I want it to letterbox!!

I've searched through these discussions and found only people who don't want iMovie to automatically letterbox their footage... Well, I DO want it to do mine (I do have the automatically letterbox option checked.) I imported an hour of footage, and then changed tape and imported another hour. (The footage was shot in 16x9 mode on my Sony DCR-TRV14E) When the import was finished I clicked on a clip to make it start letterboxing. It did this, and it took a long time, which I am familiar with. However when it finished, it had only letterboxed the second hour of footage I had captured even though both sets of footage were shot in exactly the same way. My question then is how to I make it letterbox this footage? Is there a way to tell it to do it if it didn't do it automatically? Adding the effect in Editing>Video Effects is not the same thing, this only adds a border, it does not squash the footage back down... Anyone have any ideas??
iMac 20" Core Duo 2Ghz Mac OS X (10.4.7) 250GB HD, 1.5GB RAM

Hi mishmumken,
I do have "automatic letterboxing" checked, and it did letterbox an hour long section of the capture, but didn't letterbox another section of it even though it was shot in exactly the same way... Maybe I'm misunderstanding something, but I need it to automatically letterbox, because my camera (when shooting in 16x9 mode) is not actually shooting in true 16x9. What it is actually doing is letterboxing the image. However, when I capture into iMovie, it captures it as 4x3 making the image look vertically stretched, so I need iMovie to letterbox it so it looks the same way as when I shot it. If I capture the same footage into an iMovie 16x9 project, it automatically pillarboxes the image, and doesn't stretch them horizontally.Incidentally, FC Express recognises the "virtual 16x9 effect" and captures accordingly, but it's not always convenient to use FC Express.
Anyway, I trashed the clips that didn't letterbox, and re-captured them, and it did automatically letterbox this time. I was just wondering if there was a way to force it to letterbox if it didn't do it by mistake. Not a big deal, I just wasted some time over the last couple of days, capturing and re-capturing and waiting for letterboxing.... I'll use FC Express next time I think!! Phew...

Similar Messages

Letterboxing on 6.03

At least half of the time I have letterboxing stop, sometimes, with no visual prompt and sometimes I will get "i Movie unresponsive". I can see the memory usage stop on the hard drives remaining memory listing on the bottom. Long pieces are hardly ever continued to complete letterboxing. Half hour or longer pieces cannot be handled at all. I create long dance recital dvds for parents.

Do you really want the material letterboxed?
If yes, the 3rd party app MPEG Streamclip can do it with better quality and faster:
http://www.sjoki.uta.fi/~shmhav/SVCDon_aMacintosh.html#43-169
If not, check your settings:
http://www.sjoki.uta.fi/~shmhav/iMovieHD_6_bugs.html#pillar_letterboxingpref

Imported 16:9 DV footage won't automatically Letterbox

Hi All,
Hope someone might be able to assist regarding my little dilemma in iMovie 6.0.2 please.
I'm using an iMac (Intel) with 2Gb RAM - 250Gb HDD, with 125Gb free space.
- I have recorded footage in 16:9 format on my miniDV camera
- The new project in iMovie was selected as "DV Widescreen"
- Connection being used to import is Firewire.
- Footage has been imported ok, size is 17.9Gb
- However iMovie just doesn't want to automatically letterbox the clips that it I have imported.
The footage was imported in one effort (basically just let the camera play)
I have never been able to get iMovie to automatically letterbox any of the footage that I have as described above bar my first attempt at using iMovie (trial and error)
I have several other tapes of footage all in 16:9 that have been letterboxed and I want to keep it the same. I will be joining different clips of each project to make my movie.
The dilemma is I know of a way that will automatically letterbox the footage that I have imported, but that will mean that I need to be in front of the computer. I will have to stop the import somewhere midway, iMovie will then automatically letterbox and then I will have to repeat for the remainder of the footage on the tape.
The above takes far too long. I have many tapes to go through and want to be able to have everything imported so that I can pick and choose clips, edit and then convert to DVD. The plan was to import during the evening and wake up with the footage imported and letterboxed.
Can someone tell me if there is an option with iMovie that will allow me to letterbox the footage after it has been imported?
Cheers
iMac Mac OS X (10.4.7)

