Problem understanding Aspect Ratio

Please help, I thought I knew what I was doing, but I am afraid I am becoming more confused on this topic of Aspect Ratio. Ok, here's the scenario: I have a mixture of 4x3 and 16x9 footage in the timeline and the end product is going to be DVD. So as far as the Sequence settings I have 720 x 480 NTSC DV (3:2) but then I am puzzled as to what to do with the pixel aspect ratio. Do I check Anamorphic 16x9 since some of the footage was shot in 16x9. But then what about the 4x3 footage. If I check "Square" , then the images are squashed from the top and bottom, and if I select CCIR 601/DV then the image is pushed in from the sides! I am very confused. Do I have to edit looking at a squished image and then it will look right once it is out on TV? What about a standard tv set and a widescreen, won't one of them squeeze or stretch my image? Please help!
Sincerely,
Paul

Is there a quicker way to change all the clips at once that are 16x9 so they will look correct in a 4x3 sequence?
Change one, then Copy it. Then select all the rest you want to change and so Ctrl + Click and select Paste Attributes and select just the ones you need to copy.
Some links about mixing formats:
Mulitple Aspect Ratios
Understanding 16:9 in Final Cut Pro
http://www.kenstone.net/fcphomepage/fakingit.html
Hope that helps !
Alberto

Similar Messages

A slightly different problem with aspect ratio and DVD Maker

I am converting VHS movies to DVD. All are 4:3. Using Microsoft Movie Maker, I create the desired final result, a WMV file that plays perfectly--aspect ratio, sound, whatever.
The problem comes when I use DVD Maker to create the DVD. The picture gets squeezed pretty much to a square (from the 4:3 original). DVD Maker correctly shows 4:3 as the desired ratio.
Ironically (considering the solution offered in several similar posts), when I convert that WMV file to AVI, and _then_ use DVD Maker, all appears fine. My only complaint at this point is that the result is "window-boxed." That is, there is large black space
on all four sides.
I see nothing in DVD Maker to adjust (in hopes that the original WMV might work for me), but just thought I'd ask.

Hi,
There’s similar thread discuss the DVD maker for 4:3 or 16:9 you can refer:
http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en/w7itpromedia/thread/cd5edb7b-a4dd-43c9-ae95-20ac5692b2c6
And I find someone has submit it as a bug to our website, if our development team recognize it was a bug, they will fix it on next update.
Thank you for your understanding.
Regards,
Leo Huang
TechNet Subscriber Support
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TechNet Subscription user and have any feedback on our support quality, please send your feedback
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Understanding aspect ratio after a year

So it's been a year since I started learning FCP and among the kazillion things I don't understand, the one I most need to finally get clear about is a aspect ratio phenomenon with my setup, and all projects I've done so far.
I am still viewing my work on my Apple Cinema display, so am not monitoring on an actual NTSC broadcast video monitor. This fact may be at the heart of my situation. Nonetheless, I humbly ask you to take pity and help me understand what is going on.
Here's my situation:
I have been doing all the shooting for my projects using a Panasonic AG-DVC 30, a mini-DV standard def camera. The camera's manual states that by default it shoots in standard 4:3 aspect ratio -- and that's what I've been shooting.
When I log and capture in FCP I use the Easy Setup for DV NTSC. As I am viewing and logging the tapes, the aspect ratio looks correct. BUT, when I actually have it do the capture, the Capture Window stretches the image out a bit wider. Happily, when I go to work the captured clips in my Final Cut DV-NTSC Sequence, the aspect ratio looks perfectly great and normal.
Problems again occur when I export the finished video. I export a self-contained Quicktime movie with "Current Settings", which gives me a QT movie that is 720 x 480 pixels. SADLY, when I view that exported QT movie in Quicktime Viewer, it looks too wide again (same as the Capture screen). BUT, if I place it in DVD Studio (or iDVD) it looks normal again.
IT GETS WEIRDER: In order to try to correct my possible problem I've also tried exporting using the Self Contained Quicktime "DV-NTSC 48kHz 4:3" setting in the pop up menu (instead of usung "Current Settings"). The movies I export that way look consistently normal, aspect ratio-wise. Upon examining the properties of those (correct looking)resultant movies in Quicktime Player, it tells me that the pixel dimensions are 640 x 480.
Why would my 640 x 480 pixel QT exports look OK when I view them in every software?
Is this happening because I am viewing on a computer monitor and the various software apps are doing aspect ratio adjustments (for square vs rectangular pixels) for my display ...sometimes, but not all the time?
This is such a fundamental thing to know that I feel really dim for being confused. Thanks in advance for taking time to read this and hopefully setting me straight.
Dual G5/2.5GHz/4.5 GB, internal ATA, G-SATA 500 Mac OS X (10.4.6) Final Cut Studio 5.0.4

