And few things illustrate that more than the continuing confusion created by the various aspect ratios that video can be displayed in these days.

SD, HD, 4:3, 16:9, letterbox, anamorphic, wide-screen . . . all terms that you hear mixed together.

My good buddy and tech guru Chris Vazquez wrote an excellent article on this site two years ago about SD anamorphic , and it continues to be one of the most-read articles on my website, but questions still abound, especially when it comes to DVD authoring.

So let’s try to further clarify.

Some review:

4:3 means standard old-standard television viewing.

16:9 is wide screen.

SD is standard definition and is natively 4:3

HD is high definition and is natively 16:9

Now, let’s proceed, and feel free to read this slowly.  (Hey, I have to do that still with this topic, and I work with it every day!)

What options do you have if you are editing in HD 16:9 and want to lay out the finished sequence on to a SD tape, that is limited by its nature to automatically being 4:3? (e.g. BetacamSP or Digital Betacam)

You cannot maintain the HD quality of the signal, but you can keep the option open to be able to playback the video from the SD tape, in full 16:9 on a wide screen monitor.

That’s what anamorphic downconversion does.  Go back and check out the figures in Chris’ blog post.  It effect, anamorphic “squeezes in from both sides,” the 16:9 picture, like an accordion, to fit in to a 4:3 frame.

So when talking with you salesperson, you want to be sure you clearly discuss anamorphic options.

This is especially true when you are making an authored DVD project that involves using both SD and HD sources.

Let’s say you want to make a demo reel highlighting various categories, and you want to include a number of videos, some HD and some SD, in each category.  The authoring specialist needs to establish each category to playback one way, either 4:3 or 16:9 anamorphic.  (Remember, standard DVDs are automatically SD, not HD.)

Let’s say you had three HDCAM sources, two 4:3 digibeta sources, and one letterboxed Betacam source.

Well, if the category sequence is set up to playback anamorphic for wide-screen dislay, then the HDCAM clips will indeed play back in full 16:9, the two 4:3 clips will play back 4:3 in the center of the wide screen with black pillars on each side, and the 4:3 letterboxed source will play letterboxed inside a 16:9 screen, with black not only on the left and right, but also above and below.

Ugh.  that latter playback is probably not ideal.  The solution might be to see if an original HD version or a SD ananmorphic version of that clips exists.  If not, well, an aesthetic judgement needs to be made.

So taking a step back, there’s a corollary point to be made.  When transferring HD programs to SD tapes and DVDs at the end of a project, rather than doing so as a fiexed letterboxed version, you might want to strongly consider transferring those as anamorphic.  That way, as you can see above, you preserve your choices for later usage.

OK, let’s face it.  This matter will eventually become moot in the future as we gravitate toward using 16:9 HD exclusively.   But we remain in the midst of great transition.   And as long as we utilize SD footage and its inherent 4:3 aspect ratio, we will have to deal with this.

But never fear, count on me and my Video Labs sales and production colleagues to help you navigate through this.  That’s what we’re here for.

Contact me at dcryan7@videolabs.net or 240-268-3504.

And follow me on Twitter for more media news & info and special discounts.

If you found this article of interest, you may be interested in my quick-read blog post about our Blu-ray duplication capabilities.

These have been referred to as  ”Audio Codec 3″ or “Advanced Codec 3″ or “Acoustic Codec 3.”

Regardless, this is the file format that was adapted for the audio portion of DVDs and Blu-ray discs.  Just like the mpeg2 files that make up the video portion of a  DVD or Blu-ray discs, the AC-3 files cannot be edited.  That was instituted on purpose of course, as an anti-piracy measure.

(As a side note, remember, in addition to not being able to edit mpeg2 or AC-3 files, you cannot drag those files as accessible elements from a DVD or Blu-ray video disc either: http://tinyurl.com/yj8wy3c)

The AC-3 format has the capacity to record audio with fidelity up to 48k, which is audio CD quality.

The AC-3 codec is also an efficient codec in that a number of audio channels (up to 6) can be included in just one AC-3 file.

The AC-3 files are actually located within the VIDEO_TS folders on the DVD or Blu-ray [see below].  (the BUP folders are backup folders, for use if the main TS folders cannot be accessed for some reason — like due to a minor scratch on the disc).

While you can get to the level of the DVD or Blu-ray architecture that is depicted above, by right clicking on the DVD icon in My Computer and choosing either Open or Explore, you won’t get any further down into the structure without some sort of “ripping” software.

When burning or authoring an edited video from a non-linear editing system on to DVD, the video of the final sequence needs to be converted to mpeg2 and the audio to AC-3.

