Stills - Aspect Ratio Problem: Viewer vs. Canvas

Working in DV/NTSC 720x480, A/V settings correct and matched.
I've prepared a number of stills in Photoshop CS set to non-square pixels. I import these images into FCP and everything looks fine in the Viewer, and the aspect ratio under the Motion/distort tab shows a setting of "0".
But, when I then drop the image into the timeline the aspect ratio of the image changes, the yellow render bar appears, and in the Motion/distort tab in the Canvas the aspect ratio changes to a setting of -12.5.
If the pixel aspect ratio was corrected in Photoshop at the outset, why does this occur? And why is this happening in the Canvas only and not in the Viewer as well???
Many thanks.

why does this occur? And why is this happening in the Canvas only and not in the Viewer as well???<<</div>
When you load an image or clip from the Browser to the Viewer, it displays in it's native size and aspect ratio. But once you plave it i a Sequence (Timeline), it takes on the Sequence's settings and will display accordingly.
-DH

Similar Messages

Still no fix for aspect ratio problems

I was hoping this new version would fix the aspect ratio problems with importing clips other than in the DV codec, but alas, it was not to be.
My problem is that if I import a clip that is 720x486 (non-square pixels, uncompressed), iDVD doesn't interpret it correctly. It places the clip with small black bars (like a little letterbox) at the top and bottom of the screen, then scrunches the image vertically, sprinkling it with stairstep artifacts.
What's frustrating is that versions up to iDVD 4 didn't have this problem and imported clips in any codec beautifully. It's been a known issue for a long time.
Furthermore, Apple's solution is to convert the clip to a self-contained DV movie (hello, disk space!), which is also undesirable because of the quality loss and poor colour compression. After the latest QuickTime upgrade, exporting in DV doesn't work, creating a clip that is half-field and blocky.
Argh! This is a real problem because many of us use iDVD to make screeners for clients, and it looks unprofessional. It's also a very inaccurate and somewhat useless tool when the clips are of clean lines, titles, and smooth, solid graphics, which show the stairstep effect the most.
I'm at my wit's end having exhausted all other suggested solutions (and please don't tell me to use DVD Studio Pro instead). Anyone else come up with a fix or have the same issue?
Previous discussion on this issue here: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=204675&tstart=0

Sorry, but the answer is - for professional use, use
DVD SP
No, it is absolutely not the answer. EVERYONE I know in my circle of professionals uses iDVD for banging-out quick screeners of TV spots, film clips, dailies. In fact, it's one of the main reasons they added OneStep to iDVD. DVD Studio Pro is for authoring commercial-level DVDs, with a learning curve and pricing structure appropriate to that.
I'm not going to spend time learning DVD Studio Pro just to do quick one-offs, for one, and it's overkill anyway. Not only that, but it costs a lot more than iDVD.
The inablity to import a QuickTime clip -- on Apple software, no less -- is not cool, especially since it doesn't seem an excessive thing to ask (and it used to encode just fine). It's a very basic task considering everything else iDVD has been written to do, and crosscoding and re-encoding video is a basic functionality in QuickTime.
I'm not asking iDVD to prove the existence of dark matter in the universe; I'm just asking it to play a QuickTime movie properly. Which is what it's supposed to do.
There was a work-around, supplied by Apple, but it no longer works for me, so that's why I'm asking what worked for others.

