Exporting small quicktime, can't preserve aspect ratio??

I'm trying to export an HD project with a 960 x 720 pixel aspect ratio that's about 3 minutes long into a QT that's less than 10 meg.. i've done it a few different ways but i can't seem to keep it letterboxed to 16:9 even though i've checked the preserve aspect ratio box in the export with QT conversion dialogue box... sequence settings i haven't changed.. is that where i'm going wrong?? Help! needs to be submitted for festival by tomorrow!!

If you need the final clip to be 4:3 for some reason, such as posting it to YouTube, then you can get the letterbox bars by nesting into a 4:3 sequence in FCP, or adding letterboxing in Compressor.
However, if the clip will play natively as a QT file, iit can be 16:9 without letterboxing, which has many advantages. The dimesnions I use for this most often are 480x270 That should allow you to get your file down to size at good quality.
Hope this helps -
Max Average

Similar Messages

Export to Quicktime Movie Results in Aspect Ratio Distortion

All of my original footage was shot in miniDV. I have created a sequence with the following settings:
Frame size: 720 x 480
Compressor: DV/DVCPRO - NTSC
Pixel Aspect: NTSC - CCIR 601
Vid rate: 29.97 fps
Ultimately the sequence needs to go to DVD with a standard 4:3 aspect ratio. To export, I am using:
File > Export > QuickTime Movie...
I have tried using several different settings including:
Apple Pro Res 422 NTSC 48 kHz
Apple Pro Res 422 NTSC (HQ) 48 kHz
Apple Pro Res 960x720 30p 48 kHz
DV NTSC 48 kHz
etc...
All settings yield the same result: a slightly squeezed aspect ratio. At first, I thought that this might simply be the fact that I was playing back files in QuickTime which uses square pixels I believe. But in both DVD Studio Pro and iDVD, the simulation shows the same effect. (By the way, Finder's "Get Info" reads the resulting Final Cut Pro Movie File dimensions 720x486.)
I'm fairly new to FCP so I'm hoping there is something obvious that I have missed. Can anyone explain what I need to do to get the video to DVD without a distorted aspect ratio?
(Incidentally, I have managed to export using quicktime conversion with no problem. But I need the export to be a Final Cut Pro Movie File so as to maintain chapter markers, etc.)
Advice welcome!!!

Hi David, I know this was discussed in you posting already but I just wanted to make sure I had it clear. I have a 4:3 film and I've exported as a quicktime movie with current settings, which should be 4:3 and found that the image when played back in quicktime, looks horizontally stretched. Almost as if quicktime is trying to play it back as a 16:9 image. I think this is the same issue the other fellow was having but I just wanted to be clear. You're saying that the 4:3 image distortion is perfectly normal when played back in quicktime on a computer screen and that the export will look fine when put to DVD or sent to a monitor? I just wanted to make sure because this problem is freaking me out and I don't want to deliver a distorted image to my client. Could you also explain briefly why this happens with quicktime export and not quicktime conversion and what causes quicktime to distort the 4:3 image? Any advice or help would be greatly appreciated.
Cheers,
james.

