Non-standard aspect ratio

Currently, I am using iMovie '09 (version 8.0.6) and iMovie HD 6.0.4.
With both programs, I failed to import a quicktime movie that has aspect ratio 0.83 (1030:1240)
without getting a distorted output.
(I did read the help and I also googled a lot, to no avail. I also UNchecked the box 'automatic letterboxing', but it did not have any effect.)
My question now is: would the current versions of iMovie / HD allow me to import & edit such non-standard aspect ratio movies?
Or do I need some other program to do that?
If so, can you recommend something?
(I only need some basic editing capabilities such as clipping, adding audio tracks, titles, a few simple effects, etc.)
Thanks a lot in advance.
Best regards,
Gabriel.

GabrielZ wrote:
… would the current versions of iMovie / HD allow me to import & edit such non-standard aspect ratio movies?
Or do I need some other program to do that?…
(I only need some basic editing capabilities such as clipping, adding audio tracks, titles, a few simple effects, etc.)
no version of iM did or do support non-standard video.
the obsolote FC/pro supported 'free' aspect ratios.
the actual FCPX only with a trick.
not sure, but I think Adobe Premiere (full version, not elements) supports non-standards too.
for just trimming and perhaps 'titles', Quicktime7Pro would do it - but has no effects, transitions etc. plus it is very un-convenient, compared to any designated editor.app

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Non-standard aspect ratio possible?

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Make a sequence with a custom setting that's square.
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The templates my have a few variations that use non-standard ratios, but you can specify any photo box ratio. You have the option to either right click and choose it from a list, or choose the custom option from that pull list, or use the "Size & Position" pane of the Aperture UI to specify an exact size, angle, and border thickness and color of a photobox. This works similar to the controls in Pages, but without some of the nice effects like transparency and drop shadows.
If you want to create custom layouts, read the "Working with Custom Themes" section on page 609 of the user manual (download it with the trial). The trial is good for 30 days, so why not give it a spin, and if you don't think it's worth the $199, then you can always delete it at no cost to you other than your time.

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Using "One Step DVD from Movie" on my IMac 10.8.6 using Verbatim DVD-R ("Life Series") 4.7 GB 16X 120, I get a wide angle version of my two minute story rather than the 3X4 standard aspect ratio that I normally get and want. Help!

While using "One Step DVD from Movie" using DVD-R Verbatim ("Life Series" 4.7 16 X 120 min) on my IMac 10.6.8 I get a wide angle aspect ratio on the DVD not the standard 3X4 aspect ratio. The Quicktime Movie is is standard 3X4 aspect ratio and the video video footage is standard 3X4 aspect ratio? Advice will be greatly appreciated.

Try this basic troubleshooting fix :
1 - delete the IDVD preference file, com.apple.iDVD.plist, that resides in your
User/Home()/Library/ Preferences folder.
2 - delete IDVD'S cache file, Cache.db, that is located in your
User/Home()/Library/Caches/com.apple.iDVD folder.
Click to view full size
3 - reboot.
4 - launch IDVD and try again.
Personally I would not the the one step method but create the iDVD project from scratch so you can make sure the widescreen option is not selected in the preferences and you can follow this workflow:
Once you have the project as you want it save it as a disk image via the File ➙ Save as Disk Image menu option. This will separate the encoding process from the burn process.
To check the encoding mount the disk image and launch DVD Player and play it. If it plays OK with DVD Player the encoding was good.
Then burn to disk with Disk Utility or Toast at the slowest speed available (2x-4x) to assure the best burn quality. Always use top quality media: Verbatim, Maxell or Taiyo Yuden DVD-R are the most recommended in these forums.
OT

"Movie to ipod (320x240)" qtime codec distorts aspect ratio!

a minor complaint, but a valid one...
the only quicktime codec that seems to be compatible for the new video ipod (movie to ipod 320x240) squeezes the video files so that they are ever so slightly taller than it should be.
also, they take an ice age to covert!
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If the distortion really bothers you and you, simply open the file in QTime, reset the height of the display to correct number of pixels to restore correct aspect ration, and save the file as a "self-contained" movie. Extension will change to ".MOV" but format will remain correct. Have not tested it, but believe the "widescreen" setting you mention was included for individuals who convert their Video Camcorder in "widescreen" mode. Manually restoring the aspect ratio is more exact where original source file used a non-standard aspect ratio.

How to change DV/DVCPRO video to 16:9 widescreen aspect ratio in Final Cut Pro X?

