Saving widescreen format for web - Help needed

(wakeslife) · (wakeslife) **Join Date: Jul 2005** 01-06-2008, 8:00 AM

I'm hoping someone on here that knows a thing or two about film can help me out here. I shoot video with a Panasonic still shot camera in 16:9 perspective onto a 2 gig memory card. I then import this film (.mov files) into Adobe premier 6.0 in the widescreen preset (16:9). My question is how can I save a finished video for the web and still maintain the widescreen format? Exporting a minute and 30 second timeline to AVI (249 mb) maintains the widescreen format, but when I try to convert it to .mp4 to upload to the web (youtube, facebook etc.) or even just uploading the AVI directly to the web it loses the widescreen format and distorts it back to 4:3.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

(richd) · (richd) **Join Date: Oct 2003** 01-06-2008, 8:15 AM

When you compress it try turning "letterboxing" on along with converting it to a 4:3 pixel aspect ratio, that way the black bars get embedded and youtube doesn't try to convert it to a 4:3 aspect.

(wakeslife) · (wakeslife) **Join Date: Jul 2005** 01-07-2008, 5:15 PM

I can't seem to find 'letterboxing' on the export options in Premier. Do I need to be using a separate compressor for this? If so what do you recommend?

(richd) · (richd) **Join Date: Oct 2003** 01-07-2008, 7:40 PM

Maybe Dave (Kung fu) can help you with Premiere, it's an option on all the QT based programs. I've heard it better to compress it yourself to the point you tube doesn't need to recompress as well.

(wakeslife) · (wakeslife) **Join Date: Jul 2005** 01-07-2008, 8:10 PM

Alright, thanks for all your help so far. I just need to find out how to do this so I can decide what format to shoot in before I start my next project.

Also, I have been using Premier 6.0 and am quite familiar with it, but also have installed Premier Pro 1.5 and am new to it, if it even makes a difference in this situation.

(dcervenka) · (dcervenka) **Join Date: Sep 2002** 01-09-2008, 2:32 AM

Exporting to widescreen in PPRO should not be an issue and it just sounds like you are missing a step.

Because I don't use the PPRO encoder (I prefer Sorenson Squeeze) and it's been over 2 years since I used v1.5 (using CS3 now)... I'm probably no help here.. The only thing I can recommend is to double check the EXPORT settings to see if there is a "Maintain Aspect Ratio" or similar setting.

Check this out, it might help: http://www.simplydv.co.uk/simplyBB/viewtopic.php?f=32&t=19575&start=0&st=0&sk=t&sd=a

(cali_rider) · (cali_rider) **Join Date: Feb 2004** 01-09-2008, 12:32 PM

Another way is to export it as full res then bring it back into Premier then drop your full res 16:9 into a 4:3 timeline then export it. That way there is no way the the compressor will squeeze it.

(wakeslife) · (wakeslife) **Join Date: Jul 2005** 01-09-2008, 7:25 PM

Thanks guys.

I used Travis's suggestion and it worked flawlessly.
Here's my current project that I've been messing with; trying out the widescreen look to see if I like it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CeIJbigh3gQ