"Preserve Aspect Ratio" Bug w/ DV Export

Hi,
I searched around and found no mention of this behavior, so figured I'd post what I discovered. There is a subtle bug in QuickTime when you convert to DV and check "Preserve Aspect Ratio" in the Size options. It's intimately connected with how QuickTime scales DV for display on screen.
DV resolution is 720x480, but with rectangular pixels. So some scaling is done to display the image using the computer screen's square pixels. The height to width ratio of a DV pixel is 1.1, so the correct resolution (i.e. no distortion of the image) to use on screen is about 654x480. But wait! QuickTime plays back DV at 640x480, and it's not distorted. What gives?
QuickTime knows the correct scaling factor and is actually displaying the image at 654x480, but it's chopping 7 pixels off the left and right sides to fit it in a 640x480 window. (The effect is even more pronounced with anamorphic 16x9 DV - 11-12 pixels get lopped off either side.) It's only a display issue - the pixels are still there, they're just not being drawn. It's a subtle effect you never really notice, and you get distortion-free playback.
The problem occurs when you need to export some video to DV that's not a standard aspect ratio (like the 2:1 clips I was converting). When you check the "Preserve Aspect Ratio" box, QuickTime scales your video to the 640x480 display area, keeping the original aspect ratio like it's supposed to. BUT it then proceeds to take the full 654x480 frame and encode it to DV. You end up with a very thin black border on the left and right, and ironically the aspect ratio you wanted to preserve is ever so slightly squished!
You never see the problem in QuickTime Player because of the display scaling trick, so all looks well. But bring the converted DV into iDVD or Final Cut and you can see the black border. (Again, it's more pronounced with anamorphic widescreen.) "Preserve Aspect Ratio" thus only exactly preserves the aspect if the only thing you're going to use to view the video is QuickTime. It is subtle, but if you're compositing the converted video with DV from another source it can be bothersome.
Hope this proves helpful,
-Robb
Dual-Core 2 GHz G5 Mac OS X (10.4.8) QuickTime Pro 7.1.5

I've seen the border in Final Cut. This is good to know - thanks.

Won't preserve aspect ratio letterbox?

Hey,
I have a cannon hd camera that films in 1920x1080 which is a 16:9 aspect ratio if I understand correctly. I'm trying to export this video size to a 640x480 using the quicktime conversion. From what I've read online and in the manual if I check "preserve aspect ratio", "letterbox" it should put two black bars on the top and bottom so that the video itself isn't stretched to fit into the 640x480. However, though I've tried many times, the exported video always comes out stretched. Is something turned off that I don't know about? Is there a problem in the software?
Thanks for the help if you can solve this puzzle.

I'm having the same problem and it's driving me nuts. I have HD footage and I'm trying to save a small sample as a demo. I want to email either a 16:9 clip or a 4:3 letterboxed clip. No matter what dimension I export to, it ends up as 4:3, even when "letterbox" is checked. For example, if I export to 720x480 (4:3), it's squashed. But if I export to 720x480 (16:9), it's squashed AND I have black bars ON THE SIDES! So I'm telling FCE to go from 16:9 to 16:9 and it converts it to 4:3 and then puts black borders on the side? How does this make any sense??
When you say "Place your edited widescreen sequence in a 4:3 sequence" what do you mean? I don't see sequence properties that control the aspect ratio.
Also, what should the compression type be? Like I said, I'm just trying to export a small 30-second demo clip. All of my exports are turning out 40+ MB. If I do a straight Export->Quicktime movie (no conversion) then my 30 second clip is more like 400MB.

Preserve aspect ratio issues.

I’m having a problem with my “preserve aspect ratio” command under Quick Time Conversion. I’ve bounced many projects that are 720x480 into a 640x480 cube, (for use on the clients website.) with much success. But for some reason FCP has stopped doing this. Everything I bounce, whatever the setting is coming out stretched. It’s acting almost like the commend doesn’t even exist.
Is there a preference setting that might have been messed up? Is there even a way to control this. For the life of me I can’t figure this out. Any ideas?

Yeah, it's anamorphic file... i bounce it down
h264
keyframe automatic
Data Rate: 1300
best for streeming
Size VGA
Preseve Aspect using "fit demention"
?

Preserve aspect ratio for Windows Vista 64-bit OS on iMac

Hello, I wanted to know how to preserve aspect ratio on my screen resolution of 4:3 with black borders on left and right of the screen, after I have installed 64 bit Boot Camp drivers on it. I rather to play older Windows games in 4:3 without stretched mode as stretched mode looks so disordered, which is bothered me a lot.

