dumb question about widescreen and high def

[frostee]

I recently hooked up my xbox360 to my pc to be able to play wmv movies (360 only supports wmv) through my new widescreen HD telly. This is great for watching the HD game trailers from gametrailers.com. I also been watching some of the old WoW movies i had lying around that i had got from warcraft movies, was nice to see them on the BIG screen and having the sound coming through my hifi.

Question I have is does anyone bother to make WoW movies in either widescreen or even HD? I know that not everyone plays with a widescreen monitor, and I'm not even sure if WoW displays in true widescreen (I only have a 4:3 monitor) or even if the video capture tools support capturing in widescreen. And there is always the problem about file sizes being too big when recording HD stuff, but does anyone bother?

[Btcc22]

My next video is widescreen and in pretty decent resolution, but I don't really think it's much of a possibility if you're recording ingame and don't have a widescreen set up yourself.

[godliest]

First I will say that I'm not entirely sure about the what is defined as HD or widescreen. I've seen alot of movies that had really high quality that looked like you played WoW yourself. If these are HD or not I do not know. Movies such as Gank or Die, both 1 and 2, Nightmares Asylum vs Hydross the Unstable (and the rest) and Rush 2v2 arena team are all in very high quality. If they are widescreen I don't know.

I know tho that WCM doesn't support files which are to wide/too much FPS. I'll say that much and let it over to someone who knows more to tell u.

[soosisti]

Well, I shot my movie "Blackwing Lair: The Last Ride (http://www.warcraftmovies.com/movieview.php?id=35878)" in HD and widescreen (I avoid producing 4:3 crap as much as possible in the future).

"Edge Of Remorse (http://www.warcraftmovies.com/movieview.php?id=32204)" is also available as HD version. So is "Snacky's Journal (http://www.warcraftmovies.com/movieview.php?id=36391)" if I remember correctly.

[Thiras]

Well, I shot my movie "Blackwing Lair: The Last Ride (http://www.warcraftmovies.com/movieview.php?id=35878)" in HD and widescreen (I avoid producing 4:3 crap as much as possible in the future).

"Edge Of Remorse (http://www.warcraftmovies.com/movieview.php?id=32204)" is also available as HD version. So is "Snacky's Journal (http://www.warcraftmovies.com/movieview.php?id=36391)" if I remember correctly.

I dont see your point when you say 4:3 is crap.

99% of the wow community use that kind of monitor and tbfh youre insulting everyone who has made a 4:3 movie by saying it's "crap".

1280x720 "hd" isnt terribly high definition either, theres plenty of movies out with 1152x864 and higher.

EDIT: @ Btcc22, you could probably squeeze the 4:3 to 16:9, its a matter of preference there

Edit again: tried, i can set wow to 1280x720 but the picture goes offscreen, i could probably fraps with it but playing would be rather awkward

[soosisti]

I dont see your point when you say 4:3 is crap.

99% of the wow community use that kind of monitor and tbfh youre insulting everyone who has made a 4:3 movie by saying it's "crap".

1280x720 "hd" isnt terribly high definition either, theres plenty of movies out with 1152x864 and higher.

Bad choice of words from me - no movie sucks because of it's ar or something like that. I just don't love that 4:3 aspect ratio, as a WS fan. Content is above all, then the looks.

[deadworkersparty]

There is a mixture of Widescreen and HD terms in this thread. Widescreen describes apect ratios wider than 1.33:1 or 4:3. HD describes any video resolution beyond that of NTSC, SECAM, or PAL. The two terms work independent of eachother, meaning that a video could exist as both Widescreen and HD or neither, or one or the other.

Widescreen is purely about compositionality, not practicality. In fact, the maximal area for a certain diagonal length would actually be a square (4:3). Although widescreen seems better suited for displaying many real-life scenery, such as outdoor landscapes, while a 4:3 screen can feel too narrow for this.

Using Fraps to record HD footage that is also widescreen is not always possible, due to the hardware limitations. You do have options though. Try recording at a resonable resolution, then up-convert that footage to that of HD. I've used InstantHD (http://www.redgiantsoftware.com/instanthd.html) and it works great. Next you can achive a widescreen look by adding black mattes to the top and bottom of the image. Now you have HD at a widescreen aspect ratio.