Yes, it's the difference between square and rectangular pixels. The capture window displays the rectangular pixels without correcting them for display on a square-pixel monitor like an Apple Cinema Display. The Canvas and the Viewer do correct for that by default. When you export to QT using current settings, you are exporting rectangular pixels because that's what the current settings are. The QuickTime player isn't correcting for the different pixel aspect ratios on playback, but if your final destination isn't the QuickTime player, that's not important.
Since you seem to be exporting the QuickTime movies in order to make a DVD, you shouldn't try to "fix" the pixel aspect. Leave it alone and your DVDs will be fine.

Understanding aspect ratios in FC and Photoshop

Hi all. Two questions regarding aspect ratio:
1. I'm editing with footage from a Canon MK2 camera. My computer tells me the footage is 1920 X 1080 but it looks 16/9. Why is that?
2. When I make a still (Tiff) in Final Cut from the same footage and bring it into Photoshop, it says image size 1440 X 1080, but it looks 4:3. Why? What is the best way to get the picture back into 16/9 - a. change image size to 1920 X 1080 b. leave image size as is and change pixel aspect ratio to HDV 1080 (1.33), or c. some method I haven't tried? Methods 1 and 2 appear to fix the problem and the results are practically identical. But I'm confused about the process and would like to understand these numbers.
Thanks in advance for help.

1. Because 1920:1080 = 16:9 (1920/16=120 120x9=1080)
2. Because your sequence settings are 1440x1080 which is anamorphic.
b makes the most sense to me as a fix.

Panasonic sdr-s150 / problem with aspect ratio

Hi all,
I'm about to purchase the sdr-s150 as it fits my needs regarding size vs. picture quality. Before doing so I wanted to make sure that footage from the camera can be edited with the all new imovie 08. And here's my problem with that.
I downloaded some 16:9 sample footage out of the internet and imported this into imovie 08. The icons imovie creates in the import and project areas are all looking good regarding aspect ratio. In the project settings I choose aspect ratio 16:9 and 'fit to frame' (don't know the exact setting in the english version) for the clips being added to the projects.
The preview of the clips and final export know shows black bars at top and bottom and the footage ist squeezed together.
I already tried sdcopy and ran the clips through this before importing into imovie 08. No change.
Any ideas ? Please also feel free to comment on the quality of the footage of this camera once processed through imovie from your point of view.
Thanks,
JasperJunker.

hey there Derek100,
i've experienced the same thing w/ FCP & iMovie (in NTSC). it's that the FCP easy set-up is "anamorphic", which is a 4:3 image made to appear as 16:9 & so that is how FCP works w/ the image. i really have no other explanation. i suppose if you create a custom set-up, you could eliminate the bars @ the top & bottom. there should be something in the Manuals, though i don't know where--i've never looked. sorry not to be of more help, but now i'm gonna investigate for myself.
good luck.

Problems with aspect ratio metadata filtering, am I doing things wrong?

Hi,
I tried to filter out all my pictures in a collection that has a portrait aspect ratio but LR is doing it all wrong.
As you can see, there is a mix of landscape and portraits even though portrait is filtered.
I tried to look at some of my other collections and see if this was an isolated issue but found that I have the problem here and there.
Found this example:
Even though the dimensions in the EXIF-info on the right says 3456x2304, LR thinks that the picture is square.
Could I be doing something wrong here or could I somewhere help LR on the way or is it a bug of some sort? I'm using LR 3.3 on a Mac with Mac OS 10.5.8
Thanks in advance,
-Jimmy

Many thanks. Didn't think of that but I cropped all the wrong pictures to landscape and then did a reset to the crop and that did the trick. There were almost 4000 pictures wrong so I'm glad that I could use the auto-sync feature to do it faster.
-Jimmy

Cam Optia problem with aspect ratio.

