Dealing with non-square pixels from video capture (CS3)

1483 views2 repliesLast post: 3/22/2009
Hi all,

This is the problem I have : I watch a video on my PC using any utility such as, for example, CyberLink's PowerDVD. I pause the movie to capture a frame to the Clipboard, then I paste it into PS CS3 via a newly created document.

Because the movie was shot and recorded on the DVD in widescreen format, therefore using non-square pixels (wider than they are tall), the still image in PS appears "shrunk" horizontally. I then go to Image|Pixel Aspect Ratio and set the ratio to, say, "D1/DV PAL Widescreen (1.42)", as I am in PAL-land. The still image now looks fine, and I can save it, for example in TIFF format ; it will retain its "non-square pixel" attribute, with the black bands on top and at the bottom.

However, what I utimately want to do is use that still image on the Web, so I need to save it as a JPEG image, and this is where the problem happens : the JPEG conversion reverts those pixels to square ones, whether I use the "Save for Web and Devices..." option, or just the "Save As..." one.

How can I turn my very heavy TIFF into a much leaner JPEG, while retaining the non-square pixels that give the image its correct proportions ? Is there a way around this problem ?

I'm not used to dealing with non-square pixel images, so any help and tip will be greatly appreciated. Many thaks in advance.

Dominic.
#1
just make a new document with square pixels and copy your image into it. It will convert the the pixels to squares but it will maintain the correct appearance.
#2
As Zeno said, you can simply copy&paste. Also, there is always an equivalent square pixel format for each anamorphic format that can fully accommodate the image, which would be 1024x576 for PAL widescreen. For more info on PAR conversions, I recomemnd you do some reading in the online help files for After Effects or Premiere Pro.

Mylenium
#3