Recognizing aspect ratio

My clips are in 16:9 format, but for some reason iMovie HD didn't recognize that and has them in 4:3 format (so everything is stretched out). Any way to manually tell iMovie to see them in 16:9 and letterbox? The letterbox effect won't actually do this- it just adds the black bars and crops the movie rather than smooshing the movie and then adding the bars.
thanks

Hello Cazlez,
did you create your project in widescreen format? if not you'll have to create a new project with the setting "DV widescreen".
hope this helps
mish

Similar Messages

XML file from '08 has a different aspect ratio in FCP 6?

I have the new canon vixia hg 21 which is avchd and FCP 6 isn't recognizing it. Using Imovie to recognize the files works fine, the problem is that when you export from imovie '08 into FCP via xml, it imports fine, but I get a display issue with black bars surrounding the footage, only in the canvas. It appears fine in the viewer and in it's own sequence in the timeline. But when you mix the different camera footage together, the other being the Canon XH A1, it appears as a different aspect ratio??? What the? and for the life of me, I've re imported using 16:9, no difference...I have no idea what's going on.
Any help would be greatly appreciated!

You should really take this to the Final Cut Pro forum as the codecs and the interface is different for Final Cut Express.

Aspect ratio help for a newbie?

Hi Everyone,
I've got a Sony DCR SR-32 camera (please don't laugh ) and shooting in its HQ mode, (9Mb/s) and 16:9 aspect ratio.
I can import the footage into iMovie and make a movie with no problems. But I've just bought FCE and am struggling to get the footage imported at the correct 16:9 aspect ratio. After trawling the discussions I've tried the log and transfer method, and all the other relevant discussion on importing AVCHD files directly into FCE but no success (I get file opening error ?). So I'm bringing the footage into iMovie, exporting it from iMovie as an FCE XML file and opening that using PAL anamorphic or NTSC anamorphic Easy setups.
Even so, I've got what looks like 16:9 video squeezed into a 4:3 aspect ratio with black boarders on either side padding it out back to the 16:9 size.
I'd welcome any advice other than "get a new camera "

Hi Tom, I seem to have a similar problem, not sure if you've seen this, but I have the new canon vixia hg 21 which is avchd and FCP 6 isn't recognizing it either. Using Imovie to recognize the files works fine, the problem is that when you export from imovie '08 into FCP via xml, it imports fine, but I also get the same display issue with the black bars surrounding the footage, only in the canvas. It appears fine in the viewer and in it's own sequence in the timeline. But when you mix the different camera footage together, the other being the Canon XH A1, it appears as a different aspect ratio??? What the?
ANy help would be greatly appreciated!

XML imported from iM '08 has a different aspect ratio in FCP 6?

I have the new canon vixia hg 21 which is avchd and FCP 6 isn't recognizing it. Using Imovie to recognize the files works fine, the problem is that when you export from imovie '08 into FCP via xml, it imports fine, but I get a display issue with black bars surrounding the footage, only in the canvas. It appears fine in the viewer and in it's own sequence in the timeline. But when you mix the different camera footage together, the other being the Canon XH A1, it appears as a different aspect ratio??? What the? and for the life of me, I've re imported using 16:9, no difference...I have no idea what's going on.
Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Found the answer, and pretty simple too....yeesh. just click on your clip and go to setting>conform to sequence.

16x9 aspect ratio quicktime movie switches to 4x3 in idvd

I have a quicktime movie that has a 16x9 aspect ratio. In Info the dimensions show up as 720x480 (853x480) and when opened in Quicktime it is opening in the correct aspect ratio it was created. After bringing the Quicktime movie into an idvd project that was set up for 16x9, when I click on the movie, it shows up as a 4x3 movie, and the images are noticeably distorted. Any ideas on how to resolve this? Thanks.