DVCPRO HD Aspect Ratio Problem

Hello, and thanks for looking.
I am working on a project where the source footage is 1280 x 1080 (16:9) frame size and pixel aspect ratio, (1080i60) with an editing timebase of 29.97 (as would be expected). I tend to work with multiple timelines, such that I keep various drafts of my work intact for later referral. I have noticed that one of my sequences does not have the same aspect ratio as my original sequence (it has frame size: HD(1440x1080)(16:9) and pixel aspect ratio of HD(1440x1080) and an editing timebase of 23.98. This is a problem that I didn't notice until a lot of work went into this draft, as the aspect ratio when viewing in the canvas is the same. Where my question comes in is here: the editing timebase, pixel aspect ratio and frame size are all different than my source footage, and I am extremely concerned because when I copy clips to another timeline with the settings the same as the source footage, they aspect ratio goes wacky and all the people in my footage gain about 50 pounds (to their certain chagrin). How do I copy my timeline that I spent hours working on in the wrong settings into a timeline with the correct editing timecode base and aspect ratio? Whenever I do it, even if I drag a piece of the same source footage in to match the settings when FCP asks me to, the copied in footage from the timeline with the wrong aspect ratio looks (of course) too wide. I would have thought that the footage would maintain its original source aspect ratio. Also, it won't let me adjust the settings in the 1440x1080 timeline to the correct settings for the source. Please help me get timeline fixed so that I don't resort to re-cutting the footage from the original assembly cut!
Thanks.

Go ahead and copy everything into a timeline with the correct settings. Find a clip in another sequence (with the correct settings) that looks and behaves correctly. Select this clip, hit command-c. Go to your new timeline, select all (command-a), hit option-v and choose paste all the appropriate attributes. Everything should be adjusted correctly.

H.264 pixel aspect ratio problem after update

Yesterday I updated Premiere Pro CC and Media Encoder CC to version 2014.2. But now I am having pixel aspect ratio problems with the H.264 codec when I export a 1080i50 sequence to PAL widescreen. The problem also seems to occur with other frames sizes.
I am using the same settings as usual with Aspect set to: D1/DV PAL Widescreen 16:9.(1.4587). However, VLC and Windows Media Player play the video with a 5:4 ratio. So it looks like the pixel aspect ratio information is not passed to Media Encoder or to the file.
This problem does not affect other codecs like AVI or MPEG-2, these are correctly displayed.
Is there anyone else having this problem? And more important, does anyone know a solution?

When creating files for computer/online playback (not editing), then best practice is to simply use square pixels with 1.0 Pixel Aspect Ratio, which will ensure that ALL players correctly display your video, no chance of problems.
Export as 1024x576 with 1.0 PAR and that is the square-pixel equivalent of PAL DV widescreen.
For NTSC users, I've seen it two ways, either 864x480 or 854x480.
Merry Christmas
Jeff Pulera

PRE7: Aspect Ratio problem even before opening source media file

Hi,
I am a newbie in Premiere Elements. Read a lot of threads with aspect ratio problems, but didn't find similar problem to mine, so decided to open a new discussion.
I am shooting video with Samsung HMX-H105 SSD camcorder, in 16:9 widescreen HD video.
When I try to make DVD from the MP4 file from the camcorder, it gets skewed even before opening it, when it is seen in the right hand pane with the Media file previews. I am not sure if somebody can understand what I am trying to tell so I have a screenshot of a video that I shot with my camcorder and a video that I have downloaded, shot by someone else with Samsung HMX-H20 in 16:9 HD as well.
So even when I start a new project in 4:3 and not 16:9 my videos always get stretched. This is why I think that maybe Premiere Elements doesn't understand the aspect ratio of my MP4 video files - it can be seen in the left hand side pane, where I have circled (with white elipse) the black stripes above and below the video.
Hope that somebody can help with my problem.

You ROCK
both of you
Thanks wine_snob for pointing me how to find the Interpret Footage option.
And thanks to Steve for solving my problem
In the "Interpret Footage" and "Pixel Aspect Ratio", the working video says: "Use Pixel Aspect Ratio from File: Square Pixels (1.0)"
but on my problem video it says: "Use Pixel Aspect Ratio from File: Other Aspect Ratio (1.778)", so I changed it to "Conform to: Square Pixels (1.0)" and now I have perfectly proportinal video for 16:9
Thank you once again!