In Final Cut Pro, that means exporting the edited sequence, which is usually in some form of .mov file, through the Apple Compressor software.  The resulting files can then be loaded into an authoring program, like DVD Studio Pro, Adobe Encore or Sonic Scenarist.

Some folks are not always pleased with the resulting files from Compressor, so they opt for outputting the edited sequence to a dital Betacam tape and then encode the videotape into a hardware encorder which also makes mpeg2 files and AC-3 files that can be loaded into an authoring system.

Again, remember, the mpeg2 and AC-3 files are not editable.

I welcome your feedback. Either write a comment below, or write me at dryan@videolabs.net

Follow me on Twitter for news and info along with exclusive steep quick-turn discounts.

Also, please note that I now have a direct number at the office as well.  240-268-3504.

If you enjoyed this article, you may also be interested in reading about our Blu-ray disc duplication services:  http://tinyurl.com/a6jqd6

And why are we talking so much about H.264 files for video?

Allow me to digress for a moment.

From a philosophical point of view, the concept of making something out of nothing has long intrigued me, and of course, that has been pondered by greater minds than mine throughout the ages.

I was raised in a fundamentalist religious household where the word “create” was rarely used.  The thinking behind that was that only God could “create,” in other words, make something from nothing.

Well, with due respect to those of the faith, I have wandered away from the flock and headed more toward the Unitarian philosophy of inquisitive agnosticism (There may or may not be a god . . . I’m still thinking about it — fyi, Thomas Jefferson and the great civil rights leader, Whitney Young, were Unitarians) . . .

but to this day, I find to I still have a slight cringe when I am tempted to use the word “create.”

But then there is the graphics software Adobe Illustrator http://tinyurl.com/8nl4y and the Quicktime video codec H.264 http://tinyurl.com/8875c

To my rather pedestrian mind,  (you know the joke, “a salesperson with a little tech knowledge is worse than one with no knowledge . . . ), the appealing features of those two formats are such that they appear to actually ”create something from nothing.”

We’re talking “scalability” here; in other words, the ability to expand and/or manipulate a client’s graphic or video file without affecting the original resolution.

Within the graphics realm, that translates to ”vector graphics.” http://tinyurl.com/y7j84p  In short, what happens is that the lines, colors and other defining characteristics of a graphic are stated in mathematical terms, not rasters http://tinyurl.com/ycplhtt

So when the graphic is expanded, the formula recalculates accordingly — it doesn’t just stretch pixels http://tinyurl.com/y3ar9e

Graphics programs such as Adobe Illustrator (as compared to Adobe Photoshop) handle vector graphics.  So with Illustrator files, our graphics team can better “tweak” submitted artwork files without affecting the resolution of the artwork.

As for H.264, that’s a video format (aka codec http://tinyurl.com/rua78 ) that results in doing a similar thing to video as a vector graphic file does to a graphic.

The most popular use of the H.264 format is within the Quicktime family of compressions.  It has been streamlined by a complicated lot of technical tweaks (read http://tinyurl.com/hbjs3) with the result being able to efficiently transmit large video files without degrading the quality of the original video file.  Think of it as doing to video files what goes on when dehydrating and reconstituting instant potatoes.

To give you a real-life example, we often download a QT H.264 file of a spot from a client’s .ftp site, expand it to lay to tape and add closed-captioning or spoTTracing http://tinyurl.com/6yq8zo, and then re-compress the file as a QT H.264, and upload it back up.  Obviously, a BIG time saver.

Now, full disclosure, there are a lot of variable settings and specs in all of this to make things go smoothly, but we do utilize this process almost every day.  

So, alas, in the end, there is no magic “creation” or supernatural powers in play here.  But as far as my network of contacts, vendors and clients are concerned, (who for the most part are moving a mile a minute like me) – it’s all VERY cool.

Your comments are welcomed below.

If you are looking for media replication (DVDs, CDs videotape) or related multimedia services, please contact me at dryan@VideoLabs.net or 301-217-0000 x104.

If you enjoyed reading this article, then you might also want to check out Leslye PJ Reaves’ article on Flash: http://tinyurl.com/68ahbm

Also check out Video Labs’ blog for more useful tech info: http://tinyurl.com/cnto5o

Follow me on Twitter www.Twitter.com/drmediasolution for exclusive quick-turn deep discounts.

Recuerda que hablo espanol tambien.

So I attended a Capitol Communicator  www.capitolcommunicator.com event in DC last evening (9/30/09). 

It was a release party for their new offering, the online SourceBook http://tinyurl.com/y9slotg, which I assume will become something like the “LA 411″ www.La411.com for the mid-Atlantic region.