A solution is to use something called Anamorphizer that sets the file's widescreen flag so that it is recognized as anamorphically squeezed widescreen.
Get Anamorphizer at http://homepage.mac.com/sith33/FileSharing34.html
Make sure Quicktime 7 is open before you try Anamorphizer. (NOTE: You MUST use Quicktime 7 and NOT Quicktime X)
Place a copy of your movie clip in a new folder and drag that clip over the Anamorphizer icon. This should create a second file in that folder that start with Anamorphic- This is the reference movie you drag-and-drop into iDVD. Note that your clip in that folder (which is the movie the reference movie points to, must not be moved or deleted).

16x9 aspect ratio lost after FCP export to QT movie

I initially complained about the same problem when exporting from Motion to QT movie, then importing in FCP. This was fixed, and I really enjoy it.
I work 99% in DV anamorphic and all my Applications are set this way. It bothers me however that I lose my anamorphic aspect ratio when I export from FCP to Quicktime movie. Maybe I'm doing something wrong?
I hope this will be fixed in the next patch as it waists a lot of time correcting it manually. I often export from FCP and into QT Pro, fix aspect ratio and then off to the web. If anyone knows of a better way, I would appreciate the help.
Quad, 20" Widescreen, Microsoft Mouse Mac OS X (10.4.8) Final Cut Studio

I work 99% in DV anamorphic and all my Applications are set this way. It bothers me however that I lose my anamorphic aspect ratio when I export from FCP to Quicktime movie. Maybe I'm doing something wrong?
No, you're not doing anything wrong - this is a quirk in the way that FCP writes anamorphic QT movies when using the DV codecs.
As you've discovered, the flag is not recognized by QT Player unless you export via QT Conversion and either set the display size manually or, in QT 7.1.0 or higher, select 16:9 output in your Movie Settings.
Sorry if that's no help...

Is pixel aspect ratio in TIFs not supported

Hallo,
I generated 200 TIFs with a Photoshop script that I wanted to use as slides in an Encore DVD project.
After importing the TIFs into Encore I recognized that the were too small. Though when I opened them in Photoshop they had the correct pixel aspect ratio for a PAL DVD and the correct size (720 x 576 pixels).
I then saved those TIFs as PSDs again and imported those into Encore. Suddenly they were shown in the correct width.
So my question is: Does Encore DVD not support pixel aspect ratio in TIFs?
Regards,
Christian Kirchhoff

Bill.
My Apologies.
What I mean is a Subpicture Highlight image, as used by Scenarist & Maestro and an option in DVD-Lab Pro.
Instead of importing a PSD, with all it's layers, what we do is this:
1 - Create a 720x480 0.9 PAR background image in Photoshop. This will be the background of the menu, and should be a full 24 bit colour image. Usually saved as a TIF file but in some apps can be a bitmap. Sonic insist on a TIF.
2 - Create the Subpicture Highlight image. This is what will become the button artwork. You have 4 colours:
White (Background)
Black (Main
Red (Highlight 1)
Blue (Highlight 2)
Save as a 2-bit indexed TIF file, with a maximum of 4 colours. Black must be 0,0,0 in RGB, same applies for other colors - they need to be pure colours.
3 - Create a button image if there are complex shapes in the SPHL. This will create the actual buttons. Not always needed, as you can also create buttons from the SPHL.
When I need to use these, I then load the external background, and import the SPHL over the top, and assign the buttons. Everything works really well doing this process. Not as elegant as a PSD import, I grant you - but a lot less room for error with "hidden" buttons etc.

Tips for import aspect ratio (4:3 & 16:9 widescreen)

