Specs

[person]

thanks.

[David Mullen ASC]

Here's a link to AICE's HD recommendations for broadcast page. Talks about aspect ratios and protecting for 4:3.
http://www.aicetoo.org/hdinitative/format.html

That's basically what I said -- you create a 16x9 HD master from which you can make a 4x3 center extraction for 4x3 full-frame SD broadcast.

4x3 and 16x9 would share the same top & bottom framelines though. In order to do vertical repositioning, you would have to zoom into the frame first.

[jimhare]

"in Australia all the stations are 16:9 (except for some pay TV ones, but there's a lot more free to air TV here than in the US as far as I can tell, so a lot less people have pay TV."

Actually, it's dual broadcast in Australia. They send out 16x9 HD/SD digitally and still broadcast 4x3 as Analogue, which is ARCed from the 16x9 stream live.

I imagine it's the same around the world, until they discontinue Analogue. They keep moving the date back for this...

[person]

Thanks David
I knew what you were talking about. Just posted the link for others. So is there no 4:3 HD setting in RED? Meaning a resolution that would be great enough to satisfy repositionable image in 1920X1080 HD?

See this link for an example I created where an image would be shot 4:3 raw, knowing it would then be 16x9 HD (1920X1080) in the end, but protected for 4:3 center cut. In the image it is a bit tight on the guys head, and would require a repo to give him some head room.
http://collective-edit.com/4x3raw_wi...center_cut.jpg

thanks

[David Mullen ASC]

The RED sensor is 16x9 in shape and 4K across, so to record a 4x3 image file, you'd have to chop the sides off of the sensor image and get less than 3K across.

Though that's more or less what happens in RED's 4K ANA format, you are basically cropping the sides of the sensor towards a square shape that is more like 2.8K across or something like that -- because an anamorphic lens has a 2X squeeze on it.

So I guess you could use a regular spherical lens and record 4K ANA mode to get closer to a 4x3 image that is 2.8K or so, but what's the point? Then you'd have to crop that 2.8K image top & bottom to get 16x9. You might as well record a 4K 16x9 image and crop the sides to get 4x3.

Remember that 4x3 is generally for standard def broadcast and 16x9 is for high-def broadcast, so there is a greater need for the 16x9 version to have more resolution than the 4x3 version. You can crop 16x9 to 4x3 but since the 4x3 version is for standard-def, you don't really see the resolution loss when starting out with high-def 16x9.

There is no 4x3 HD setting also because there is such thing as 4x3 HD in broadcast video. All HD video formats (720P, 1080i, 1080P) are 16x9 and any "4x3" HD versions are just side-matted 16x9 recordings.

Now there are some RAW cameras with 4x3 or square sensors - the ARRI D21 and the Phantom HD basically -- but most HD and higher cameras have widescreen sensors.

[Tyler Black]

And for sound there are two ways to do record. Vers 1 is to record it to the r3d file and 2 is to files that I then have to sync with pix. I would like both and how should I say it?

Tell them you want to record double-system sound with a back-up feed to the camera.

[person]

David,
Thanks much for the information. Helps greatly. I and some of my clients have been led to believe that shooting 4:3 4K is a simple setting in RED. And that some of my clients believe it is possible to have greater landscape available in post for repositioning. Will make sure they understand that what they see is what they get unless they make some custom settings work out. I will simply tell the DP, if asked, the final product will be 23.98 FPS 16:9 HD protected for 4:3 center cut SD. They can figure out the proper settings to make it happen.

Tyler,
Thank you as well for the audio lingo.

It's a little different than sending dailies specs these days. :)