mask and this could create problems. Best with the black bars.

png black bars only

jpeg black and white mask

Here is what the masks look like:

trevor-money wrote on 1/14/2016, 1:52 PM

Hello John,

Thanks for your comprehensive answer. I kept plugging away with my quandary this agfternoon and ended up trying something similar to your second option earleir today with success.

This seems to be a the way to do it as it works a treat.

Thabks again John for your efforts and time.

browj2 wrote on 1/14/2016, 11:12 PM

Hi Trevor,

Glad you got it sorted out.

I wonder if the black bars being something else would be distracting.

trevor-money wrote on 1/15/2016, 2:28 AM

Hi John,

I imagine a film maker would resist any distraction but I bet, given the chance, a web designer would stream adverts or news!

By the way I initially used a png file but Video Pro x6 could not select the transparent area as it was not transparent when loaded in the time line. I made it green and it worked a treat.

Cheers,

Trevor