Aspect Ratio and Resolution (Dimensions)

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Aspect Ratio and Resolution (Dimensions)

Your source video’s aspect ratio and resolution (dimensions) are important factors in mastering your DCP.

  • The aspect ratio is the width-to-height ratio of your source video.
  • The resolution refers to your source video’s actual dimensions in pixels.
PLEASE NOTICE: When dealing with your source video’s aspect ratio and resolution, it’s the actual picture of your video stream that counts. Don’t include any letter- or pillarboxes in your calculations!

In digital cinema packages there are only two commonly used ‘container formats’. These containers are called ‘Flat’ and ‘Scope’:

Container Aspect Ratio 2K Resolution 4K Resolution
Flat 1.85:1 1998 x 1080 px 3996 x 2160 px
Scope 2.39:1 2048 x 858 px 4096 x 1716 px

When mastering your DCP we therefore have to get your video source to fit into one of those two ‘container formats’.


The ideal option of course would be to deliver your source video without any letter- or pillarboxes and already adjusted to one of these container formats.

If you deliver your source video in other formats, we’ll have to adjust your video to fit into a Flat or Scope container.

PLEASE NOTICE: For quality reasons, your source video should have a minimum resolution of 720p.

Examples:

A commonly used format in post production is Full HD (also known as 1080p). Full HD has an aspect ratio of 1.78:1 (=16:9) and a resolution (pixel dimensions) of 1920 x 1080 px.

Here’s some examples of how we’ll adjust your picture for 2K DCPs, if you deliver your source video in Full HD.

PLEASE NOTICE: The aspect ratio of your video’s actual picture will not change when we adjust your video. We will adjust your video by upscaling and/or adding letter- or pillarboxes. We will never change your source video’s aspect ratio or crop your image! (See examples below.)

EXAMPLE A:

16:9 source video ➨ Flat DCP container

Adjustments made by us: Add pillarboxes to the actual picture, no scaling

Source (Actual Picture) Source Container DCP (Actual Picture) DCP Container
Resolution 1920 x 1080 px 1920 x 1080 px 1920 x 1080 px 1998 x 1080 px
Aspect Ratio 16:9 (=1.78:1) 16:9 (=1.78:1) 16:9 (=1.78:1) 1.85:1
Container Full HD Flat
Letter-/Pillarboxes None Black pillarboxes of 39px right and left side

Illustration 1: Dimensions of the final DCP for Example A. Click on the picture for full size version.

EXAMPLE B:

Scope source video ➨ Flat DCP container

Adjustments made by us: Add letterboxes to the actual picture, upscaling (ca. +4%)

Source (Actual Picture) Source Container DCP (Actual Picture) DCP Container
Resolution 1920 x 804 px 1920 x 1080 px 1998 x 836 px 1998 x 1080 px
Aspect Ratio 2.39:1 16:9 (=1.78:1) 2.39:1 1.85:1
Container Full HD Flat
Letter-/Pillarboxes Black letterboxes of 138 px, top and bottom Black letterboxes of 122 px, top and bottom

Illustration 2: Dimensions of the final DCP for Example B. Click on the picture for full size version.

EXAMPLE C:

Scope source video ➨ Scope DCP container

Adjustments made by us: Upscaling (ca. +7%), no letter- or pillarboxes

Source (Actual Picture) Source Container DCP (Actual Picture) DCP Container
Resolution 1920 x 804 px 1920 x 1080 px 2048 x 858 px 2048 x 858 px
Aspect Ratio 2.39:1 16:9 (=1.78:1) 2.39:1 2.39:1
Container Full HD Scope
Letter-/Pillarboxes Black letterboxes of 138 px, top and bottom None

Illustration 3: Dimensions of the final DCP for Example C. Click on the picture for full size version.

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