Hello, i bought a subject camera today. And when i try to chat with my friend through some online services, which capture image from cam with 76x44 resolition my friend see video picture with incorrect aspect ratio (stretched up and down).
Also i have similar problem with 352x258 resolution.
How can i solve this problem?
P.S. My friends, that have another camera, didn't face to this problem.
Thank to all!

Any capture shots to see?

Problems with aspect ratios on export

Details:
CS4 PPro with all current updates
Win 7 64bit machine
Editing using the DV NTSC widescreen 48kHz sequence settings. Pixel aspect ratio 16:9 (1.21)
All of my graphics and video looks fine in the preview window as you can see in this screen capture. That logo is round.
Here's where the problem arises, when I export it to Adobe Media encoder it also appears to look ok.
But once the clip is exported and I playback the .mov file the video is squeezed and the logo is now oblong.
Not sure what to do as I've edited this entire video and do not have time to start over from scratch.
Here's the screen capture of the file in Quicktime. It does the same thing if I export it as an avi and play it in WMP.
Any help would be appreciated.

Here is the workflow to sort this out. (Note : QTPro)
Open your mov in QT Pro
Show Movie Properties (Ctrl-J)
Click on Video Track
Click on Visual Settings Tab
Un check the Preserve Aspect Ratio box
(Here is where you now need to do some math to change the 4x3 to 16:9 ratio) 16 divided by 9 = 1.7777 (1.78 is close enough)
Divide the Vertical Pixel Dimension by 1.78 and enter the result in the Vert Dimension box
Ensure the Preserve Aspect Ratio box is UNCHECKED
Hit Tab key and notice the image in the QT window change.
In the QT Window Menu - File>Save
Heres an example:
QT movie Original is 320x240
Divide 240 x1.78 ( ie. 240/1.78=134)
Note- It is important to SAVE. This process is only changing the Header flag info in the QT file.
Bingo!

Problems Maintaining Aspect Ratio When Importing

OK. So i've been at this for a few hours trying to figure out this issue im having.
I have exported a slideshow from iPhoto to iDVDin 16:9 format.
The slideshow is saved in my movies folder from that export as "slideshow.mov".
I am trying to take my "slideshow.mov" and import it to iMovie but after import the slideshow is playing in the Standard 4:3 aspect, in a 16:9 project.
I've read several support discussions and this is what i've tried so far.
1- Importing "slideshow.mov" into a DV-NTSC-Widescreen project. 29.97 FPS
2- Importing "slideshow.mov" into a DV-PAL-Widescreen project. 25 FPS
** Both of these has been tried with and without "Auto Pillarboxing" selected.
The reason im so stressed is because when I play "slideshow.mov" in both quicktime and iDVD, it playsback in the desired 16:9 ratio but iMovie still wont accept it.
Any advice or solutions would be awesome.
And if you're wondering, im trying to get it into iMovie to add a mix and matched audio track and transitions to it rather than the basic slideshow features from iPhoto.
Thanks,
Tyler
Macbook Mac OS X (10.4.9)

Try this:
Open the slideshow.mov in QT Player Pro and export it as a DV stream with the 16:9 flag set. Then import the .dv file to a widescreen iMovie project.
Then iMovie should treat it as 16:9.
Hmm... what is the frame rate of the .mov? The .dv should use the same fps but it is fixed at ntsc 29.97 or PAL 25 fps for .dv.

Problem with aspect ratio

Hey everybody
Back with another question, this one also a beginner question, but I'm extremely puzzled by this problem. I'm editing my movie and in the source window the picture shows up just nice, however in the program, source window the picture is small on both sides. I have a sense that it is the fact that Premiere will only let me export in 720 x 576, but I'm not sure and it's very anoying losing material like this, since every shot is different than intended.
Is there some way to change this?
I'm working in Adobe CS3 Trial, until I get my CS4 version. Can this problem be helped in the new version or where did I go wrong?
Thanks
Jeppe