Exporting 1080i, Pixel Aspect Ratio Problems

Hello everyone,
I've been dealing with a lot of different format projects recently: SD, HDV 720-24P, and HDV 108050i.
For now, these projects are intended for internet delivery. I've not had too much problem exporting the SD and HDV 720-24P projects, but the HDV 108050i has been very frustrating.
When I export SD and HDV 720 in compressor, I set the pixel aspect ratios to NTSC and square, respectively. But when I try to set the pixel aspect ratio for the 1080i to "1080i 16:9" (which I believe is 1.333:1), it rejects my choice, choosing "default" instead. When compressor finishes exporting, my 1080i movie looks very squished horizontally.
The only success I have had is in exporting via Quicktime conversion, where I duplicate my compressor settings, but do nothing to the pixel aspect ratio (since there is no option to change it in quicktime, it seems). The movies I have exported with Quicktime have been fine. I don't know if it makes a difference, but when I try to export these 1080i clips, I am in the proper 1080i "easy setup."
I know almost nothing about this pixel aspect ratio business, but I believe it is the cause of my problems (since I am using the proper 16:9 aspect ratio for movie width x height).
My Questions:
1. If I am understanding the problem correctly, how do I get compressor to acknowledge the right pixel aspect ratio for my 1080i footage, rather than the incorrect "default"?
2. If am not understanding the problem correctly, what might be going on?
3. Can anyone point me to a useful resource about pixel aspect ratios? I've been searching the forums and online, and I thought I was getting a grip on things but it seems I am still way over my head. For example, what is the significance in Final Cut Pro of changing your viewer or canvas to not show square pixels? Do you need to format for square vs. non-square depending on the final delivery destination (not the source format)?
Thanks!
Message was edited by: Haberdasher

Sorry to bump, but any ideas?

Resizing Photos Aspect Ratio Problem Using Contraints

I am a photographer trying build a portfolio website. I want my pictures to be as large as possible for the screen on which they are viewed. I am using Flash Catalyst CS 5.5 with Mac OS X Lion. The problem I am facing when using the new constraint feature is that the aspect ratio of the pictures changes based on the size of browser. How can I have the photos maintain a consistent aspect ratio while still growing/shrinking with the size of the screen/browser?

In DV, both 4:3 and 16:9 material are the same number of pixels - 720x480. The difference is in the shape of the pixels. In FCP, unless the material is marked as anamorphic, it will assume the 4:3 aspect ratio.
If the original material was 16:9, when you import it into FCP, make sure
1) the sequence is set for 16:9 anamorphic and
2) you put a checkmark in the ANAMORPHIC column for the clip in the browser.
x

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.

Converting DV to ???. Which format? Aspect ratio problems.