I have spent several weeks importing video footage from various types of DVDs (old, new, PAL, NTSC, 4:3 and 16:9), and have encountered just about every aspect ratio problem known to Mac. Along the way, I have discovered a few things by trial and error, and wanted to share them with any other poor souls out there who are dealing with similar issues.
Note that this does not, as far as I know, apply to camcorder footage.
Please respect all local laws regarding copying of DVDs!
Useful programs:
MacTheRipper (freeware)
Cinematize (you have to pay, but it's downloadable and not expensive) for processing and converting video footage into a format iMovie can understand (.mov files for video and .aiff files for sound)
Amadeus II (freeware) for processing and converting sound files
iMovie HD
iDVD
If your aspect ratio is coming out wrong (stretched or squashed), try the following:
If you want to import just an excerpt, rip the entire DVD with MacTheRipper, then isolate the required excerpt with Cinematize & import into iMovie. This tends to work better than ripping only excerpts with MacTheRipper.
Import into iMovie all elements together (i.e. the sound .aiff, the video video.mov, and the combined file .mov). One or the other will probably be in the correct aspect ratio. This works better than importing just the .mov file by itself. Whatever you dont need can be deleted later.
If you want to make a Widescreen project, do this first (choose DV Widescreen when creating the project). Then create a separate project in DV (not DV Widescreen) format. This option is available only when creating a new project in iMovie. Then import the 4:3 video (all elements together, as above) into the DV project. Lastly, copy the 4:3 video clip ('copy' in th Edit menu), close the new project, open your Widescreen project and paste the clip (see iMovie The Missing Manual (Pogue) page 261 Grabbing Clips From Other Projects). It should appear properly pillarboxed and looking like 4:3!
In iMovie/Preferences/Import, there's an option 'Automatic DV Pillarboxing and Letterboxing' which you might need to fool around with. It may solve some, but not all of your problems!
A tip about Themes in iDVD: They may appear in 4:3 even if your project is 16:9 widescreen. I have an old DVD player which played the DVD I burned with the theme stretched. When I played the DVD on my computer, however, it recognized the different aspect ratios (4:3 for the theme, 16:9 for the video) and played them correctly. I suspect that a modern DVD player would do the same.
Good luck, and happy movie-making!

Connect two camcorders using a 4-pin-to-4-pin FireWire cable. Press Play on one and Record (..in VCR mode..) on the other.
However (..but I haven't tried it, and it's a bit too late tonight to plug two camcorders together; maybe tomorrow..) I'd guess that the 16:9 will be transferred as 16:9 ..I don't know if it'd be possible to force the 2nd camcorder to crop it as 4:3.
However, two other points: Dan reminds us that you can always crop 16:9 to 4:3 just by creating a mask, and Bob Whatsisname? ..Hudson, of course!.. shows how you can unsqueeze squashed 16:9 using QuickTime Pro.

Losing 16x9 aspect ratio after compression

After exporting an anamorphic 16x9 DV (standard def) sequence to Compressor and encoding with either H.264 or mpeg 4, my sequences end up being squeezed and not having the 16x9 aspect ratio.
- I make sure I click, "correct for pixel aspect ratio" in the viewer. I pull up the Geometry tab in the Inspector and there I get confused.
For preserving the 16x9, what do I set the following in the geometry tab?
Source inset:
Dimensions:
100% of Source? or one of the other options in the pulldown menu?
Output image inset:
I have been successful in the past with encoding 16x9 sequences but something has changed and I have no idea what it could be. Have tried just about everything.
Version 3.0.5
thanks,
Mark

I work 99% in DV anamorphic and all my Applications are set this way. It bothers me however that I lose my anamorphic aspect ratio when I export from FCP to Quicktime movie. Maybe I'm doing something wrong?
No, you're not doing anything wrong - this is a quirk in the way that FCP writes anamorphic QT movies when using the DV codecs.
As you've discovered, the flag is not recognized by QT Player unless you export via QT Conversion and either set the display size manually or, in QT 7.1.0 or higher, select 16:9 output in your Movie Settings.
Sorry if that's no help...

How do I import custom aspect ratios (768x1024)?

When I drag a 768x1024 clip to the timeline it says that the video properties of this clip are not recognized and it offers no option for real custom dimensions. The strange thing is that when i scrub the clip in the area above the timeline, the staging area, it recognizes the aspect ratio as 768x1024 and the display shows the video perfectly.
I've tried selecting 2k and cropping in Compressor but that did not work. Any ideas on how i can get app to understand 768x1024? Or how I can use compressor to crop what it does understand (2k) down to the aspect ratio i need?