I always enjoy attending these CC events, as I get to network with a great mix of media peers . . .

. . . and the Capitol Communitor is an excellent e-zine.  (Kudos to the combined business savviness of founders Paul Dunning and Phil Rabin along with fellow marketing team member, Amy Schwab http://tinyurl.com/y8no9cj)

But what also caught my eye at this event was the showcasing of a device called “Boxci” http://www.boxci.com/ created by Bethesda-based A.M.G. (Alternative Marketing Group) www.amgww.com

The “Creative General” of the company is J. Jaber (pictured with me above).  He and his team of about eighteen specialize in developing inventions that utilize ”new media.”   Hint: I heard him intersperse the phrase “guerilla marketing” as he spoke with me.

The Boxci was just as it sounds, a small arcade-like box on a stand with an interactive display on the front that allows one to have a picture of themselves taken.  

The photo then gets wrapped in a promo logo picture frame (as you can see above, in this case, the Capitol Communicator) and can be sent immediately to any e-mail address.

Hmmm, so think of the marketing possibilities . . . 

For example, a restaurant at the beach could place a Boxci in their lobby as people waited for a table.  Waiting patrons could e-mail pictures of themselves (picture-framed of course in the business’ logo) to wherever . . . (oh yeah, the photo just might have a water view in the background – ya think?)

And once the e-mail is accessed (of course, done easily from most cell phones), the downloaded photo presents facilitating links for posting the photo on a wide range of social media sites, like Facebook www.facebook.com and Twitter www.Twitter.com

J. Jaber told me about another product the company developed, a hi-def printed napkin, http://www.hdnapkin.com/ that allows for high resolution (i.e. like in a magazine) print quality on paper napkins.   Yep, they have successfully created a new high-end billboard space.

I like this kind of thinking.  I plan to follow these guys!

I welcome your comments below.

Remember to contact me for all your media replication and related multimedia needs.  dryan@VideoLabs.net or 301-217-0000 x104

If you enjoyed this article, you might also enjoy reading my quick-read blog about how I use Twitter for marketing:  http://tinyurl.com/q6uxfh

In the days before HD, the answer was almost always, “not unless a grainy shot will work for you.”

300+ dpi (dots per inch) is the standard for quality print.  Television / video is rated at the equivalent of only 72 dpi.

But what about an HD source, as this client’s tape was?

HDTV turns out to be only 72 dpi as well, but the other enhancements of the HD process will allow for a higher quality frame grab. 

So, in short, the HD still frame should work fine for a printed brochure; however, blowing it up to poster size would not be advised.

OK, what’s going on here?  If HDTV is also 72dpi, what exactly are “those other enhancements” that make it look better?

I asked one of our Video Labs multimedia experts, Juan Carlos Elizalde, to help explain.

DPI (again dots per inch) is a measurement of quality in digital imaging that can be tricky, since the measurement was first used for print quality, not relative to video.

DPI is used to measure how many dots of color or image can be placed in a 1″ line.

Since LCD screens have a 4 color system to display an image, you can’t really use DPI as an adequate comparison measurement.  Video Resolution is better interpreted in lines, or frame size.  Standard Def TV is 720 x 480 lines, horizontal x vertical. 

HDTV is 1280×1080 for 1080i screens.  Because of this, the HD quality is better.

But another factor is that the coloring differences between SD & HD screens.

Standard definition is based on RGB 256 coloring, which means that the TV can interpret 256 x 256 (65,536) colors when a dot (now pixels in the digital age is displayed).

HDTV on the other hand can interpret millions of colors, actually 2 Megapixels (2,001,280), consequently making HD images look better also because of color depth perception and adjustment to 3D imaging.

To further explain, let’s say you have a picture of a tree in standard def.  The monitor can interpret the tones of green in the leaves and branches only until it hits its maximum limit of coloring.  The rest of the dots will be filled by the screen with the closest color in the realm to it.

Meanwhile, with that same image in HD, the range of color is virtually limitless, which allows the tree to appear with more detail and overall better quality.

Still, as said above in the short answer, while the HD frame grab will be better than SD, and it will be fine for a brochure, it will indeed be grainy if “blown up” to a large poster.  While we are often “blown away” by HDTV, in reality, when a still of it is printed, one can see its limits too.

Hope that helps!  As always, your comments are most welcomed below.

Contact David Ryan at dryan@videolabs.net or Juan Carlos Elizalde at juan.carlos@videolabs.net

If you enjoyed this article, you may also like to read Chris Vazquez’ piece on OLED monitors: http://tinyurl.com/kq9xw7

Remember to contact David Ryan dryan@videolabs.net  (301-217-0000 x104) for all of your CD, DVD and videotape duplication and replication and related multimedia needs.