It sounds that the Microsoft Installer does not like the optical drive inside of your Mac.
Do you have access to an external DVD drive?
If yes, try the Windows 7 install with an external DVD drive.
If no, try to install Windows 7 from a USB drive.
Source 1:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/dd535816.aspx
Source 2:
http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/how-to-deploy-windows -7-from-a-usb-drive.aspx
If you don't have an external DVD drive or a USB drive that is 8GB or larger, you might want to consider borrowing or buying one.

Exporting flash movie in 4:3 aspect ratio

I need to export my flash movie so the aspect ratio is 4:3.
However, the few compression settings I have chosen have resulted
in really poor quality video. The setting that looks perfect is
DVCPRO HD 720p60, however the dimensions of this is 1280 x 720, and
since i need to post this on the web, the dimensions need to be 720
x 480. I've tried compressing the video in Compressor, but once
again, the quality is crap.
What is the best 4:3 compression setting to use in order to
get optimal video quality?
I have Flash 9 and Mac OS 10.5.4

That is how the studio supplied them. This is not an Apple TV issue.

How I can correct the aspect ratio?

Hi, I hope you can help me.
I want to resize a 1920x1080 to 1440x1080 video, how I can correct the aspect ratio of HD video without the black bars appear above and below?

The original image is stretched horizontally and I want to fix this by resizing the video output to fill the full frame (4:3) without the lines that appear above and below, Premiere is not allowing me this.
I can do it using video converters but the results do not convince me, do not make the 4 processor cores and cause loss of frames in the video.
So I prefer to edit and convert directly into Premiere.
(I used google translator to write this)

How do I export a file and keep the aspect ratio intact?

I'm exporting an edited scene from an external hard drive to a macbook but the video on the laptop is anamorphic (squished) compared to the original file on the hard drive. How do I export the file and keep the aspect ratio intact?

Please give the exact specs of your project. If the material is anamorphic, aspect ratio display is a function of the playback device. What is it?

How can I properly export an image with corrected pixel aspect ratio?

Hi, I have a bunch of .png screenshots from old MS-DOS era software that I wish to convert to a 0,8 pixel aspect ratio to simulate the stretch from old CRT monitors.
I can easily preview it by enabling the pixel aspect ratio correction under the "View" menu, and it looks great. But if I try to "save as" the file as a .png or .gif, it looks blurry and horrible:
Any hints on how to do this?

Ok, thanks letting me know. Only last thought is a screen cap of image 2 (that I believe you want) saved to png.
There's a program called Greenshot that would use the Print screen key and allow you to marquee select and save the shot as a png file. Greenshot - a free and open source screenshot tool for productivity
That's for Windows, Cmd-Shift-4 on a Mac does the same thing.
I know it is a pain if you have a hundred of these, but I suppose if you are not in a big hurry you can get it all fixed up.
Gene

Keynote to quicktime movie has wrong aspect ratio

I have created some Keynote Quicktime movies. When I import them into iMovie, they become too tall and wide to see the pictures. How can I change the aspect ratio (I want to use 16:9) and/or the height and width of the slides to be seen properly?

Hi David, I know this was discussed in you posting already but I just wanted to make sure I had it clear. I have a 4:3 film and I've exported as a quicktime movie with current settings, which should be 4:3 and found that the image when played back in quicktime, looks horizontally stretched. Almost as if quicktime is trying to play it back as a 16:9 image. I think this is the same issue the other fellow was having but I just wanted to be clear. You're saying that the 4:3 image distortion is perfectly normal when played back in quicktime on a computer screen and that the export will look fine when put to DVD or sent to a monitor? I just wanted to make sure because this problem is freaking me out and I don't want to deliver a distorted image to my client. Could you also explain briefly why this happens with quicktime export and not quicktime conversion and what causes quicktime to distort the 4:3 image? Any advice or help would be greatly appreciated.
Cheers,
james.

