Help make GoPro + FPV work better together

[damoncooper]

Are you producing your final videos at 2.7k or 4k? If not, I recommend that you shoot using 1440p / 48fps and simply crop to 1080p in post-production. This will allow for full HD 1080p video capture (crop in post) at 48FPS and will also provide an anamorphic fullscreen video when viewing on a 16:9 FPV monitor (such as the BlackPearl or Boscam, which I own myself, and use on a daily basis).

Keep in mind that by nature, anamorphic signals are stretched and skewed to "fit-to-screen" by the display device, so they actually offer a less-accurate perspective for FPV flying. As it is, all 16:9 video modes on the GoPro are "letterboxed" within the 4:3 VGA signal in order to provide a distortion-free preview. The GoPro live-preview video-out function is designed to show you what your video will look like as it's being recorded to the microSD card, so an anamorphic preview signal with normal recording video is not likely to be implemented anytime soon, as it would be more confusing to the majority of users than it would be helpful.

Wow. There is so much wrong with the information in that reply. He doesn't get it. There must be a way to get past him to someone who understands what we're trying to accomplish. There wasn't a DVD player ever manufactured that didn't have an anamorphic output option. Why does GoPro think that it's unnecessary?!?

Technically (although I haven't tried it yet) using 1440 should work though correct?

Not my first choice for sure but I suppose it's a way to capture 1080p and not get distorted or black bar images?

If you'd like to draft a response I'd be happy to submit it on behalf of us all here.

 

[Mike]

Technically (although I haven't tried it yet) using 1440 should work though correct?

Shooting 1440 will get rid of the black bars on your screen but it's still not right. The image will still be stretched because 1920x1440 is 4:3 and your monitor is 16:9. I also prefer to shoot in 2.7k so it doesn't really help that. It just seems kind of backwards that the majority of displays out there are 16:9, yet they only offer a 4:3 letterbox output. It just doesn't make sense.
I'm currently out of town, but perhaps when I'm back home I'll sit down and write a letter when I have more time to think about it.

 

[damoncooper]

Technically (although I haven't tried it yet) using 1440 should work though correct?

Shooting 1440 will get rid of the black bars on your screen but it's still not right. The image will be stretched because 1920x1440 is 4:3 and your monitor is 16:9. I also prefer to shoot in 2.7k so it doesn't really help that. It just seems kind of backwards that the majority of displays out there are 16:9, yet they only offer a 4:3 letterbox output. It just doesn't make sense.
I'm currently out of town, but perhaps when I'm back home I'll sit down and write a letter when I have more time to think about it.

Gotcha. I'd like to run this to ground and get this to folks who will really consider it at GoPro.

Any help with articulating a response would be appreciated.

 

[Kevin]

Yes, I agree the GoPro rep doesn't quite get it. Shooting in 1440 will still give you are 4:3 VGA out. That image will then be stretched to 16:9. The black bars on the top and bottom will be gone but the image will be stretched / distorted. Anamorphic 16:9 out of the Gopro appears to be the right solution, in my opinion. That will display correctly on a 16:9 monitor.

I'm new to phantoms. Just bought my first one a few days ago but walked out of the store with everything accept the fpv since the owner of the store could to fix the aspect ratio or even tell me what was causing it. Thanks for starting this thread damon. Nice to see others that get it.

 

[damoncooper]

I gave up, for the record