Be sure to follow me on Twitter www.Twitter.com/DRMediaSolution for exclusive discounts.

We now offer document archiving as well.  And we can do so with OCR scanning.

What does OCR scanning mean?

Well, you know what a scanner does.  OCR stands for Optical Character Recognition.

Think of the service as a way to reversing the process of working with documents.  Usually you write and edit in a word processing program like, Microsoft Word, and then you print out.

But what if you have a box full of old printed records that you would like to not only preserve digitally, but also be able to go back in and edit that digital info in a Word?  

OCR will let you do that.  

Now I’m not suggesting something nefarious like illegal “backdating” of records that we’ve heard about in the financial news of late, but imagine an occasion where you might like to add a header, or updated comments or footnotes, to the digital scan.

And another nice feature is the ability to handle a large volume of documents at a time using an automatic feeder.

Sure, there are companies out there that can do huge jobs of this, but if you are like many of my clients, you likely have several boxes of old records taking up space that you would just like to get out of the way.

Using our new scanning service might just be ideal for you.

Contact me at dryan@videolabs.net or 301-217-0000 x104, and let’s explore your particular situation further.

As always, I welcome your comments below.

BTW, considering starting a website?  Check out Leslye James’ blog: http://tinyurl.com/6qzwfv

OK, so your video editor comes to your desk and says that the video clip you wanted is ”320 x 240,” . . . and you basically rely on the look on his or her face as to whether that is a good thing or bad thing.  Sound familiar?

Let’s see if we can’t help you look a little less like a deer in the headlights in such situations.

Again, my disclaimer, I myself have had my deer-in-the-headlight moments, and I am not a bonafide engineer (I only play one on TV - ok, ok, I couldn’t resist), but over my years as a producer, director and editor, I picked up info along the way — at least enough to help me survive. (though some might say I know just enough to be dangerous, but let’s ignore that, ok?)

With that all said, let’s move on to the topic at hand.  Video Resolution: it all comes down to pixels.

Those are the dots, with color components in them, that get energized by an electric charge to create a certain brightness and color.   And seen together, all those pixels make up an image.

And the denser the arrangement of pixels, the higher resolution the resulting picture is.

A standard definition television screen is made up of 525 horizontal lines and 720 columns of pixels.  Do the math and you get a conceivable 378,000 pixels.  

In reality, only 480 of the 525 video horizontal lines in SD are actually used for the picture.  The other 55 lines are not seen on regular screens.  They make up what’s called the “vertical interval” where such info as closed captioning, Sigma and SpoTTrac-ing info (see my blog on those:  http://tinyurl.com/65c2hp ) and vertical interval time code are carried.

So, the resolution for a regular standard def full screen tv picture is usually stated as 720 x 480 (with the 480 actually alternating scanning of even and odd 240 lines — see my blog about 24P that includes info about the differences between progressive and interlaced: http://tinyurl.com/57eghk )

And yes, even those 720 columns sometimes get cut down to 680 through other electronic shenanigans.  Oy vey.  What’s a viewer to do?

Now you know what drives the movement to HD.

High Defitinition resolution ranges from 1,980 columns of pixels and 1080 horizontal lines (scanned interlaced) — to 1,280 columns of pixels with 720 progressively scanned lines.   Do the math for either, and you’re looking between 921,600 to 2,138,400 available pixels. 

Higher Definition does indeed mean higher resolution.

Now, there are “super-duper” HD formats that are used by high-end moviemakers.  You’ll hear the terms 2K and 4K associated with those.   Check out this link to a popular high-end HD camera, The Red Digital Camera. http://www.red.com/ 

What’s going on is that these higher-end HD cameras are increasing both the number of columns and lines of pixels in a frame — part of the on-going quest to get digital filmmaking to match 35mm filmmaking.

Chris Vazquez (of “Ask Chris” on this site http://tinyurl.com/9l9xre ) sent me an article about where a 4K projector is being used http://www.vrac.iastate.edu/c6.php and its increasing popularity.

So let’s go back to my original statement, where the editor tells you the image is 320 x 240.  What’s going on with that?  This takes us the opposite way.   Think now . . .  yes, that’s like half the size of a regular standard def picture.  Hmmm, what could be like that?  And then you remember the term  ”compressed video” . . . video that can be played on a CD rather than a DVD, where the image doesn’t fill the whole screen. 

Yes, what the editor is telling you is that the video clip is not intended for full-screen video.  It’s set up to be played off a CD, or in a standard PowerPoint presentation, or perhaps on a website.

