Cropping to different video size

[squrppi]

My mobile phone creates screen recording videos in 1680x720 resolution. The material on screen seems to be 90% of the width and 100% of height, making ~1512x720.
I want to create a resulting video of 1680x720, 1512x720, or 1280x720, without resizing. Cropping is ok. Then, the resulting video is uploaded to Youtube.
I usually make the video from multiple clips, so I need to apply the exact same cropping to all clips.
I'm using VideoStudio Ultimate 2020

I have two problems:
1) I seem to be unable to create a custom profile with custom resolution. Thus, my only option currently is 1280x720.
2) Using the Crop effect does not seem to have any effect. I get black bars on top and side of the video due to resizing.
Additionally, it would be very nice to control the cropping by pixels, and not just by mouse. That makes randomness to positioning.

I have tried to modify or not to modify the project to video dimensions at load time without success.
How do I make the resulting video to be any of the above resolutions, by only having extra material cropped from sides and not rescaled/resized in any way?
I assume I have done something wrong, but I cannot figure out what.

[Ken Berry]

Welcome to the forum!

I have to say, though, that it sounds a little strange to me. Most mobile phones I know of film in standard sizes. Did you get that 1680 x 720 figure from putting one of the videos in VideoStudio and then right clicking for Properties? Or did you use something else to get it?

Does VS actually show the video in that extended format, or does it show properly at another size?

Does the phone allow you to set your own sizes for video?

[squrppi]

Hi Ken,

That resolution is visible in the video properties in Windows and VLC along with VideoStudio.
My phone resolution is 2520x1080 and the recording seems to happen at 66% of that size, making it effectively the mentioned 1680x720.
And yes, VideoStudio shows the video in that format and lets me to set the project to that too. Only the output cannot be set to that size.
Unfortunately the phone's built-in video recorder does not let me choose any other resolution. I do not know how that would turn out anyway, since it seems the original material on the display is set to 2268x1080 (without black borders). That is pretty non-standard too. Making the recording to 1920x1080 (if possible) would crop the material uncontrollably, or introduce black borders.

Regards,
Sami

[lata]

1680 x 720, unusual size but does appear to be a panorama ratio, I calculated it as 7 x 3 ratio.
It could be an anamorphic video where the 1680 x 720 is displayed as 16:9 or indeed 4:3
As Ken mentioned
From Video Studio, right click a clip and choose properties, what are they?

When you view the video on the timelines I assume a black border across top and bottom
Does the actual video content look in proportion or are things stretch a little horizontally.

The shape of this video does beg the question as to whether the camera is set to record panorama and maybe that option could be changed to HD 16:9

Ok
As the program appears to set the project to those video settings
From Share – top left is an option for Same As Project Settings, greyed out so tick the box
Also available is same as first clip.
Try both but I am unsure what the results will be.

[Ken Berry]

I was also wondering how the video was filmed i.e. was the phone held in portrait or landscape mode? If the full resolution is 2520 x 1080 (where, to me, the 2520 still sounds odd), it suggests you would get that if the phone was held in landscape mode. 1680 x 720 suggests the phone might have been held in portrait mode, and so the video would have been scrunched down in size on the phone screen. It also suggests that perhaps the phone is not able to automatically show the filmed video full size when the phone was turned round into landscape mode after the video was filmed...

[squrppi]

Hi!

I guess I was unclear with the creation process. It is a screen capture, not video recorded with the camera.
Clip properties read: H.264, 24 bits, 1680x720.
If I use the Crop effect, the end result becomes stretced non-proportionally. If I use Easycrop directly, I get black borders all around.
I created a 1 second sample video and two projects with crop effect and easycrop with their end results in 1280x720 resolution. They are available on my Dropbox:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/g8d3hnzlqid2 ... Ko8la?dl=0
Thanks to everyone who wants to help me!

I'm struggling with this one, as my previous phone did perfect 1280x720 videos that I could use directly. With this combination I'm totally lost.

[lata]

Two of the samples are using 1280 x 720, that is 16:9 ratio
Both are a little different having a different black border
screencapture_crop.mp4 having borders left and right
screencapture_clip_easycrop.mp4 having a black border on all 4 sides
Using this video I applied Customise Motion, and as a comparison used Pan & Zoom
As attached VSP, please rename the file by removing the .txt, will allow you to use in 2020.

Ok
1 / adding the screencapture_clip_easycrop.mp4 allowed the program to match the video properties as 1280 x 720.
However that included the border, the video is not 16:9
2 / Right click the clip for Motion – Customise motion
3 / Set the size to 100
Here we can see the video is slightly off centre.
4 / Increasing the size will zoom in to reduce the borders
Some border detail to and bottom will be hidden / lost
Once happy with the size, right click the first keyframe for Copy and past to all

As I see it the problem is the original recordings ratio, make that 16:9 and it will fit to any standard video with no problems.

Test 1 Customise Motion.VSP.txt

opens using 2020 after renaming by removing .txt

(15 KiB) Downloaded 5 times

[squrppi]

Hello lata!

Yes, the resulting videos are 1280x720, but the original video "screencapture_video.mp4" is 1680x720. This is the original I need to work with.
I would happily make the original to 16:9 dimension, but I am unfortunately unable to.
Also, if I could make a custom resulting resolution, that would help hugely.

Thanks for your effort!
- Sami

[lata]

It is difficult to create an output video as 1680 x 720 as most formats use the standard ratios 16:9
Some formats allow for User Defined sizes
AVI types may be able to do that but the file size will be larger as no compression is used.
I’ll have a look through the render options, to see what I can find.

If you cannot change the recording device to record to 16:9 then when recording do not zoom in, keep the recordings zoomed out.
At least that will allow you whilst editing to zoom in to the recording removing the borders, creating the 16:9 shape.

The additional problem is although you MAY be able to create a video using 1680 x 720
When you play this on any media player the video will be embedded into the players screens, introducing the black borders again.

[lata]

So far the best I can do is drop the 1680 video into a 16:9 project 1280 x 720 or 1920 x 1080
Then use Customise Motion to Zoom In removing the black borders left and right
Unfortunately this leaves borders top and bottom.
The attached VSP shows the result.
I have changed my background colour to green via F6 Preferences to avoid confusion with the videos borders.

The only other option is Customise Motion to stretch the frame vertically, a little distortion to the frame, as second clip on timeline.
As attached VSP.txt

Render to Same as Project Settings

Test 2 Customise Motion.VSP.txt

rename to remove .txt, then open using 2020

(32 KiB) Downloaded 5 times

[squrppi]

Thanks!

I did experiments on the topic with that idea. Basically:
1) make the project size 1920x1080
2) use pan&zoom from Edit tab to fit the actual content horizontally and keeping the proportions
3) save the result in 1280x720

This is the best one I can currently do and I'm fully happy with this solution.
Thank you for the effort and hints, that has been very valuable to me!

Best Regards,
Sami