Here's what I did on a PC. Should work similarly on a Mac.
Open Adobe Media Encoder CS6.
Select your customer preset.
From the "Preset" menu, select "Export", and choose somewhere to temporarily save the preset file.
In AME CC, you then need to import these files.

What are the ideal specs for a DigiBeta master tape when authoring a "widescreen anamorphic" 16:9 SD DVD (original aspect ratio is 14:9)?

I just received the masters for a new SD DVD. I would like to author a "widescreen anamorphic" SD DVD horizontally squeezed widescreen image stored in a standard 4:3 aspect ratio DVD image frame. (On 4:3 displays, mattes should preserve the original aspect ratio. On 16:9 displays the image will fill the screen at the highest possible resolution.)
Below I've listed the specs of the Digi Beta master tapes the producers have sent to me for digitizing. I'd like to know this: What are the ideal specs for a DigiBeta master tape when authoring a widescreen anamorphic SD DVD, using material with an original aspect ratio of 14:9?
I've also listed my guesses below. Please let me know if my guesses are right. If not, please suggest alternatives (and if possible explain why.)
TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS OF EXISTING MASTER:
Tape: DigiBeta
Original Aspect Ratio: 1.55 (14:9)
Vid Rate: 29.97 fps
Pixel Aspect: NTSC - CCIR 601
Frame Size: 720 x 480
Anamorphic: Full-Height Anamorphic (16:9 image displayed in letterboxed, non-distored 4:3)
Display Format: 4:3 Letterbox
MY GUESS AT IDEAL TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS (for a DigiBeta, that is):
Tape: DigiBeta
Original Aspect Ratio: 1.55 (14:9)
Vid Rate: 29.97 fps
Pixel Aspect: Square
Frame Size: 720 x 540
Anamorphic: YES
Display Format: 16:9 Anamorphic (horizontally squeezed widescreen image)
Please feel free to ask for clarification or further information you need to answer my question.
Thank you so much in advance for your help!
Best, Noetical.
BTW, I can't wait for the day when everything has gone digital and we get digital intermediates instead of tapes to digitize!

Hi Nick...thanks for taking the time to reply to my question.
Nick Holmes wrote:
What you have there is a mess.
NTSC pixels are never square.
NTSC is 720x486, even when it is Anamorphic.
You shouldn't be using an already letterboxed master to make an Anamorphic version. Get the master that was made before the letterboxing stage.
When you make an Anamorphic DVD it should display as 16:9 full screen automatically on widescreen TVs.
The same DVD will automatically letterbox on 4:3 TVs.
Um yeah...duh. That's exactly what I was trying to explain in the preface of my question. I'm sorry if I didn't make it clear...all these things you mention are the reasons I'm putting together a list of the technical specs of the DigiBeta I need so I can have them send that instead of the stupid letterboxed version.
Look, I'm sending this request to some intern at their offices in England, asking for a master with which I can make an Anamorphic DVD. They already sent me this master, which as you and I both agree is an idiotic asset to use for these purposes. As such, I was hoping for advice on a more precise way of requesting the master that I need than asking for "the master that was made before the letterboxing stage." Upon reflection, perhaps I'll just do that. If you or anyone else has a suggestion about something I should add to my request that would improve the odds of them sending the tape I need, please repond. Thank you!
BTW, It's been a long time since anyone has responded to something I've written or said as though I'm an idiot. I remember now that I don't really like it. (Moving along...)

How to fix an error in sequnece setting (aspect ratio)?

