Devin Johnston Posted September 21, 2006 Share Posted September 21, 2006 I'm doing an animation and it will be displayed on a wide screen LCD or Plasma TV, what is the correct resolution I should be using for this format? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Smith Posted September 21, 2006 Share Posted September 21, 2006 Depends on a lot of things. Since you're in the U.S., I would for suggest 720x480. If you get a HD-DVD recorder, due out this month I believe, you have the option of playing back at 1280x720 or 1920x1080. You also have the option of rendering at high def resolution and down converting to standard dvd quality. When you do, everything will be remarkably sharper and have less problems like flickering and pixel dancing, etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Devin Johnston Posted September 21, 2006 Author Share Posted September 21, 2006 This thing is going to play off of a DVD player so on a wide screen TV, I know that standard TV resolution in NTSC is 720x480 but I figured a wide screen format would require a different resolution since the aspect ratio was different. Is that wrong? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ernest Burden III Posted September 21, 2006 Share Posted September 21, 2006 This thing is going to play off of a DVD player so on a wide screen TV, I know that standard TV resolution in NTSC is 720x480 but I figured a wide screen format would require a different resolution since the aspect ratio was different. Is that wrong? Standard old-fashioned NTSC is 525 x 525 with the overscan top and bottom removed to result in a 4:3 proportion, and is interlaced. The 720x480 (sometimes written as 720x486) is for progressive scan. You need to find out if your piece needs to be interlaced, probably the 1080i format There was a post at cgTalk by Simon Wicker that covers a lot of this: http://forums.cgsociety.org/showpost.php?p=3447493&postcount=1 from it: DV NTSC: 720x480, pixel aspect ratio 0.9:1, render from cinema @ 30fps DV NTSC widescreen: 720x480, pixel aspect ratio 1.2:1, render from cinema @ 30fps D1 NTSC: 720x486, pixel aspect ratio 0.9:1, render from cinema @ 30fps D1 NTSC: 720x540, pixel aspect ratio 1:1, render from cinema @ 30fps D1 NTSC widescreen: 720x486, pixel aspect ratio 1.2:1, render from cinema @ 30fps D1 NTSC widescreen: 864x486, pixel aspect ratio 1:1, render from cinema @ 30fps ... HDTV 1080/29.97: 1920x1080, pixel aspect ratio 1:1, render from cinema @ 30fps HDTV 1080/24: 1920x1080, pixel aspect ratio 1:1, render from cinema @ 24fps He suggests no reason to render interlaced, if its needed the output app will do it. I don't know either way but he seems to. By the way, I've always rendered to the 720x480 size, and been happy with it. But hi-def TVs are getting bigger and sharper, and maybe that size will no longer impress. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ernest Burden III Posted September 21, 2006 Share Posted September 21, 2006 This thing is going to play off of a DVD player so on a wide screen TV, I know that standard TV resolution in NTSC is 720x480 but I figured a wide screen format would require a different resolution since the aspect ratio was different. Is that wrong? I forgot to address this: The difference is not the resolution, its the Pixel Aspect Ratio. Widescreen simply uses a non-square pixel to make the image wider. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
manta Posted September 21, 2006 Share Posted September 21, 2006 I believe that the HDTV setting in Max will work, it works out to an aspect ratio of 1.78 which should be correct for 16:9 widescreen tv's... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Devin Johnston Posted September 21, 2006 Author Share Posted September 21, 2006 Thanks Ernest that helps, I just though since the screen was different the resolution was to but I'm glad it's not because I'm doing this in Maxwell and I didn't want to increase my render times any more than they are now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Devin Johnston Posted September 21, 2006 Author Share Posted September 21, 2006 I believe that the HDTV setting in Max will work, it works out to an aspect ratio of 1.78 which should be correct for 16:9 widescreen tv's... If I use that then my resolution comes out to be 720x405, is that going to cause problems? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
manta Posted September 21, 2006 Share Posted September 21, 2006 Hmmm... lets work on this from another direction, what aspect ratio is your DVD authoring software going to accept ?? they can be very picky when they encode to mpeg2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ernest Burden III Posted September 21, 2006 Share Posted September 21, 2006 Thanks Ernest that helps, I just though since the screen was different the resolution was to but I'm glad it's not because I'm doing this in Maxwell and I didn't want to increase my render times any more than they are now. Oh, red flag! Notice that doing widescreen involved non-square pixels. The render engine has to know that. Can MWR do a PAR other than 1:1? If so, go with the 720x480@PAR .9 If not....uh, well.... render to 864 x 480@1:1, but no. Let's see, Photoshop CS will convert a PAR, but the issue is not having your image distorted. The DVD burning software forces a PAR, outputting to Quicktime is where I came up with the 720>864 conversion. Before you do anything find out about MWR and its PAR abilities. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Devin Johnston Posted September 21, 2006 Author Share Posted September 21, 2006 Sorry what is PAR? Manta, it's really a mess, were not actually producing the video that will be done by a marketing company that has yet to be picked by the client. Basically I'm just providing the animations and they are going to assemble it so because we don't know who were working with yet I don't have any idea what there using. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
manta Posted September 21, 2006 Share Posted September 21, 2006 I believe PAR is pixel aspect ratio... I would suggest doing some experimenting, and make a dvd yourself...use something faster than maxwell for the experiments though... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chenzexin Posted September 22, 2006 Share Posted September 22, 2006 hi,everyone,i'm a interior desin image maker,i use 3d max for interior visualize CG , if you want a interior Perspective , you shall contact me , my MSN: chenzexin007@chen.com my email:chenzexin007@126.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Devin Johnston Posted September 22, 2006 Author Share Posted September 22, 2006 Wow chenzexin that really helps out a lot, thanks for taking the time to post. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
colinsmith Posted September 22, 2006 Share Posted September 22, 2006 I'm a PAL guy, so I hope I'll not mess up the numbers ;-) For NTSC widescreen the final output will have to be NTSC widescreen MPEG2. I think the numbers above are right... in which case it's 720x486 with a pixel aspect ratio of 1:1.2 If your render software can't do different pixel aspect ratios, then you can render to 864x486 in square pixels, and the image covers the same size, so you will have no stretching or cropping issues later. The exact sequence of what you need to convert and when will depend on the way you produce the final edited source for the MPEG encode, and what software you encode with. Either way there should be no disadvantage with rendering at 864x486, other than the loger render times. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ernest Burden III Posted September 22, 2006 Share Posted September 22, 2006 Either way there should be no disadvantage with rendering at 864x486, other than the loger render times. EXCEPT if the encoding software forces a PAR on you. You need to test these things. Make a test frame at 864 x 486 that has a circle in the middle going from top to bottom, and another shape, maybe an oval, that goes from the left edge to the right. Make it a 10 second 'clip' and export it as if it was your final footage. Check the result for cropping and proper proportion. Then you'll know for sure what you're doing. What's the answer on Maxwell and non-square pixels? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now