It sounds as though you have a mis-match between your Project Preset and your source footage. I believe that the two Monitors that you are referring to are your Program Monitor Panel (displays the footage on the Timeline, per the Project Preset) and the Source Monitor Panel, that displays the source footage. If each is set to 100%, they *should* display the same, if everthing matches.
Check your Project Preset (how you set the Project up, initially), and then in the Project Panel (where all of your Assets are shown) Rt-click on one of the "faulty" Assets. Choose Interpret Footage, and see what the listed specs are. You can make changes there. You can also Rt-click and choose Properties, if you just want to check these Assets' Properties. No changes can be made there.
My guess is that you will find a disparity between the Project and the Assets. You might be better off creating a new Project with Presets to match your footage. This is always the best approach.
Good luck,
Hunt

Aspect Ratio problem with Premiere Elements 10

I had old super 8 cine film transferred to video for me in December 2011 and put
it onto a Blu Ray disc as AVCHD files.
The disc is copied onto my computer and displays in the correct 4;3 aspect
ratio on the Desktop and plays correctly in VLC media viewer.
I have Adobe Premier Elements 10, but the video is “squeezed” narrow, e.g.
a circle displays as an oval in Monitor, Timeline and Sceneline views.
When I save the work to a disc it is also “squeezed”.
Pictures/footage from my Sony AVCHD video camera display correctly on the
Desktop and I have not had the above problem when editing it in Premier
Elements 10. I have also edited 4:3 photos and 16:9 video aspect ratios together into
without problems
I would be grateful (and relieved) if you can tell me how to fix this
please.

Thanks to people who showed an interest and replied.
Thanks especially to Kevin at digitacopycat who pointed me towards a workable solution within a couple of hours of posting the problem.
ASPECT RATIO
1. Open Premier Elements 10
2. Select and load the folder you wish to work on
3. In the Tasks Panel, click and open Project
4. Right click-on your folder
5. From the drop down menu select Interpret Footage
6. Choose Pixel Aspect Ratio and click-in the circle next to Conform to.
7. Click-on the down arrow to open the drop down menu
8. Select and click-on HD Anamorphic 1080 (1.333)
9. Click ok
10. All clips in Monitor Panel, Sceneline and Timeline change to the correct Aspect Ratio
11. Render the clips to maintain their correct Aspect Ratio

Aspect Ratio is Officially Jacked Up

Forum,
I read some other threads on this similar problem, but this one seems like even more of a maze than some other stuff I've come across. So any help would be greatly appreciated!
I exported my entire rendered HDV,24p, ProRes 422 sequence back to FCP from Color. Some of it has maintained the same aspect ratio and some of it is now an entirely different ratio. Could this have anything to do with my latest QT 7.5 update? I'm sorry if this post is looks similar to others, but judging from the posts I've been reading, the project settings and media formats seem to be the crux of the matter.
With that being said, it would probably take me forever to find someone with the identical problem that I'm facing.
The craft of editing is such a whacked up mess, yet we all love it!
Von

JPo,
I don't understand why there would be mixed resolutions if I shot everything the same. There was originally a 3:2 pulldown but I removed it prior to sending to Color.
Under Item Properties>Format, all of my clips are labeled as 1920x1080 despite all the different aspect ratios that are being displayed from clip to clip.
My suspicion is that it has something to do with the geometry room because I wrote in a previous thread about a problem with aspect ratios changing while I was in Color. The advice given to me at the time was not to do any scaling or rotating in Geometry, but make those changes in Color.
So, I made sure to reset all of my geometrical changes back to there original state. Although the issue with different aspect ratios (in Color and FCP both) was not fixed.
I think what I might have to do is send a copy of the original ungraded project to Color and regrade the whole thing minus any scaling or rotating. What do you think about this plan?
P.S. I'm thinking that using Geometry for user shapes in conjunction with the secondaries room should be okay just as long as there's no scaling or rotating. What do you think?
Thanks for helping me as my project has come a long way and I just can't wait to knock this grading out!
Trey

