Trouble with Premiere Elements widescreen interlace field order - TFF or BFF?
 

I'm making some home movies using Adobe PrE11 and footage I've taken with my Canon FS 20 camcorder. The trouble I'm having is getting Elements to accept the video clips from the FS 20 as Widescreen 16:9. When I start a new project I set it up as Widescreen but after completing the movie it comes out as 4:3. After much trial and error I was able to get PrE11 to accept the clips as 16:9 by right clicking on each clip and selecting "Interpret Footage." I then had to select D1/DV NTSC Widescreen. I don't understand why I have to do this. For one, this just changes the pixel aspect ratio not the screen ratio. For two, why isn't PrE11 automatically recognizing that the video is 16:9? I looked through the Canon user manual and it doesn't state what the pixel ratio is that it uses for 16:9. Also, am I to assume that when shooting in widescreen the frame size is 720 x 480? Or could it be something else?

Guess I might have found the answer to my question from the Adobe site. I just didn't think I would have to do "tweaking."

The cameras usually causes things like this. The same is true of 16x9 DVD recorders.

I'd have to know about the camera to know what it is, but it still wouldn't change anything. The video clip is simply not 100% to expected/proper spec, and simply needs to be adjusted in the NLE.

I'm forever rewriting MPEG header flags, for this very reason, from DVD recorders.

It is what it is.

Thanks LS. Is there a program that will tell you what the actual video clip aspect ratio is? I used a Samsung Mini DVD recorder for a while and I believe some of the clips are 4:3 and some are 16:9. I can't really tell. I've tried Gspot but it seems to give spurious information as well. Is that information lost forever? Do I just have to decide by looking if aunt Judy is really that fat or not?

And another thing about PrE11. When saving the project as a MPEG2 using the default NTSC DVD Standard profile the field order is Lower. (According to GSpot the original camcorder footage is MPEG2 TFF) Even when I select Automatic (based on source) it selects Lower Field first. I have to manually select Upper field order. When saving in PrE11 under the summary information it shows the source to be Upper but like I said when I select Automatic (based on source) it auto selects Lower. Is this weird or is it just me?

Gspot and/or MediaInfo are useful for learning what a video file specs are.

Automatic anything is usually a bad idea when it comes to video, and the TFF vs BFF field order issues is typical. Always select settings manually. And when you cannot, then it's time to get new software! Trust yourself, not a program. If analysis program tells you it's TFF, then it's probably TFF. Adobe software is just guessing blindly.

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