The viewfinder on the camera is 4x3, hence the black
bars.
It seems that iMovie is not reading the flag from the
camera that should tell it the material is 16x9. It
thinks it is 4x3- that is why it is adding the
pillarboxing (to make it "fit" in 16x9).
I don't know your camera- but I've never had any
problems with our 2 Sony's in 16x9 mode. Do you have
the "Automatic Dv Pillarboxing and Letterboxing"
checked in prefrences? Maybe you could try a test
import with the "opposite" setting and see if that
makes any difference. You might also try setting up
a 4x3 project to see if the material imports into
that with proper letterboxing. Are you using the
same camera you shot with to load the material? One
time, we loaded a friends tape, but through our
camera and iMovie did not pick up the flag
correctly.
G5 ambient light
Mac OS X (10.4.7)
Automatic DV Pillarboxing and Letterboxing is checked in the preferences.
I am using the same video camera that I used to record to import the footage.
I have recorded something in 4:3 and 16:9 to test and everything is fine.
I just need to know if I am able to Letterbox the footage that I have imported in my first post manually as iMovie isn't doing it automatically.
Seems to me that there is a flaw within iMovie, where if the footage is too long and or the imported file is too large it won't Letterbox correctly.
iMac Mac OS X (10.4.7)

Getting 853.3 pixels when I want 720

I'm trying to convert a large batch of hdv media into DV media anamorphic so I can edit in a DV timeline and have the final DVD product be widescreen. I cannot edit HDV and just convert the sequence. I need to convert all my clips and must edit a DV sequence. However, when I use Compressor setting for advanced format conversion DV NTSC, I end up with media files that are 853 X 480 instead of squeezed 720 X 480. With certain settings I manage to get a squeezed image but 640 wide rather than 720. What settings do I need to change to get my wide HDV clip squished into a 720 X 480 clip?
I get exactly what I want when I use media manager in FCP 5 to export a "recompress" using DV NTSC - my wide HDV image squeezed into a 720 X 480 image. But I really don't want to use media manager for this (I have my reasons). I need to be able to drag my clips into compressor and apply the correct settings. Seems like I've tried everything.

David Gardner7 wrote:
I've also tried both the DV NTSC compressor setting and the DV NTSC Anamorphic compressor setting. It's possible there is some combination of all these that I have missed.
If you're indeed using the DV-NTSC Anamorphic setting in Compressor, it should as Kyle mentions, open up in QT Player as 853x480. But that is only for playback purposes. As mentioned, it should import into FCP as 720x480 with the Anamorphic flag set.
That is the correct behavior for the setting and what you want if you're going to be onlining using DV, but don't want to go letterboxed 4:3.
I get the sense you're trying adjusting settings that don't need to be adjusted.

Multiple iDvd creation issues

Howdy,
I've got multiple questions I've been meaning to address for awhile but I'm always forgetting so while I'm sitting here at work thinking about them I'm just gonna throw them all into one big post (I never tend to think about this stuff when I'm actually at home in front of the computer). Any help will be appreciated.
First let me note that I'm using one of the flat panel 17" imacs. It's like 3 years old now but it's served me very well so far. I've added more memory & an external hard drive & am using iLife 6.
DVD-R:
The only dvds (besides movies & the like) that the superdrive recognizes are DVD-R's. Has anyone ever come up w/ a way to use DVD+Rs or better on these old machines?
Continuous Play Music Video DVDs:
My goal is to make music video mix dvds. This means I want to burn music vids on a dvd that can be accessed separately or you can just pop the dvd in & click play & it will run through the whole dvd. Problem is I haven't found any kind of continuous play option in idvd. So the obvious choice is to convert all of the videos into one long movie in iMovie (broken into chapters) but of course I've been unsuccesful at this. Even though I've converted the videos into the proper format (arrived at through research on this forum) the videos don't load into imovie correctly...at least 3 out the 4 I tried didn't (tried multiple times on each). It would condense the video into like a quarter of the screen & leave everything else black space. So anyone got any suggestions on how I can get this done?
SD on Widescreen formatted disc:
I have burned a music video DVD a little while back & ended up w/ something interesting. I formatted the disc for widescreen assuming the standard def(4:3) videos would all just be letterboxed on the side but the result was that some were & some weren't (in fact most weren't). This means they are stretched out to widescreen. This isn't a huge deal since I can use the tv itself to letterbox them but still I'd like to know if there is a way to deal with this in the creation of the disk. Any suggestions?
Forgive me if I've missed anything obvious. I have tried at various times to research each of these topics but haven't found any answers. Thanks.