I'm trying to digitize some old VHS videos for archival and I need some guidance. My goal is to keep a digital copy on disk and toss out the tapes with the player. Most of the videos will just be for future viewing, not further editing. I tossed out the TV a few years ago and I hope to never go back, so my primary viewing will likely be on a computer screen. If I do get another TV someday I imagine that I would play these videos with some sort of media center type device rather than a DVD so I may need to keep that in mind when deciding upon the final format.
I'm using a Canopus ADVC-300 to convert the videos to DV streams. I use iMovie HD 6 to capture the DV input. A few months ago I converted a few tapes with iMovie 08 and learned the hard way about the DV quality problems designed into that product. Anyway, the Canopus feeds my Mac a standard 720x480 DV stream. In iMovie I start a new project and tell it the video format is DV, as opposed to DV Widescreen.
Up to this point everything is working great.
My dilemma is how to save the video. I want a format that has good quality and will not likely need any future transcoding to stay usable. Thus far from iMovie HD I've been sharing to Quicktime, selecting Expert Settings, and then playing around with the various options within "Movie to Quicktime Movie".
On the video settings panel I'm going under the assumption that H.264 is the preferred choice. I set the compressor quality to high, the encoding to multi-pass, and the data rate to automatic.
The video filter panel has nothing selected for now.
The video size panel is where I start having questions. Obviously the original video sources have a 4:3 aspect ratio. If I leave the dimensions as "current" (720x480) I get a video that plays at 3:2 in every player I've tried. I guess that seems obvious even though I told iMovie I was working with a 4:3 project. My player of choice is VLC and I can tell it to show the video at 4:3 but it's a pain to do that every time. Quicktime can do that too, and in fact you can save the aspect ratio with the video so that it will display that way each time, but I never really use QT unless I have to.
Looking at the list of available choices in the dimension drop down box, it looks like there are a couple possible solutions...
The most obvious choice is "NTSC 720x480 4:3". When this option is used the video is 4:3 by default when played by QT. However, it still shows up as 3:2 in VLC, mplayer, and also when played via Frontrow. I downloaded mplayer just for this comparison and I never watch videos using Frontrow but I suppose I might someday if that media center thing comes into play. Once again I can tell VLC to show it as 4:3 but doing so every time is annoying. There doesn't seem to be any way to adjust the aspect ratio from within Frontrow so that's a non-starter. I'm thinking this might technically be the correct format to use but none of the players other than QT recognize the anamorphic setting (is that right?). When I look at the video properties in QT it shows 720x480(640x480) but the other tools show just 720x480.
The next obvious choice in the list of dimensions is "640x480 VGA". When I use this option I do in fact get a video that displays correctly in every player. However, I can't help but wonder if I'm losing resolution this way. I think it's just converting the rectangular pixels to square pixels but with the drop in horizontal pixels there must be less information there? Is this a viable format for playing on various devices in the future?
Should I be experimenting with something other an "Movie to Quicktime Movie" and H.264?
In all cases I've selected to deinterlace the video. Some might say that VHS is of such poor quality to begin with that using such high settings is a waste. I say that the source video is bad enough that there's no room to add even more degradation. I'm willing to live with data rates that will push 1-2 GB per hour of video. I think that's probably plenty to keep the video quality as good as can be considering the source. I'm just not sure which format is best for this purpose. It's a one-shot deal, once the conversion is done the tapes get thrown away so I'm a little anxious about making the right choice.

When choosing Export -> QuickTime Movie, you get a self-contained QuickTime-file of your sequence. The default video format is the same as your current sequence settings, which means you will get the exact same frame size an pixel aspect ratio in your QuickTime-file.
The best thing would be to use Compressor, but first you need to tell us what you are going to do with your QuickTime movie. Is it supposed to be a copy for the web? What video format do you need/want your movie to be exported in?
To letterbox your video in a 4:3 frame size, read about padding in the Compressor User Manual.

CS5 Pixel Aspect Ratio Problems...

Hello All,
I am working on porting over an existing .mov file importer from Windows to Mac while also upgrading it from CS4 to CS5 (and also rolling in the creation of a hand-written 64-Bit QuickTime file handling library to boot, ouch).
In my current test bed I am having problems with certain 1920 x 1080 .mov files. Some 1920x1080 files that I have get imported properly, some files that I have get imported with the wrong aspect ratio. I have verified that both files should be displayed using square pixels and have also verified that when the selector is sent that calls SDKGetInfo8( ) that I am setting the following for **all** of the above-mentioned test files:
SDKFileInfo8->vidInfo.pixelAspectNum = 1
SDKFileInfo8->vidInfo.pixelAspectDen = 1
I have stepped line-by-line through SDKGetInfo8( ) and the stretched and non stretched clips seem to yield exact same traces through this function. However, the files that are being imported with the wrong aspect ratio, of course, preview in a stretched format. Also, in the informational area of the Source Bin, when the *stretched* clips are selected the information that is provided for these clips is:
NameOfTheStretchedClip.mov
Video, 1920 x 1080 (1.7778)
00:00:9:13, 23.976 fps
etc…
For the clips that aren't stretched, the (1.7778) is (1.0). I am not the biggest expert on the actual usage of Premiere, so I can only assume given the values displayed and the respective visual result of the clips when previewed that this value displayed in the UI is the pixel aspect ratio and not the frame ratio as the clip with (1.7778) is stretched and the clip with (1.0) is not, yet both are 1920x1080 clips. What to me is suspect is that 1920/1080.0 is 1.7778 and so somewhere for the clips that are being stretched the pixelAspect ratio values seem to be getting derived using the pixel dimensions and not the values vidInfo.pixelAspectNum and vidInfo.pixelAspectDen that are explicitly set to '1' as shown above.
Thus my question is, aside from setting in SDKGetInfo8() the following values:
SDKFileInfo8->vidInfo.pixelAspectNum = 1
SDKFileInfo8->vidInfo.pixelAspectDen = 1
Where else are the pixelAspect values supposed to get set?
Alternatively:
- During which other selector calls *CAN* pixel aspect ratio get set? As I mentioned, I am porting existing code, so perhaps these values are getting set elsewhere that I am presently unable to find.
- Is there some setting that might get set at the import of a file that says to derive the pixel aspect ratio from the pixel dimensions that might be getting triggered for the clips that are being imported as being stretched?
Thanks in advance for any help!
Josh