Export from FCP as H.264 aspect ratio changes from 16:9 to 4:3. Please Help

I have DVCPRO HD 720p60 selected for my timeline in FCP.
My footage is also DVCPRO HD 720p60.
Frame size, Compressor and Pixel aspect between my sequence and the clips match.
I can export an m2v just fine.
When I export a quicktime 7, H.264 300kbs file I get a stretched image (+33 aspect).
My question is: How do I export an H.264 without altering the aspect ratio?
Thanks in advance for your help.
D.

Keep in mind that DVCPRO HD 720p is 960x720 (non-square pixels). If you are exporting to H.264 make sure you set the frame size for the export to 1280x720 to maintain a 16:9 aspect ratio with square pixels.
~D

Exporting movie with 2.35.1 aspect ratio

I used filmic pro on my 4S to capture 24fps video along with a 2.35.1 overlay guide so my video composing will work once everything is edited. I have edited the video in iMovie with 1920x1080 24fps project settings and now I want to export it. Some videos I have seen recommend putting a picture of 2 black bars over the video but I think this is a waste of time and space since I will have to render the 2 black bars.
What would be the correct way of exporting my video with a 2.35.1 aspect ratio in iMovie? It would also be good if there are guides for Final Cut, and Adobe Premiere since I intend to try these out too.

iMovie will render your movie in 16:9 (1920x1080) or 4:3 (standard def), since those are the sizes of television screens.
To show a movie in 2.35:1, you will need to use the set the aspect ratio of the project to 16:9, and then, use the Rotate, Crop, Ken Burns tool on the middle Toolbar to set each clip to FIT. You can then Share the movie, and it will create the black bars for you.
If you want to show your movie on a device (like a computer screen or a web page) that is not constrained by the 16:9 or 4:3 limitation, you may be able to process your movie in QuickTime Pro to trim to exact dimensions, but you should check in the QuickTime Pro discussions to make sure, because I have not tried this myself.

Preserving Aspect Ratio

I have a problem that is somewhat two-fold. I'm trying to play a video on a digital frame. It only plays MPEG1, 2, and 4 with a resolution of 1024x768 (my video is 720x480). Whenever I play my video it distorts the aspect ratio slightly, but noticeably. I've dragged the file into FCP several times, trying to export it and then converting it back to an MPEG with ffmpeg. The problem is EVERY time I export with FCP (no matter what settings I'm using), the quality is crap. I get lines everytime there is movement in the video (this is BEFORE I convert with ffmpeg, so I know thats not the issue). I finally found a solution to my problem (throwing in a black jpeg file to surround the video is preventing it from changing the ratio), but like I said I'm getting lines. The only video that looks good is the original, but it keeps changing the ratio. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated!

Export a self-contained or reference movie from FCP (File->Export->QuickTime Movie). Do NOT use QuickTime Conversion.
Use the resulting file in Compressor to create an MPEG-2 Program Stream (.mpg) file.
-DH

Quicktime X and 7 aspect ratio problems

I have scoured the net and not come up with a single solution to this issue.
I have hundreds of music videos, home videos etc in Quicktime 7 format. The ratio of these files varies at a pixel level, but are corrected in Q7 size feature.
It's not just an anamorphic issue, as many videos are cropped from a non anamorphic 4:3 'letter boxed' source.
Now QX does not display them correctly at all, which until recently wasn't the end of the world, but from the last update, iTunes began using the X ratio as opposed to the correct adjusted ratio, so music videos in iTunes, QX, the iPad, you name it, the videos created this way do not display correctly.
That basically is every video on my Mac created from the late 90's to recently.
Any ideas, solutions? How on earth can Apple do something so amateurish, and why is there no major uproar.

