sony trv950

What kind of 16:9 method is this Sony camcorders using? Is it "lossless"?

// Have a nice day

 

Hello. Since no one else seems to know the answer, I'll try my best to help you out here. The chips on the Sony camcoders are designed to film in 4:3 aspect ratio. If you use the 16:9 feature on the TRV-950, it does it electronically, and you will lose some vertical resolution. The best way to get 16:9 using the Sony TRV-950 is to use a lens attachment called an anamorphic adapter. It will take the 16:9 image and bend the light rays so that the image falls onto the 4:3 chips. You will have to put it back to 16:9 in your computer, but you will have full resolution and will not have lost any picture quality. I don't know where to get an anamorphic adapter for your camera, but head over to DVinfo Forums and scroll down until you find the Sony TRV-950 section. They should be able to help you out more than I can.

 

Thanks for your reply.

With this anamorphic adapter will camera functions as autofocus, zoom etc still work? Regarding this camera I heard something about "hybrid 16:9", which I interpreted as a "lossless" 16:9 image, by using "unused" ccd pixels. Does this make sense? The camera can take photos with higher resolution than it captures video, so by taking some of the unused ccd the camera can compensate for 16:9. Is this true?

// klaschy

 

The camera can take photos with higher resolution than it captures video, so by taking some of the unused ccd the camera can compensate for 16:9. Is this true?

Nope, not for DV NTSC... not for any camera under $4000 as far as I know.

16:9 mode in virtually every MiniDV camera is electronic. There are some DVCAM and DVCPro cameras that use a physically-wider section of the CCDs such as the DSR-PDX10 and DSR-PD150... but generally, with 4:3 or 16:9 you still will have the issue of 4:1:1 color space compression unless you upgrade to Digibeta or D1 4:2:2 where you're talking upwards of $35,000 US... or uncompressed HD 4:4:4, which will run you upwards of $80,000 US for a camera.

One of the only truly "uncompressed" 16:9 formats there is is HD 1920x1080. (Correct me anyone... does D4 or D9 do 4:4:4 16:9?).

Take a look at this page for a comparison between the DCR-TRV950 and the DSR-PDX10P. Keep in mind this is a British site so the references will be to PAL, but the chip size issues are the same with the US models, just NTSC res instead of PAL.

An alternative, however, is to scale your electronic 16:9 in Premiere. Basically, if you import your electronic 16:9 footage into a 4:3 project, then vertically scale the clips down to 75 percent of the original, they will have the same 16:9 (1.77:1) aspect in a 4:3 frame... but using only the equal proportion of the DV NTSC 4:3 resolution as they occupy on the CCD which captured them... and letterboxing the excess. Does that explanation make sense? Look at the diagram on the lower left of the link I gave you... the one that shows the effective vertical space used in 16:9 mode on the TRV950. That is the same effective proportion of the 4:3 frame that will be used if you vertically scale down your 16:9 footage to 75 percent of original in a 4:3 project. The image quality should not be degraded... in fact I have done tests with this and they've come out pretty much identical.

The only difference is you will not be able to do true anamorphic display on 16:9 TVs... but if you don't have an HDTV, this shouldn't be a problem for you. This way you can still utilize the framing of the 16:9 in your viewfinder. The other option is to go the optical route if a 16:9 anamorphic lens is available for the TRV950.