Hi Zac,
I am taking a look at this issue further with the aid of an additional engineer here that has more experience with QuickTime files.
First off, upon viewing the XMP metadata of the stretched file in the Metadata Viewer available inside Premiere, the Video Pixel Format is, in fact, listed in the XMP metadata as 1.78.
However, the time signature on the stretched .mov file, as listed in information of the QuickTime atoms, was 23976 / 1000. On a whim we used Dumpster to change the time signature to 24000 / 1001 to see what would happen. After altering the time signature in the Atoms of the file in this fashion, in Premiere the aspect ratio is now shown to be (1.0) in the source information in the Source Bin and the video is imported in the proper unstretched format (or - better stated - played back via our PlayMod in the proper unstretched format). However when viewing the metadata in the Metadata Browser in Premiere, the "Video Pixel Aspect Ratio" is still showing 1.78. This seems to confuse the issue further as now this time signature alteration in the Atoms of the QT file has fixed something and is now seemingly overriding the order of operations you mentioned as the XMP metadata still seems to list an improper format, yet everything else is seemingly behaving fine.
BTW - Clips with other time signatures don't seem to have this problem.
Any ideas?
Thanks,
Josh

Aspect ratio problem in Windows Media Player for DVD from DVD Studio Pro

So I made a DVD with DVD Studio Pro and it looks good in Apple's DVD Player, on an Insignia DVD player appliance and on Playstation 2. Both the movie and the deleted scene were 16:9 from camera to Final Cut Pro and they show that way in all these players.
But on Windows Media Player for Windows XP, the program thinks the movie is 4:3 and the deleted scene is 16:9. Nero's Showtime has the same exact behavior, but at least you can force aspect ratio on Nero.
Besides being longer, the movie is different from the deleted scene in that the movie was originally out of Final Cut Express on an older Mac and it was encoded big endian. The deleted scene was output from Final Cut Pro and encoded little endian. I didn't think it would make a difference, but I tried outputting the movie from Final Cut Pro on the newer Mac and it did come out little endian. I took that into DVD Studio Pro, got rid of the old VIDEO_TS folder and re-built the project, burnt a new DVD. Then I went back to Windows and...
...the same exact problem. Some of the people I give this DVD to will be using Windows Media Player to view it, which is why I want this to not be an issue at all. What am I overlooking?

Look, everyone here (who each have been creating DVDs for over a decade) is telling you the same story. WMP is buggy. Everyone in the industry knows that. Hardware manufacturers like Dell and HP, know that. Why don't you use the DVD player program that they put on the hard drive? Sure one "Hollywood" title works. Did I mention that WMP is buggy? Test a thousand titles, and I'm certain that you will find some discs have problems on WMP, and WMP alone. (And it isn't my assertion that Hollywood DVDs have issues in WMP, everyone is telling you that.) No one has a solution for this, except to not use WMP. Let me repeat once again, no one has a solution for this except to not use WMP. It is impossible to add any sort of programming to the disc that will detect which player is being used to play the disc and compensate for the problems of that player.
Let me put it this way, if you have a disc that plays fine on Zeus's device, and on Apollo's device, and on Hera's device, and on Hermes' device, and on Artemis' device, but you have problems with Athena's device, then logically, Athena's device has a problem... not the disc. Your own experience has proved this to be true. If you were having problems with every device used, THEN you could rightfully say that there is a problem with the disc.