Hello Farrell,
for this kind of project you'll need to get your workflow straightened out - and I think at the moment you're "mixing apples & pears".
The only dvds (besides movies & the like) that the superdrive recognizes are DVD-R's. Has anyone ever come up w/ a way to use DVD+Rs or better on these old machines?
DVD-R media is actually your best bet compatibility-wise. The only other option would be Double-Layer DVD+R, but that would mean getting an external burner in your case. If your content doesn't exceed, say 90-100 min. I would stick with the DVD-R.
Even though I've converted the videos into the proper format (arrived at through research on this forum) the videos don't load into imovie correctly...
You might have converted to the correct format, but obviously the sizes don't match. DV video is 720x480 (NTSC) or 720x576 (PAL), so if you want to fill the screen, you'll have to convert to the proper size. On the other hand, if you have some web clips at 320x240, up-rezzing them might degrade the quality to a point that the whole thing becomes unwatchable.
I formatted the disc for widescreen assuming the standard def(4:3) videos would all just be letterboxed on the side but the result was that some were & some weren't (in fact most weren't)
If you want to burn a widescreen DVD, you'll need to start off with a widescreen project in iMovie. As you have quite mixed footage, the best thing would be to turn on "auto letter & pillarboxing" in preferences. This will preserve the correct aspect ratio of your clips.
but still I'd like to know if there is a way to deal with this in the creation of the disk
Widescreen DVDs created in iDVD 6 are set to "auto letterboxing & pan-scan", meaning it depends on the setting of your DVD player how the disc will be displayed - but as you found out, you can easily toggle the view option on your remote.
If you want to force letterboxing, you can re-edit your final DVD with a little app called myDVDedit (http://www.mydvdedit.com/).
hope this helps
mish

What is best way to extract a still from a video clip

In a iMovie project there is a frame I would like as a still photo. Can I extract it from iMovie?

You can do it in iMovie '09 too. To export your still frames as JPEGs:
Choose Share > Export Using QuickTime.
Type a title for your movie in the Save As field.
Select the location where you want to save your movie. If the location you want doesn’t appear in the Where pop-up menu, click the blue Arrow button to the right of the Save As field, and then navigate to the desired folder.
Select the file format you want to export to from the Export pop-up menu (Select "Movie to Image Sequence)".
Click Options to see the default settings for compression, quality, key frame rate, frame reordering, encoding mode, and dimensions.
To change the compression settings (known as the “codec”), including quality and frame rate, click Settings (this option isn’t available for all export formats), and then specify your settings. Depending on the export format you choose, you see different codecs and compression options. If you select “Movies to QuickTime Movie” as your export format, you can make the following adjustments:
To change the compression type, frame rate, key frames, data rate, and compressor quality, click Settings. Setting a low key frame number (such as every ten frames) creates a better-quality movie with a larger file size. Set the frame rate last; you might get choppy-looking video playback if you set the frame rate to less than about 12 frames per second. Higher quality compressor settings result in a larger file size for your movie.
To add filter effects, such as blur, color adjustments, or “aging,” click Filters, and then select a type of filter from the list and make your adjustments. Any filters you apply affects the entire movie. You see a preview of your changes as you work.
To set the frame size, click Size, and then select a dimension setting from the pop-up menu and whether you want to preserve letterboxing. This size setting affects the overall size of your movie.
To export a silent movie, deselect Sound. Or select it, and then click Settings to change the default sound export settings, including format, sample rate, sample size, and channels.
If you will not be streaming this video on the Internet, deselect “Prepare for Internet Streaming.” Or select it, and then select a streaming type. If you select Hinted Streaming, you can further specify streaming behavior, including payload encoding, packet size, packet duration, QT metadata interval, repeat packets, and repeat interval.
After setting your preferences for export, click Save.
To learn more about working with compression settings and QuickTime, see the topics on exporting files in QuickTime Help. To open QuickTime Help, open the QuickTime application and then choose Help > QuickTime Help.