Hi,
I have been working for a while on a project in CS4. I have created a sequence in it with an aspect ratio (AR) of 4:3 - worked for hours on it - but I should had the sequence created instead in 16:9. I realised it a bit too late...
So how do I fix it?
Apparently amending the sequence setting for AR cannot be done - please let me know if there is any way of doing this.
Someone suggested editing the PRPROJ file of the project - but when I opened it I was unable to detect under the sequence name (I found a few entries with it) where I can easily change the sequence to 16:9.
So then I found people suggesting I copy/paste all the assets from the sequence into a new one that is correctly configured with 16:9. When I did this - CTRL+A and Copy, then paste into a new sequence in the same project - it copied all the clips and I think also all the transitions. But the key element that it did not copy over were all the changes I have done to the sound - I have been editing via the sound mixer (in Write mode) the sound, and then also made changes to the master track volume levels. These were not copied over.
I really don't want to have to do the mixing all over again. If someone can explain how I can fix the problem in any way I would be most thankful.
While I am here asking - another 2 small questions that have been bugging me:
How I can copy and paste volume keyframes from either the master track or a clip and apply it on another clip/section of the clip that would be very helpful. This would for example be useful if I am able to find a certain volume level that I would like to apply to the desired section without the need to sit and "record" (using the Write function) those settings on the desired area. If there is any means to apply the properties on audio track this way - that would be really useful and time saving.
A best practice hint: when you try and create a sound level for a project - what PC volume level setting do you set in your PC that you use as a benchmark by which we then work out the sound level that would be created in the project? Obviously if I push my PC volume al the way up I would probably mix my sound in the project too low. And if I set the PC volume too low - than I would probably be setting the overall sound level too high and get distortion. As the movies I created would be burnt onto a DVD - what is the volume level on the PC (if there is any means of establishing a standard volume) that I need to match first before I go and figure out what level of sound the finished DVD would have? Of course I can work on say a 50% and then apply gains and volume increases based on that 50% of the max sound my PC plays out. But that sounds pretty much like a random setting and not optimised for other devices.
My system:
Windows 7, 32-bit
CS4, v. 4.2.1
This looks like a fairly basic question but I am unable to find a good answer to it...
Many thanks to the person who shows me how this can be done without me going crazy over the need to start all over again...
Eroka00

Hi Ann,
Your tip saved me a lot of time indeed....!
So I created a new sequence, made sure it was 16:9, copy pasted all of the assets, but then had to do the following:
1. Copy/Paste Attributes for all the video clips (these do not transfer);
2. As you suggested used the whole of the old sequence as a nested sequence in the new one, eliminating the video altogether.
I still had a nagging issue that the project would not render or export well - but that turned out to be an issue with rendeiring large files (the video was an uncut clip of almost 10GB, andother of 6GB). Splicing these into 10 minute segments and rendering them separately did the trick.
It's ben amlong Xmas weekend and endless hours spendt on this project. Yaikes!
Thanks for the workaround idea!

Can you help me solve my aspect ratio issue?

Hey guys,
I'm posting this in hopes that someone can help me solve an aspect ratio issue with a project that I have to finish by tomorrow.
I'm trying to avoid having to re-edit the entire thing.
I shot the project with my Nikon D7000 DSLR. in 720p 30p (29.97)
I am running Adobe Premiere Pro CS5 (the trial version). I have the full version of Adobe Premiere Pro CS3.
The reason I was working with the trial is that CS3 can't handle the H.264 MOVs that the D7000 records.
You can work with a timeline, but if you try to export anything, it never works. I always have to convert my footage to ProRes MOVs with MPEG Streamclip before I can work with them is CS3. That takes a lot of time and a lot of hard drive space. After much research, I found out that CS5 is the way to go for DSLR footage. I just need to save up my pennies for the upgrade.
So I thought I'd edit this short (1 minute) project with the trial to see how CS5 works with the D7000 footage.
Upon installing the trial program, I found that the project presets were limited. I knew this ahead of time because it's clearly stated on the Adobe's website.
But I wasn't aware how limited they are.
Since "DSLR 1280x720p 30p" is not an option with the trial, I was going to use HDV 720p 30p. But that was not an option either!
So basically, my only option for 16x9 30p was "DV NTSC Widescreen". It's my understanding that this is 864x480 (in square pixel aspect ratio) or 720x480 (in widescreen pixel aspect ratio) I needed the output file to be 864x486. I downsized the footage to 69% in the "Video Effects: Motion" setting so it looked correct in the project. I didn't think about those extra 6 pixels until I outputed the file and saw thin black lines on the top and bottom. My guess is that Premiere is adding black pixels because my project is technically 720x480 (1.2121)
Any thoughts on how I can get a clean 864x486 export? I'd rather not re-edit the whole thing...which I would have to do in CS3 after I spent a few hours converting the original files in MPEG Streamclip. I don't know if there is a way to export something out of CS5 and then open a new project in CS3 to make this work.
Thanks in adavance!
- Jordan

