How to convert 16:9 to 4:3 screen

M

Marty01

Member
I can capture a clip in 16:9 and it looks right on the VT software monitors or on a tv that displays 16:9. My question is how do I get it to letterbox and look right on just a 4:3 tv screen? Seems like I tried everything and it's stretched vertically unless I go into the size control and reduce the height on the Y axis, and that's guess work. I'm sure there must be a better way to do this that I just haven't found.

Thanks for any help.

Marty Davis
 
If I'm understanding the situation correctly, and this is an issue during editing and not rendering, then the answer is that you need to make sure that when you start your project that it is set as a standard definition project - NTSC SD 486i or NTSC DV. Speed Edit should then automatically rescale your 16:9 video in the timeline to be letterboxed. Just make sure your external monitor is set to 4:3 (or 'aspect' depending on the monitor) and everything should look right. Hope this answers your question!
 
That didn't work. Got it to work by setting VT in Preferences to 16:9 and then selecting clip on the timeline, going to Control Panel and selecting 1.85:1 under Aspect Ratio. It then letterboxed it and was the right size on a 4:3 external monitor. This happened to be a clip I was using with permission from a DVD.

Marty
 
Interesting. So what project settings are you using now? My own system is set to 4:3 by default. I then use either a 1080i HDV project or a NTSC DV project depending on what video I'll be using or what I intend to output to. I send Y/C to an Olevia monitor as my TV and switch it between 16:9 or 4:3 depending on the project. I don't typically have to change the Aspect Ratio settings of individual clips - auto is usually fine. So your clips were basically mpeg? I'm trying to figure out the difference here, because I rarely need to go in and change specific settings to get it to display correctly - selecting the project settings is usually enough.
 
Can't remember for sure, but I think I had a 4:3 project timeline. Most everything I do is still 4:3 so I don't usually have any problems. I noticed the case the DVD was in said 1.85 on it, so that's why I tried changing the aspect in the control panel, and it worked, giving me a letterbox on the 4:3 tv monitor.

Marty
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top