Creating 16:9 sequence using standard dv

I am looking to put two clips captured in standard dv side by side on a widescreen using FCP

all good stuff, very helpful. I wasn't sure if I wanted to go letterboxed or true widescreen. The rest of the movie is going to be standard 4:3. Original I think I was thinking that to change it to widescreen I would have to change the pixel width while changing the hight but got all confused. Isn't dvd 480p with a width of 480? I'll try setting up the sequence in anamorphic and play with that. Setting up the sequence is really the key. I have cropped footage before so I am somewhat familiar with that.
thanks

Is anamorphic widescreen possible in iMovie 09?

I am editing HD footage and am trying to create a DVD that will play on SC and HD tvs without losing the 16:9 aspect ration. Any suggestions would be appreciated,

Yes.
It sounds like you want to do "letterboxing". To do this, try the following:
1. Click on the project you are working on.
2. Select File->Project Properties.
3. Set the Aspect Ratio to "Standard (4:3)" and click "OK".
4. Click "Edit Project" (if you aren't already in that mode).
5. Hover the mouse close to the beginning of the first clip you have in your project, and you will see a sprocket wheel button with a down-arrow on it. Click on that button.
6. Select "Cropping & Rotation".
7. On the preview pane toward the upper left, there are two buttons: "Fit" and "Crop", and "Crop" is probably already selected. Click on "Fit", and click "Done".
Voila!
You may have to repeat Steps 5 through 7 for as many clips as you have in your project.
This feature is not very well documented in the help. The help talks about how to do this when adding NEW video to the project, but if you've already added video to the project and want to switch it, I couldn't find anything that explains it. Perhaps Apple will want to address this? Or perhaps it is explained somewhere that I couldn't find?

Exporting for iphone

I want to export material from FCP to compressor for use on iphone.
The aspect ratio of the iphone screen is 480 x 320, but that size is not an option when exporting for iPhone using Compressor. You have to use a custom setting.
Why is this the case?
Compressor offers 320 x 240 and 640 x 480. Both of these are fine for an older ipod, but not for the wider screen of an ipod touch or iphone.
Do they want us to letterbox a 3:2 image on iPhones and iPod Touch?
Thanks for any help
R

ccroo wrote:
The aspect ratio of the iphone screen is 480 x 320, but that size is not an option when exporting for iPhone using Compressor. You have to use a custom setting.
Why is this the case?
You have to understand that the Apple-provided presets are good launching points, not end-all, be-all settings.
And iPhones do support material encoded as 640 pixels wide so the preset for VGA (up to 640x480) works fine for most people. I personally rarely use anything smaller than the VGA setting for Apple Devices as I find that's the perfect middle ground for iPods, iPhones and AppleTV.
If you (understandably) need to limit your file and frame sizes, adjusting the device setting in Compressor to iPhone (Local/WiFi) does the trick - fitting your movie into a 480 pixel-wide frame size and capping the video data rate at 1000 Kbps.
Letterboxing - as in hard mattes - is not needed when encoding for Apple Devices. In fact, if you have letterboxing in your source media, use the Geometry pane to crop out the Letterbox Area of Source. That will provide you with a better quality encode and the preset will know to adjust your output frame size, so you need not worry about distorting your movie.

Exporting anamorphic

Trying to export a DV anamorphic sequence, but it keeps coming out without black bars at top and bottom - so it stretches it.
My sequence settings are correct (I think):
See my FCP timeline Image Hosted by ImageShack.usview here.
I have tried exporting with "current settings" as well as chaning it to DV 48k Anamorphic. Also tried with Quicktime Conversions and specified size and said add padding if necessary - it added padding to the sides, this tells me it is simply not being recognized as anamorphic.
I just don't get it! I even successfully exported it "widescreen" (padding on top and bottom) last week.
Help! Thanks!
Message was edited by: jbal77

it keeps coming out without black bars at top and bottom...
It is supposed to do that.
I even successfully exported it "widescreen" (padding on top and bottom)...
That's not Anamorphic. What you want is called "letterboxing".
So to arrive at your goal, you need to make your Easy Setup NTSC DV Anamorphic and the Sequence setting needs to have Anamorphic turned off. Then it will letterbox in a 4:3 frame with your black bars at top and bottom.
What is the intended use for the end product?

