Video Studio 11 Plus - Croping

[mauiwh]

Hi:

I cannot get my video to crop. I shot in HD and the top and bottom of my video has black bars and it does not fill the screen with video. How to crop the black bars off of the top and bottom with 11 plus? I have tried and tried and nothing works.

Thanks,

Mauiwh

[Black Lab]

Have you seen these black bars on your finished product (i.e. DVD)? I've not done a 16:9 project, but I believe this is normal behavior for VS to show the black bars in the Preview Screen, but they should not show on your finished video.

[Ron P.]

Welcome to the forums,

You're video is 16:9 aspect ratio correct? Is this happen just previewing in VS or have you tested this by burning to disc, and playing back on a wide-screen TV?

If just in VS, try going into the Preferences dialog (press F6 on your keyboard, or File>Preferences). Then change the Background Color to some other color than black.

Now the area that is the color you specified is the actual video frame. The black above and below are not part of the video frame. If your video is true 16:9 it will fill that colored area.

[mauiwh]

Hi:

The black bars remain when I upload to youtube. Please see my video at this likk:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=H8G58zSvBx0

What am I doing wrong? Most videos I see fill up the entire screen.

Thanks,

Mauiwh

[Ron P.]

Monitors, unless you have a wide-screen, use square pixels. TVs use non-square pixels. So what I'm seeing on YouTube is how it should be. Your video is filling the Frame.

Trevor has a great tutorial explaining this, I'll try to locate and post a link to it.. be right back...

Here it is... http://uk.geocities.com/trevor.andrew@b ... 9/16_9.htm

[mauiwh]

Hi:

Please view this link:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=J95MT0ZvicU&feature=related

The video fill up the entire viewing area. Do I need to shhot the video in a different aspect ratio? I thought 11 plus couls stretch the video or crop it?

Thanks,

Mauiwh

[Ron P.]

Ok, time to "drop back and punt"...

What are the properties of your video clip? Right-click on a clip either in your library or the time-line, select properties and post them.

Next what are your Project Properties? Go to File>Project Properties, or simply press Alt+Enter on your keyboard, and post them.

When you open the Project Properties window, press Edit and go to the General tab, at the bottom for Display Aspect Ratio, is it 4:3 or 16:9?

If you're video clip was filmed with 16:9 aspect ratio, then your Project Properties should be the same.

That YouTube video appears to be a 4:3 aspect ratio, not 16:9.

[mauiwh]

Hi:

OK in the general tab it says 16.9 ratio. Here is a link for a picture of the properties when I right click the video:

http://i225.photobucket.com/albums/dd26 ... erties.png

Thanks,

Mauiwh

[etech6355]

It's impossible to get all the information in a 16:9 picture to fit into a 4:3 display like on Utube, so you have to zoom your video to the vertical extents & still maintain the correct proportions. You can think of this as looking at your 16:9 video through a 4:3 display at the maximum vertical extents of the 4:3 display. You will lose some information on the sides which is normal.

So in VS 10 and later, load you video and change your project settings to standard dvd using a 4:3 aspect ratio. Your 16:9 video will still look letterboxed until you zoom it.

To zoom the picture stay on the "Edit" part and in CLip Mode. Put VS into Timeline view and drag the video into the overlay clip.
Re-mark the In's & Out's to the full length of the video (dragging the sliders etc)
Then use the corner to proportionally enlarge the video, watching the 2 vertical markers, make sure to use the corners when zooming to retain the correct proportions.
I first right-click on the video and select "Anchor at top Left" before zooming.
Then I grab the lower right box & zoom the picture, after zooming click on the picture drag it around to center it. This will completely fill your preview screen now if your doing it correctly.
As you do this you will see you will lose some of the picture on the sides of the video. This is normal to retain correct proportions.

After you do this then select "Share -> Create Video File" -> Same as Project Settings OR another format to upload to utube.

That's how I make my 16:9 videos completely fill a 4:3 frame while still maintaining the correct proportions of the video.

[mauiwh]

Hi:

re: project settings

I cannot find this area in 11?

[Ken Berry]

Um... File > Project Properties.... ????

[mauiwh]

project settings?

I do not see that area. Preferences, but no aspect ratio in there?

[etech6355]

Hi,
It sounds like you need help in how to use VS and get the most from it.
Go through these tutorials to learn many of the in's & out's of VS.
They have been prepared by the very experienced uses (the Masters)

http://phpbb.ulead.com.tw/EN/viewforum.php?f=27

http://phpbb.ulead.com.tw/EN/viewtopic.php?t=20224

http://phpbb.ulead.com.tw/EN/viewtopic.php?t=25214

http://phpbb.ulead.com.tw/EN/viewtopic.php?t=14542

Hope this helps.

[Ken Berry]

My comment was meant ironically! If you go to File > Project Properties, then a box should appear on screen containing the default project settings. There is a button a bit over half way down where you can select between MPEG settings and AVI settings. And in the bottom right of the box is an Edit button which allows you to vary those settings. When you click on Edit, another box appears with three tabs, and the central one -- General -- will allow you to change, amongst other things, the aspect ratio (16:9 or 4:3)...

[mauiwh]

Hello:

I want to thank you etech6355. You reply answered my question ans it worked! I want to thank you for your help, I am new at this and your help was very nice and complete.

Regards,

Mauiwh