Displaying 16:9 in VS9

[pdunn]

I am capturing video shot as 16:9 on a Panny camcorder through a firewire. Project properties have been set as 16:9 in the startup screen.

If I capture in MPEG1 or 2 (which I don't want to do for well known reasons), then the file appears as 16:9 in the display area, albeit with a black border all round. Changing the project settings to 4:3 removes the black strips on the sides, optimising the use of the display area. Fine for display.

However, if I capture in DV or AVI format, the displayed picture appears squashed and setting the project properties to 4:3 makes no difference. Rendering the project from DV or AVI delivers a squashed picture too.

Most weird of all, the file properties of the MPEG clips are 4:3, whereas those of DV or AVI clips are 16:9, though it's not possible to alter the aspect ratio in the 'Options' panel of Capture.

Can't see anything in this forum that matches this problem - any suggestions ?

Thanks,

Peter

[Black Lab]

This might help: http://phpbb.ulead.com.tw/EN/viewtopic.php?t=31339

[pdunn]

Thanks for the prompt reply, but it doesn't help (it's also about still images) and Trevor says he can't explain why the writer's images are stretched.

Cheers,

Peter

[Trevor Andrew]

Hi Peter

First have a look at my quick guide 16:9 A Look at Widescreen from the link below.

Peter when you capture to DV format you are actually transferring the video, copying or downloading if you like.
The capture properties cannot be changed other than the DV-Type (select Type 1)
What you have on the camera is what you get on the pc. (this is the best method)

When you capture to any other format other than DV (dvd, avi, mpeg, wmv, etc) then you set the capture properties.

Please confirm that you capture to DV

PS what make /model of camcorder?????????????

[pdunn]

Trevor - camcorder is a DS27. I've followed your tutorial, it's what I was doing anyway. I do not get a message asking if I want to change project settings though.

The captured video appears automatically in the timeline, and clicking on its properties confirms it is an AVI file with DV type 1 compression.

The display screen shows the complete image, squashed (or stretched sideways to fit the width of the screen. If I alter the propject properties to 4:3 it makes no difference. If I capture a screen image off this clip, then put it in the timeline, the picture appears normally, but with black border all round that almost goes away if I set ratio to 4:3.

If you can tell me how to put JPG files into this text I can show you the different displays I get with different capture types.

Thanks.

[/img]

[sjj1805]

Double check your camcorder settings, it sounds very much like the camcorder is in fact in 4.3 mode not 16.9

[pdunn]

.. but it's definitely 16:9 - the camcorder display shows 16:9 (bars across top & bottom), the VS9 display shows 16:9 during capture, still images taken from the clip are in 16:9.

[Trevor Andrew]

Hi
Ok
I think you have 16:9 video, please double check your camera settings as Steve¡¦s request.

When you right click on a video clip, select properties, does it not show the ¡¥Aspect Ratio¡¦ either 4:3 or 16:9 displayed in the ¡¥Attributes¡¦

If you File-Preferences-Tick--Show Messages When inserting first video.

Start a New Project
Insert your captured video
You should see the Info Window re-Do you want to change the project settings.
Select Details and view the right hand panel, these are the video properties
Use your mouse to highlight the yext
Ctrl+C to copy
Ctrl+V to paste to the forum.

Now select ¡¥Yes¡¦
Your project properties should match the video file properties.

NEXT
Go to File Properties change the background colour from black.
The preview screen should stay the same.
The preview screen should look like widescreen.
Does the images show distorted or are they in proportion.

Select the clip in the timeline, go to Clip-Save as still image
E-mail the image to me.
Switch to Project playback and Tools- Save current frame
E mail

OR

To display the image on the forum you have to save /upload them to your server.
See http://phpbb.ulead.com.tw/EN/faq.php#24

[sjj1805]

Just to double check we are all singing from the same songsheet.
When you insert the 16.9 DV (avi) clip on the VideoStudio timeline and you're project settings are 16.9 - the screen should touch both sides of the preview screen with black bars at the top and bottom.

This is because the preview screen does not alter shape and size.
When you render the video it should render out as 16.9.
Render out a short test clip and then play it back in a software player such as WinDVD, PowerDVD and check to see if it is showing in 16.9

[pdunn]

Trevor,

From the top of your suggestions: Yes, I should have mentioned, file properties of clips in library show attributes as 720 x 576 and 16:9.

I have set the flag to change project properties as requested. Here are the details, prior to changing project properties:

Project:

MPEG files
24 Bits, 720 x 576, 25 fps
Lower Field First
(DVD-PAL), 16:9
Video data rate: Variable (Max. 8000 kbps)
LPCM Audio, 48000 Hz, Stereo

Video:

Microsoft AVI files
24 Bits, 720 x 576, 16:9, 25 fps
Lower Field First
DV Video Encoder -- type 1
DV Audio -- PAL, 32.000 kHz, 12 Bit, Stereo

Changing the file preferences background colour from black makes no difference to the display, it's still distorted. Saving a frame restores the correct 16:9 appearance and displays the changed background colour. I have emailed you this frame and a screen dump of what I see, distorted. (I chose a frame with a circular object in it). I would need to look into how to post pictures on an ISPs website.

Some more info: starting with a new project, the new background colour (green) shows as a 16:9 strip across the display area with black bands above and below. Dropping the clip into the timeline increases the width of the black bands and removes all the green, the image is stretched sideways.

Steve,

Yes, we are on the same page - 16:9, as detailed above, with black bars above and below. The image is stretched sideways to fill the width of the screen.

Going onto your suggestion, this *is* interesting. When I render it and play it back in Real Player or WMP, I get green strips top and bottom, then black strips closer to the image, then the stretched video ! By some quirk of XP print screen facility, I can't copy the image into Paint, only the skin of WMP or RP around it, nor into Photoshop.

The rendered project played back by VS is just black strips top and bottom, and a stretched image.

I've sent screen dumps to Trevor by email.

Here's a theory based on the playback in WMP of the MPEG file. The AVI is actually 4:3 but masked off by the Panny camcorder to look like 16:9. VS thinks it's 16:9 or 4:3 depending on which part of the app is working on the datastream ?

[Trevor Andrew]

Hi Peter

The images were very interesting, They show the video frame as having a black border top and bottom, I mean a black border as part of the video frame. This should not happen with true wide-screen 16:9.
Some camera models record in 4:3 and add a border to make the video look widescreen. What make and model of camera are you using?

Steve

The image below shows the video in 4:3 sat in a 16:9 frame. The interesting bit is the black border that forms part of the 4:3 frame. That should not be there. I can only think it has been generated in the camera

I have asked Peter to do another test capture to DV, to double check his workflow and confirm the cameras footage.




Peter
You may be best to capture to 4:3, then use the distort function to get rid of the black bars. But first a DV capture.

[pdunn]

I think we're thinking along the same lines, ie it's not true 16:9. I'll do another test as per email instructions tmrw.

I'm reassured also that I'm not doing something stupid !

Thanks

[pdunn]

Trevor and I explored this problem by email and came to the conclusion that, although the file is flagged as 16:9 it is actually 4:3, with black bars added by the camcorder at the time of recording.

There are two possible workarounds that we can see:

(a) edit it in DV format with stretched images, render it, then use a video filter to distort the MPEG to the correct aspect ratio and re-render.

(b) capture in DVD format, where the display is not stretched, and risk the attendant problems of editing MPEG. (I've not had problems in the past editing MPEG). A test showed that frames were dropped while the transcode buffer was flushing, so the video will be captured in clips so that the RAM used stays at a reasonable level.

I hope this helps others who find this problem.