Aspect ratio and exporting help, PLEASE!

I've been given a project that was shot on DVCPro HD tapes. The footage was already loaded onto a drive for me. When I bring the clips into FCP, they are 1920x1080 and appear squished in the viewer and canvas. If I click "anamorphic" in the sequence settings, the footage no longer looks stretched.
Great. Now, I need to export the footage to QTs that are a random 620x349, and the client doesn't want the images letterboxed or with bars on the side... they'd prefer that I just crop the images to that aspect ratio. It's for the web.
How can I do this? Everytime I export, I'm getting bars on the sides or a squished image. Thanks for your advice!

That's DEFINITELY not DVCPro HD settings are you SURE they match the clips? AND 1920x1080 is NOT anamorphic.
Also, how are you getting letterbox? Your sequence settings are 16:9 - not letterboxed.
Patrick

Ration question.

I am making a DVD where the videos are 16:9, I want them to letterbox on a 4:3 TV and then fill up the entire screen on a widescreen plasma. If I chose 16:9 letterbox, will that do the trick and automatically fill up the screen on a widescreen tv and letterbox on a 4:3 or do I need to chose 16:9 letterbox and pan and scan?

If I chose 16:9 letterbox, will that do the trick and automatically fill up the screen on a widescreen tv and letterbox on a 4:3
Right, that's the way.
Hope that helps !
Alberto

Apple trailer size

What are the standard dimensions for the movie trailers apple puts up? I want to export a 4:3 video with the letterbox bars cut off.
720x390??
Thanks

Hey Ryan,
where did you get your footage from? you say that you edited in 720x480, but all that tells me is that you edited in NTSC DV
you say you want to fake letterbox, so you want to cut the top and bottom portion of the video or even squash your whole frame to get mattes?
this is an important question:
do you have a 4:3 (1.33) Full Frame video? do you have a 4:3 (1.78) letterboxed frame video (that already have mattes)? do you have a 4:3 (2.35) letterboxed frame video? is your video anamorphic, or standard (i am guessing standard)?
anyway, see, it can get really intense.
but i am thinking you want the whole standard spectrum. remember, these resolution sizes are for a video files that have the mattes cropped (more for web).
4:3 (1.33 FF) = 720x480 (whole image displayed)
4:3 (1.78 LB) = 720x365
4:3 (1.85 LB) = 720x350
4:3 (2.35 LB) = 720x280
these number are NOT exact, they are very close though, since it is dependant on how they are matted.
Mikey m.

I want to create a 2.35.1 letterbox preset for a 4096x2160 resolution clip

I would like to create 2.35.1 letterbox overlays that I can save a presets. I know I can create a title and draw rectangles at the top and bottom of screen, but I would like to create these into a preset that I can apply to clips as needed. Can anyone assist.

You can't.
A title is a title. It is not an effect.
Perhaps if you explained what you really wanted to do. Do you want to edit in a 2.35:1 ratio? And then export that way?
Or do you really want to export what looks like 2.35:1 in a 16:9 frame with black bars above and below?
You can edit in a 2.35:1 sequence, and then just export it, or if you wish, you can drop it into a 16:9 sequence before exporting.

HD video to DVDSP SD disc..Don't want letterbox

We have footage shot at HD 720p. Exported out of FCP and encoded in Compressor. Authoring in DVDSP and want the image to fill 16:9 screen when played on DVD players. Some screens are filled others letterboxed when tested on different DVD players/screens. Since the footage is originally HD is there a way to maintain the 16:9 without letterbox?

Make sure that the track is 16:9 letterbox in DVDSP. After this, any error in display is because the DVD set top player is not set to play on the screen it is connected to. DVD-players have been around for years now, and so has 16:9 screens. This is pretty basic ...

I want it to letterbox!!

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