On export, just crop a few pixels off of each side; that'll let the image scale correctly to the output frame size without black bars.
I'm not running the trial, but you should still be able to create a custom sequence preset using the Desktop editing mode. Just switch over to the General tab when you create a new sequence, and choose "Desktop" from the editing modes. Set the rest of the parameters as you need them.
Even easier: once you've imported your footage, just drag a clip to the New Item icon at the bottom of the project panel; a sequence will be created matching your footage parameters. You can edit at full-resolution, and then export to your desired frame size when complete--you'll probably still need to crop a few pixels (in the Export Settings window) to eliminate the black bars.

Importing from iMovie 08 to FCE4 - aspect ratio!!

Hello All,
I have clips recorded in iMovie 08 (captured from built-in iSight cam) which I'm trying to import into FCE4. Using the standard FCP XML export in iMovie and opening in FCE4, the aspect ratio of all clips is lost.
I am using the built-in iSight cam to record a video blog (please don't give me flack about not using a dedicated cam), is there a way to preserve the 16:9 aspect ratio from iMovie? I have used the motion settings on the clips to attempt to restore the original aspect ratio (-33 seems to be close), but this seems terribly unscientific and mostly guess work. Thanks.

In the browser (view as list) check the Anamorphic Flag associated with both the imported clip and your sequence: both should be set. My guess your sequence is not 16:9, in this case you only have to set that flag in the browser to fix it.
Setting Aspect Ratio = -33 in the Motion tab restores the right proportions of the original video but creates top and bottom bands in a standard 4:3 video and reduces the original video vertical resolution. The anamorphic flag, instead, fixes the video aspect ratio without losing video quality.
Hope it works
Piero

Working with several video formats aspect ratios need help...

Hi folks I have searched around quite a bit but I need more specific advice based my situation...I am editing a docu about Japanese biker gangs shot on several different SD cameras:
MY FOOTAGE
1.Sony Vx-2000 fitted with a Century Optics 16:9 converter lens bayonet mounted
2.Canon Xl2 shot in 16:9 mode
But I also have:
ARCHIVAL/ACQUIRED FOOTAGE
1. Contributor's camera SD 4:3 aspect ratio
2.Contributor's camera SD 16:9 aspect ratio
3. Transferred from VHS into SD 4:3 aspect ratio
I would like to standardize the aspect ratio for the project but I am getting confused as sometimes the footage shot on the sony (which should be true 16:9) appears elongated vertically at times.
Are my settings off?
Also, I have "title safe" wireframe on in the Canvas and the images all exceed the outer box. I don't have a TV so it's hard to check what (if anything) gets
lost. I guees most TVs can handle 16:9 without letterboxing....
Do I have to worry about that? Which box should I crop to if I letterbox? The out or inner? Or the outside of the screen? Should I just letterbox the whole project?
BTW eventually I am planning on Uprezing the project to HD using Magic Bullet when outputting.
The overall question is: Who has experience dealing with multiple aspect ratios in one timeline? Can you offer any advice on a work flow to output successfully?

Sorry to butt in, haven't read the entire thread.
Suggest you plan from the beginning to create one timeline but encode for two separate output formats.
Standard procedure for bringing multiple formats is to convert them to a single format as they are ingested. Decide early what the timeline format will be and transcode everything to that codec before anything is brought into the timeline.
When your project goesgolden, export a single self-contained movie and take that to Compressor to create release movies that will be played on Blu-ray, SD DVD, online, or in Power Point, whatever you need.
bogiesan
Message was edited by: David Bogie Chq-1

Recognizing aspect ratio

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