3 Replies Latest reply: Jun 23, 2010 12:14 PM by John T Smith RSS

    CS4: Converting AVCHD to NTSC widescreen - narrow vertical bars

    Christopher Duncan Community Member

      Hey, folks.

       

      We're shooting with a Panasonic AG-HMC70P which saves as 1080/60i AVCHD. My target format is NTSC DVD Widescreen (16:9).

       

      Using the MPEG2-DVD format in Media Encoder and selecting Widescreen as the pixel aspect ratio, I get very narrow vertical bars on the left and right, i.e. it's clearly widescreen and not 4:3, but it's simply not filling the complete width of the screen when converting.

       

      The properties of the imported .mts file report a pixel aspect ratio of 1.3333, versus the output format 1.2121, and I'm wondering if this is the source of the bars or there's something else that I'm not setting properly. I'm rather new to CS4, so cockpit error is highly likely here.

       

      This is what properties reports on the imported source file:

      ==========================================

      Type: MPEG Movie
      File Size: 363.5 MB
      Image Size: 1440 x 1080
      Pixel Depth: 32
      Frame Rate: 29.97
      Source Audio Format: 48000 Hz - compressed - Stereo
      Project Audio Format: 48000 Hz - 32 bit floating point - Stereo
      Total Duration: 00:03:59:15
      Average Data Rate: 1.5 MB / second
      Pixel Aspect Ratio: 1.3333

       

       

      And here's what the resulting converted file with the vertical sidebars reports:

      =======================================================

      Type: MPEG Movie
      File Size: 10.4 MB
      Image Size: 720 x 480
      Pixel Depth: 32
      Frame Rate: 29.97
      Total Duration: 00;00;12;16
      Average Data Rate: 852 KB / second
      Pixel Aspect Ratio: 1.2121

       

      (The target duration is shorter than the source because I'm testing and don't need to render the entire thing until I get it right.)

       

      Been reading manuals, poking Google with a stick and trying various other forms of self education but have come up short. If any of you could point me in the right direction to properly convert AVCHD to NTSC widescreen, I'd be most grateful.

       

      Thanks,

       

      Chris