This topic can get much more detailed, and I invite you to check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pixel and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Display_resolution, but I hope I have given you some initial grasp of the world of video resolution. 

I welcome your comments below.  And feel free to contact me at dryan@videolabs.net or 301-217-0000 x104 with any questions.

If you found this article of interest, you may want to also check out Chris Vazquez’ article about “anamorphic” images.  http://tinyurl.com/59jtfd

Line 21 caption information in vertical interval

On-screen “captions”

In regular over-the-air or cable/satellite viewing or digital recorder, the captions are decoded and displayed by the television set.  One turns them on or off by accessing controls on the television.

TV remote

On-screen caption on/off menu

When we make videotape copies of closed-captioned masters, we easily carry over the line 21 closed-captioned information.

But it’s not so simple when we make DVDs from a closed-captioned videotape master.  Yes, we can take your closed-captioned master tape and encode it to a “Line 21 DVD master,” but bear in mind that that can be done only on one of our “pro-sumer” DVD recorders.  Good enough quality for most applications, but still not our highest rez encoding.

Higher level DVD encoders strip the vertical interval signal from a tape thereby not carrying over the closed captioned information to the resulting DVD master.  So, in those cases, an authoring session is required where a special .scc file is blended with the digitized video signal to make a closed-captioned DVD master.  The result is a high-quality DVD master that will in effect act like a Line 21 DVD.  In other words, the captions can be turned on and off via the monitor.  An authoring session is $150/hr plus the “burning” of a DVD approval copy and DVD master.  The above-mentioned .scc file is provided by the captioning vendor.  For a relatively minor fee, they should be able to easily make this flavor of file format from the original caption file.

Another option is to utilize the subtitle function of DVDs.  That requires the same process as mentioned above with the .scc file, with the captioning vendor providing a .stt or other similar file. The advantage of this over a .scc file is that subtitles are often preferred aesthetically to captions, and they can be turned on and off with the DVD remote instead of through the monitor.

DVD remote

On-screen subtitles (no black background)

You may ask what happens when DVDs with either a .scc or .stt file get played in a computer.

Such files can usually be turned on or off via the DVD player in the computer.  For example, Windows Media Player ver. 10 has a pull down menu for that under the Play menu.

(Please note that the operative word there is “usually.”  Some software DVD players struggle playing back subtitles and captions.)

I hope that helps clarify things a bit when it comes to adding captions or subtitles to a program that’s being master to a DVD.

Feel free to leave a comment below.  And of course, contact me at dryan@videolabs.net or 301-217-0000 x104 with any questions.

    An “authored” CD or DVD is one that has on-screen selectable buttons that allow the viewer to easily navigate and “jump around” throughout a project.  

For example, when you view a rented movie on DVD, usually a screen comes up after you put the disc in the player.  The screen (which is commonly called a “splash screen”) often presents a number of choices ranging from “Play the Movie,” “Scene Selection,” ”Language,” etc.  And those buttons often lead to sub-menus allowing for further choices.  Well, what you have there is an authored disc.

It’s not difficult to see how this technology can be very useful in non-theatrical presentations as well, such as with training or marketing projects.

And as I’ve implied above, it’s not limited to DVDs either.  At Video Labs, we are often called upon by clients to create authored CDs as well.  A typical project involves combining .pdf files, PowerPoints, other graphics files, compressed video files (e.g. Quicktime, Windows Media, Real Player or Flash) and weblinks into a menu driven CD for upcoming conferences.  Guests can be given the CD at registration and have everything they need for the conference on one CD.  Beats lugging around those huge notebooks, no?

Creating the flow of the navigation takes proper planning and execution, and our multimedia team is ready to assist.

Design of the background of the splash screen is an important consideration as well.  We can easily adapt one of your stills, or if you want more impact, we can create a motion background using a clip from your video.  And a cost-effective alternative is to incorporate one of Video Labs’ own stock motion menus.  We have a created a number of these that cover a wide spectrum of subjects.   Take a look at some samples at http://www.videolabs.net/multimedia/menu-design.htm

Let me conclude that not every CD or DVD project needs to be an “authored” disc.  Sometimes you want your audience to just put the disc in the player and sit back and watch.  We call that a “straight-play” disc, and that is certainly the least expensive way to make a master disc.  But if you want to give your viewers to the ability to interact with the disc and navigate around the presentation, then you probably want to consider authoring.

Contact me with any questions.  I look forward to being of service.  dryan@videolabs.net  301-217-0000 x104.

I have “fooled around” with my midi recording studio over the years.  Here are two tunes . . .

from a compilaton album, “After the Fall.”  I hope you enjoy them.

Wisi-Waki 

Dad’s Viola 

© 2008