I shot some DV video footage on a Canon XL2 in 16:9 widescreen aspect ratio mode. I captured it on a Firestore and imported it into Final Cut Pro X, and it is now being displayed in an incorrect standard 4:3 aspect ratio.
How can I change the aspect ratio of the video within FCPX once I've imported it?
I've tried playing with the Spatial Conform setting for the video file, but that keeps it in a standard aspect ratio and fits or fills the video into a different aspect ratio. So that's not the answer.
I've tried an old trick I used when working with DV widescreen video and iDVD, but this process doesn't fix the aspect ratio in FCPX. Here's the article for your reference:
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2179
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@daguerratype
The Spatial Conform is one of the things I tried. Unfortunately none of its settings fixed the aspect ratio. When I choose "Fit", it simply shows it as 4:3 and leaves left and right black borders on a 16:9 timeline. When I choose "Fill", it zooms the 4:3 video and chops off the top and bottom parts.
@Thomas Emmerich
This is a decent workaround. Fortunately my clips are named in such a way that I can easily drop them all in the timeline and do a Command-F (Find) to search by clip name, highlight all of them in the search results, then use the Inspector to modify the properties of all the clips at once. I have to change X-scale to 133% and Spatial Conform to "Fit", and now at least it fits the 16:9 timeline properly.
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Can the screen be cropped to and exported at a custom aspect ratio?

I think I'm needing Premier to do something it's just not designed to do. What I need to do is to take five or six different screen and audio captures of the same event (a 3D virtual reality instructional session), each representing a different person's view of that event, assemble those in a split screen, synchronize them to the designated "main" capture's audio, delete the other audio tracks, and add CG title labeling each one. The effect is like looking at a display showing six security camera images. From what I can determine, it is possible to do those things in Premier.
However, what I then need to do is to crop out any extra space to the left and right of that split-screen image and export the file as a .mov with the aspect ratio produced by the cropping so that the videos are as large as possible and are not distorted from resizing them to fit the standard aspect ratio. Depending on the size of the screencaps, the resulting .mov might have nearly a 1:1 ratio. What is critical for this is that the video be as large as possible and the "black" space be as small as possible so that the person who comes in later to analyze these composite videos can see everything as clearly as possible. I also need to crop on the fly; because these images aren't always captured at the same size, it is impossible to preset a size for the resulting video.
We've been using a screen capture tool to do this that works but is a pain; clips can only be moved and resized by mouse-drags, and the software has to import to and export from its own proprietary format, which is very slow. However, ever piece of "real" video editing software I've looked at only seems to export in TV or film aspect ratios. Quicktime Pro looked for a bit like the best bet, but it doesn't seem to be able to handle multiple audio tracks (which are necessary since I have to synchronize tracks by ear much of the time).
Is what I'm describing--exporting .mov files while preserving custom aspect ratios that are created by cropping during editing--something Premier can do? If so, would it be something fairly easy for complete novices to do?

medeamajic wrote:
On a Mac based system ScreenFlow might work best but on the PC side FRAPS might work best. You can do what you want to do with Premiere Pro once you record the screen capture. As Stephen_Spider mentioned you might need to crop and even resize the images. FRAPS can record at 1/4 the screen resolution and still have decent results. PP CS 5.5 can play several layers (6 PIPs) of the FRAPS codec at 1/4 resolution in realtime.
Thanks, but we cannot change the screen recording process. According to the study's protocols, the virtual world has to be full-screen or almost nearly so during the session, and that full screen has to be captured for analysis. Resizing the screen captures is not a problem (especially since I already said I'm doing that), but if you're saying that Premier can only play back up to six screen captures simultaneously if they're captured at 1/4 screen, then that's a deal-breaker right there.
By the way, here's approximately what each of the completed composite videos looks like:
Screencap 1
Screencap 2
Screencap 3
Screencap 4
Screencap 5
Screencap 6
Each screencaptures is resized to the largest consistent size that will fit into this format, and then the resulting video is cropped to the outside border. If there are only five screencaptures, I simply center the single one on the bottom on the "center line."
And, to be clear (though I've said this several times already), this is something that is already being done. We probably have more than 60 of these .mov files, each around 45 minutes long, with five or six synchronized screen captures in each. Frame rate etc. has not been any issue with these, and neither has playback of the .mov file from HD or DVD.
Message was edited by: singerm2

"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.
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Hope this proves helpful,
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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.

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Non-standard aspect ratio

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