Aspect ratio problem with consumer camera and Premiere Elements 11

Hello everyone - I'm Steve. I'm new here. I do still photography on a pro level, digital and analog, but I am an absolute dummy with video...but then, I don't want to do much, just rudimentarily cut a few family videos, upload them, etc.
However, I can't get Premiere Elements 11 to output my self-shot clips in a correct aspect ratio.
My camera is a consumer-model Canon Legria FS200. I shoot video in a resolution the camera calls XP. The camera says they are 16:9, the camera monitor shows them as 16:9, and when I use the software (called Pixela Image Mixer) that came with the camera to import the clips to disk, I get mpg files that Windows (7) Explorer says are 720x576 pixel, and that VLC player correctly displays as wide-screen 16:9 without me having to tweak its display settings.
However, the moment I import them into Premiere Elements, they appear horizontally squeezed, and I can't seem to output them any other way, with or even without editing them in Premiere.
I tried to use the recipe given here: https://forums.adobe.com/message/5987538#5987538 , (replacing only NTSC with PAL because I'm in Germany), namely, setting the project preset set manually for PAL/Hard Disk etc/ Widescreen 48kHz and check force selected program settings. But no matter, Premiere displays the video in horizontally compressed form, with large black bars to the right and to the left.
On the export side, setting the output to PAL DVD Widescreen and setting the Pixel Aspect Ratio in the output settings to Widescreen does not help, either. Neither can I force VLC player manually to display the correct aspect ratio. BTW, audio is perfect all along.
This is about as far as I can see myself getting without help. Has anyone any idea?
Thanks a lot in advance,
Steve, from Germany

Steve
I see that you are now in the Adobe Premiere Elements Forum with your problem already solved.
I did not see any Why for what you encountered, so I thought I would give you my take on this.
Your Canon FS200 gives video with MPEG2 video compression with a .mod file extension. That .mod file extension can be found in use with some Canon as well as JVC cameras. The .mod file history with Premiere Elements (any version) is problematic. In some instances, the user needs to rename the file extension from .mod to .mpg before it can be imported, but not always. But, the .mod widescreen comes packaged with the aspect ratio dilemma, presenting as 4:3 rather than 16:9. The classical argument is whether Premiere Elements does not recognize a .mod file's 16:9 flag or whether the 16:9 flag got lost.
There used to be a utility contributed by an user to handle the file extension and/or aspect ratio issues. Now, the general fix is to import the file into Premiere Elements (in your case 11) with Add Media/Files and Folder/Project Assets. And in Project Assets, you right click the file, select Interpret Footage, and go to the Pixel Aspect Ratio section of the Interpret Footage dialog where you
(a) dot the Conform To:
and
(a) set the Contorm To: field to (in your case) D1/DV PAL Widescreen 16:9 (1.4587)
Once you are in the program and have the file on the Timeline, if any black edges, you can click the monitor to bring up the image's bounding box. Then drag on a bounding box handle to scale the image just to the point where the black edges are gone.
If you ever need the Adobe Premiere Elements Forum, maybe bookmark this link
Premiere Elements
You should expect to have this issue with any .mod widescreen file that you obtain from your Canon FS200 camera.
ATR
Add On...If you are depending on the program to set the correct project preset, you may want to check into what it is setting based on the properties the first file you drag to the Timeline. A manual setting of the project preset may be in order. Please see
ATR Premiere Elements Troubleshooting: PE11: Accuracy of Automatic Project Preset (New Project Dialog) Setting

