Need Some Technical Expertise Here - WFTS Problem

[Palmateer]

Anybody here familiar with video editing software called IFinal Cut Pro?

Brendan McLaughlin, anchor of WFTS news, was kind enough to explain that the reason WFTS's HD Local Newscast was horizontally stretching SD (4:3) sourced newsfeed is because the IFinal Cut Pro editing software they use to assemble their video pieces is configured to automatically expand the video to fit the 16:9 screen "when the editing software encounters a mixture of two different formats."

Brendan says, "Not good, I agree, but if the fix was as simple as you suggest, we wouldn't be having this conversation." Brendan then goes on to say, "I'm not qualified to address these technical issues, but it's my understanding that the stretching is not something we're actively doing."

My next question: Can the IFinal Cut Pro software be reconfigured not to do this automatically? Why is this not a problem for the other local affiliate stations - or are they using different editing software?

Does anybody here have any insight on this?

[Bschneider]

Its not as easy as you might think. And he is right. Here is the basic steps.

In order to preserve the 4:3 footage, they need to first insert their 16:9 "sidebars" into their 16:9 timeline.

Then they need to add their 4:3 footage into the timeline. Then they are going to MASK the 16:9 with the 4:3. Basically putting the 4:3 ontop of the 16:9.

If I get a chance, I'll talk to Jack about it..

[Palmateer]

Great, thanks!

Wouldn't it be great if all local HD news were on an equal footing!

[Bschneider]

So I emailed Jack about this and here is what he had to say..


I have on many occasions talked to news about the stretching that is occurring. The stories are supposed to be flagged to play from the 4:3 machines. I don’t like it either. It drives me nuts when I walk into various establishments and find stretched analog on a wide screen HD display. I just had a talk with the Operations manager again to see if we can be better at this. It has nothing to do with the configuration of FCP. In some cases it’s growing pains.