So what you're saying is, Apple are telling me "thank you for your loyalty in using our hardware since 1988, and building up a video collection based on our software, but we've decided to do a version of Quicktime that ignores the size tag you have being using for the last 14 years (I started video work on Quicktime in 1997), and screw any videos you did to this point, unless they had square pixels?"
Not exactly. I believe that what they are saying is that QT is growing old. The technology on which is is based was fine for the codecs and techniques of its time, but video technology is constantly changing and it is no longer practical or possible to keep making updates and patches that don't, in and of themselves, create new, more serious problems than they solve. QT X is based on technology designed to make this process of evolution easier and it is likely we will see many new changes over the coming decade. However, in the meantime, they have not done away with QT 7 or Front Row, both of which continue to display your files correctly even under Snow Leopard. I personally continue to use QT 7—mainly because I have it keyed for "Pro" use and prefer its functionality to the what I call "Not quite ready for prime time" version represented by QT X which likely appeals to first time Mac users.
New videos are fine, I just encode them to square pixels anyway and ignore any PAR nonsense at the encode stage, but then if the PAR value is what they are using now, why not allow an option in QX to set that, so at the very least I could resize the old videos to correct format.
Not sure if Apple would be willing to provide what amounts to developmental support for an application they are phasing out. Still, it wouldn't hurt to ask. If enough people should request such an enhancement, they might be willing to at least consider the possibility.
Re-encoding them is just not an option, incurring further loss, on videos that in some cases are already marginal.
While I stated that corrections are normally made during the encoding process, it isn't the only method of setting the PAR value. Unfortunately, it is the most accurate method.
My point with anamorphic is that it will simply change 4:3 to 16:9 if there were some option to hit a check button.
Actually, using modern encoders, you can utilize any custom PAR setting desired but I am usually more interested in other aspect ratios like 1.66:1, 1.85:1, 2.40:1, and 2.35:1 since most of my work is centered on the conversion of movies for use on my TV devices.
More flexibility is needed, especially from a platform that is supposed to be pro. Ever tried formatting videos for a vertically placed Plasma for exhibition work, on a video file that isn't square pixel?
Not as uncommon as you might think. I also layer over still or video backgrounds to frame the main video and fill the unused device display area.
I have videos for example that are 800 x 400 (due to an original source, or a crop from the source, but view at 4:3 with the size setting, as they should. Now they look ridiculous displaying at 2:1, and there is no way to change it.
I would normally employ masking here to avoid one level of re-compression.
The size option allowed it to be displayed as you wanted it to, after encode.
More importantly, the Size (Scale) option allowed you to avoid having to re-encode the file since it can be saved back to the original file container (assuming no other changes were made the forces a re-encoding of the file).
It worked, it was done as Apple wanted, due to the size option being the only way to do to non-square pixels, and now they say, nah, we're not doing that anymore?
You seem to be forgetting that when QuickTime was initially introduced almost 20 years ago, users did not have to worry about scalability options, low-compression, high data rate broadcast standards or anamorphic DVDs because there weren't any such work flows for the Apple/Mac platforms of that era nor could they handle them anyway.
So basically Quicktime now contains no ability to format non-square pixels, unless it is done at the encode?
True, but as hinted previously, Apple and QuickTime isn't the only game in town. Based on your question, I went back and played around with Subler. Had been told that this app would allow the user to embed PAR value but was never able to get it to work. Finally managed to get a 720x480 (636x480) encoded movie trailer to play back as an 852x480 display in both QT 7 and QT X on my Snow Leopard system. This proves that it can be done without re-encoding, but there do seem to be some limitations. For instance, since I normally encode using macro-block 16 dimensions increments and Subler seems to like increments of 12 pixels, some PAR and Size target values may vary by 4 pixels. In any case, you may want to Google the app and give it a try. You still have to process each file but not actually re-compress the data.
It is barely believable that they would do that.
Please excuse me, but I do have to chuckle here. It seems as if you feel that Apple has taken something away from you. I, on the other hand, tend to view it as not missing something I never really had. I do, however, agree that it would be nice if both applications were able to access/change both PAR values and display size values for better compatibility between old and new technologies.

Exporting small quicktime, can't preserve aspect ratio??

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