Aspect ratio problems

I've built a DVD with 16:9 DV movies and menus made in Photoshop using first of all the PAL DV 16:9 preset and latterly a custom size in the ratio of 16:9.
My problem is that when I check the DVD using the simulator the menus fill the screen OK but the 16:9 DV media looks more lke 4:3. I noticed that while making menus in Photoshop using the DV16:9 preset that 'pixel aspect ratio correction' switched itself on and wonder if this is part of the problem. I've tried re-saving my menu pages with the correction unchecked but still have a problem. Is pixel aspect ratio correction just for display or does it affect what's saved. I won't get the chance to check a burned DVD until very close to my deadline so I don't know whether I have a real problem or not.
I suppose what I'm asking is what settings do I use in Photoshop to produce menus for a 16:9 project.
Help! Thanks!
Message was edited by: bladerunner1712

Thanks for your input, that clarifies things although I'm not sure I described the problem properly. I think that my Photoshop menus ARE being displayed properly and the problem is actually with my 16:9 DV movies or DVD SP itself. Here's what's happening ...
A 16:9 DV movie set as a menu background looks more like 4:3. The same 16:9 asset used as a button on that menu appears 16:9 (hurrah) but the same 16:9 asset used as the target of the button show up in the simulator as more or less 4:3!
I should have mentioned before that the problem only appears in the simulator and using the (sofware) DVD Player. Movies and menus all look 16:9 played on hardwrae players. What's going on.

Aspect Ratio Problems with iDVD

I am putting together a video presentation with video from several different sources. I have had a whale of a time getting the video to display uniformly at the same aspect ratio. I put all my separate clips into Quicktime Pro and set the aspect ratio to 960 X 540. FINALLY, in Quicktime Pro I was able to assemble the full video so that ALL the footage played in 960 X 540 and looked seamless. I thought I was in great shape.
Then......I thought I would test the video in iDVD because I need to burn about 40 copies of this presentation. Lo and behold, iDVD takes part of the video footage and somehow changes the aspect ratio of certain footage. Part of the video plays in a small postage stamp area in the upper left of the screen, while other segments play in full widescreen just fine. Obviously, my aspect ratios are still messed up somehow, even though the the entire video plays in full 960 X 540 glory in Quicktime Pro. I'm stumped.
Anybody run across this problem in iDVD before?

Wow, nobody qualified to help me with this problem?
I'm finding out, thanks to more research on my part, that iDVD does not like the aspect ratio of 960 X 540. The only reason I used that setting is because part of of my video has an iMovie 9 "trailer" and iMovie 9's "large" export is set to 960 X 540. The weird thing is iDVD handles segments of my video that is 960X540 just fine, but it completely bungles up the iMovie 9 trailer segment that is 960 X 540.
I have also found in further testing that iDVD does like a .move file in 853 X 480 and displays that aspect ratio in full widescreen glory.
Hopefully this information will help somebody someday avoid the headaches I have had.

Aspect ratio problem with Quicktime Conversion from FCE HD 3.5

I have a FCE 3.5 HDV project (16:9 aspect ratio) which I am trying to export using Quicktime Conversion for eventual web-streaming. I have tried various settings including "maintain aspect ratio" and the "letterbox" options. After every multi-hour attempt, the end result is just what I need, except the aspect ratio is always 4:3 and vertically squeezed.
What settings should I use for a small to medium sized version of my movie for streaming on a website, but in the correct aspect ratio? I'd prefer a 16:9 Quicktime frame, or at least a 4:3 Quicktime frame with black bars.

I too have been having some problems, same software. Export to iPod completely ignores the intended aspect ratio and is non-adjustable and squeezes the footage. It looks fine on the canvas but gets messed up on export. A 4:3 video that should be 640x480 ends up being 640x426, and a 16:9 video that should be 640x360 looks to be getting 640x426 as well.
Currently, my work-around is to export to DV file, then export to iPod. Being a double encoding, it is quite wasteful in terms of time and processing power. Is there something else I can do?

Stills - Aspect Ratio Problem: Viewer vs. Canvas

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