Help needed re: aspect ratios

Hey all,
I have a nagging problem with aspect ratios and I am hoping that someone on here can help. I understand that it might be a little more of an "in-depth" issue than most, but it's driving me absolutely insane and I will be forever grateful to the souls that help me with it.
I am compressing all my films to Flash for my website. The films are all in different aspect ratios. I am including links to help fully understand:
16:9 http://img122.imageshack.us/img122/1663/elotroladolgprogpd9.jpg
4:3 with a 16:9 matte??
http://img513.imageshack.us/img513/6516/burningdownqtga4.jpg
4:3 with a tiny matte
http://img442.imageshack.us/img442/5733/finalscherbarthph5.jpg
16:9 with a 2.35:1 matte
http://www.robertobentivegna.com/test
4:3 with a 1.85:1 matte
http://img182.imageshack.us/img182/5488/miraklech9.jpg
I guess my question, or my issue is... should I try and re-frame the images so that they don't have mattes, and how would I go about doing that? I can understand watching a matted 1.85:1 image on a 4:3 TV, but on a website it makes little sense to have a 4:3 frame if I can avoid it.
For example, this image: http://img513.imageshack.us/img513/6516/burningdownqtga4.jpg
is this a 16:9 frame matted for 4:3??
I am so confused.
Roberto

What encoding tool are you using? If you're using Flash Encoder (part of Flash Professional), you can trim out the mattes in the Crop And Resize tab of the Settings dialog.
Or is your issue beyond that, perhaps related to using another encoder?

16:9 Aspect Ratio exporting incorrectly

I shoot 16:9 footage with my dv cam @ 720x480. When I try to export using default video settings, and when manually setting them to 720x480 (PAR 1.2) I get the same problem: 16:9 video is squeezed to more like 13:9.
To demonstrate, I have exported a frame using these settings:
http://atomspace.com/putfile/AR_settings.jpg
... and this was the result:
http://atomspace.com/putfile/Aspect_ratio_wrong.jpg
As you can see, the frame is squeezed ---- for example, compare the CRT monitor in the exported frame to the one in the sequence window in Premiere.
Can anyone offer some advice to get my video (and frame exports) to be exported correctly - without this horizontal squeezing?

To understand aspect ratios, see:
FAQ:16:9 or 4:3?
You will also find links to many
free tutorials in the PremiereProPedia that will quickly show you how things are done in Premiere Pro.
Cheers
Eddie
PremiereProPedia (
RSS feed)
- Over 300 frequently answered questions
- Over 250 free tutorials
- Maintained by editors like
you
Forum FAQ

Aspect ratio problem with AVCHD in iMovie 08

I am importing footage from a Panasonic HDC-SD9 into iMovie 08. the footage gets in there fine and looks great EXCEPT that the footage (all shot in 16:9) is squashed a little bit. in the preview clips below, it looks fine, but in the player above (and if I export it as a Quicktime file) it is squashed slightly. there are black bars above and below the footage, and (I'm guessing) were the video stretched to fill the entire area, eliminating the black bars, it would be the correct aspect ratio. I've tried importing footage form the camera supposedly shot in 4:3, and the same thing happens.
I know that I can simply do a quick edit in imovie, export it, import it into final cut pro, and stretch it back. however, I'm worried about losing quality, and more importantly, I don't know the exact ratio, since I can't even figure out what imovie is doing to the video to make it squashed, let alone in what manner.
the footage from the HDC-SD9 is AVCHD, and I understand there is something about square pixels vs. rectangular, but I don't know much about it. I have tried every iteration of imovie's limited aspect ratio settings, and I can't get it to work. I know it's meant to work well with AVCHD, so I'm assuming I'm missing something fundamental and simple. (some box to check to let imovie know I'm importing AVCHD?) it's maddening to see the footage correctly in the thumbnails, but squashed for (seemingly) no reason in the playback. can you help me out? otherwise I am going to film myself holding something that is a perfect square, then import it to imovie, then export to quicktime, then import the quicktime file into finalcut, then stretch it til the rectangle becomes a perfect square, and write down the settings for the future. seems ridiculously complicated, especially for the mac world.
I love imovie 08 (seriously, some of the new toys are just so amazing, and no render time at all!), and I love this camera. please tell me they can get along!

I think I'm having a problem similar to this. I'm using a Sharp MiniDV camera, and shooting in 16:9. When I used to import to other versions of iMovie it worked fine, but w/ iMovie 08 it is squashing and stretching the incoming video to more like 20:9 (I have no idea what the actual ratio is, this is just a guess). I tried changing import to PAL 25fps, but that didn't do any thing. Any other suggestions?

Problem understanding Aspect Ratio

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