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Having just about completed a whole video project in VS11.5+, I realised I've accidentally used 4:3 aspect ration in my project settings. Is there a way to change my project settings to 16:9 at this stage? File / Project properties / Edit / General show the Display aspect ratio dimmed so I cannot change it there.

All my material is 16:9 DV/AVI. I can see that from the properties of the individual clips. My intention is to produce a normal 16:9 DVD.

I know I could and should have noticed this from a number of things during editing, but let's not get into that... The video does look 16:9 inside the normal edit frame, it's just a little narrower than if the settings had been right... so I didn't realise things were wrong... Anyway, how I finally noticed this was that when inserting a title, the text frame box was completely misaligned as it was 4:3.

Hi

Yes - The option to change the aspect from File ¡V Project Properties should be available.

When you insert a 16:9 into a 4:3 project the frame should look in proportion, (not distorted)
Twill look a little smaller sitting in the middle but in proportion.

Right click a clip and select properties, what are they? (I suspect they are not DV-Avi)

Changing the background colour from black will allow you to see the actual frame.
Your video should not contain any black borders, may be best to view a clip in the overlay track.

View my guide to widescreen 16:9 from the link below, shows what 16:9 should look like using VS.

Hi

Just a thought:-

Assuming your files are Dv-Avi then its possible that you are not selecting the correct Avi Compression option.
Try¡XDV Video Encoder ¡V type 1

Saying that---there is no reason why the project properties cannot be set to Mpeg. Use DVD option (Pal or Ntsc ??????)
Then set the settings that you would use to convert/render to create your final video file.

Thanks for a quick reply.

Although I don't consider myself an expert, I have looked at your excellent tutorial and I've worked with 16:9 before. It's just that this time I somehow did things wrong and am now surprised by the fact that the aspect ratio setting is dimmed.

My clips are indeed 16:9 DV AVI, Microsoft AVI file, DV type I. But come to think about it, there were a couple of clips imported from another camera which were AVCHD 16:9. But they aren't there, anymore. The remaining clips are all 16:9 Microsoft AVI files, DV type I.

The odd thing is that the Project Settings state Display aspect ration to be Source frame si (the whole word doesn't fit in the box) and it's dimmed.

Another odd thing is that I cannot reproduce this with other projects. I just tried to create a project of just a couple of clips. I started from the scratch with 4:3 properties and inserted both DV AVI and AVCHD clips in. The Display aspect ration never gets dimmed.

Still, if I take my problem project and remove all but the first three clips of it (all Microsoft AVI files, 16:9 DV Type I), the aspect ratio setting stays dimmed. I tried to save with a different name but that didn't help either.

So, I have now an almost completed project where the aspect ratio is wrong and I don't seem to be able to change it. Any other projects looks good, with or without AVCHD. I'm not sure what I have done differently.

I hadn't noticed your second reply when writing my comments.

trevor andrew wrote:Hi


Saying that---there is no reason why the project properties cannot be set to Mpeg. Use DVD option (Pal or Ntsc ??????)
Then set the settings that you would use to convert/render to create your final video file.

Thanks for the idea. I'll give that a try later today.

EDIT: Fixed the formatting of this message. And it's PAL.

The odd thing is that the Project Settings state Display aspect ration to be Source frame si (the whole word doesn't fit in the box) and it's dimmed.

I agree with Trevor. If my compression is set for None (Project Properties>Microsoft AVI Files>AVI Tab then I cannot change the Aspect Ration on the General Tab.

However, if I change my compression to DV Video Encoder - Type 1 I can go back and change the aspect ratio.

That does it. The compression was wrong. Thank you both for quick comments.

I still don't know when and how in the process I managed to change the project settings. I used a previous project as a template and haven't intentionally changed anything. Maybe having even looked at AVCHD has a bad karma.

Interestingly, now that I got an answer, changing the settings actually seems to work even if I mix AVCHD and DV AVI. And I can produce both a normal DVD and an AVCHD disc that plays well in my Blue Ray player. The resolution of the DV AVI footage obviously doesn't increase in the process, but I can produce a disc with the mix. Or well, this works with a 30 second sample. I'm not sure my HW would allow any serious AVCHD work.

Again, many thanks for your help.

Riv wrote: I'm not sure my HW would allow any serious AVCHD work.

My system is pretty much the same spec as yours and I only do AVCHD work. Admittedly I am still only in the early stages of video editing but I haven't met any problems that are other than "Operator inadequacy"

Riv -- your computer should be able to handle AVCHD, though in its native form, it could be a bit jerky and slow during editing. You could always investigate SmartProxy in X2 which is designed precisely for that situation. On loading your AVCHD, with SmartProxy enabled, a 'proxy' or temporary copy file in standard definition is created. You do your editing on that (which should be both fast and smooth), then when satisfied, the edits are applied to the original AVCHD files. It's a drawn out process, but it works without undue demands on less well-resourced computers...

Ken, thank you for the suggestion. I haven't looked at X2, yet, but the way you describe it, it would probably be usable.

Unfortunately (or luckily, whichever way you want to look at it), I only have a DV/AVI camcorder. But the rest of my home AV setup is gradually getting up to speed with higher definition techologies, so who knows, maybe I'll need to start thinking about a more modern camcorder, as well.

But you're right, I can indeed edit AVCHD with my computer even with VS11.5+. I've now experimented with an hour's worth of native AVCHD material from a friend's camera. And yes, I can import, edit and view it as well as render into DVD or AVCHD discs. But it's not only slow, the system occasionally hangs, especially in the project preview mode. And in the edit mode I can only play the footage in normal speed. When e.g. trying to move the slider, I only get a black screen. So trying to find the right places to cut my clips is very slow. The X2 SmartProxy does sound like a significant improvement, should I need to edit more AVCHD material.

Hi

Smart Proxy should be available using VS 11, investigate File ¡V Preferences.

Its certainly there in VS 10.

Hmm... so it is. You can see AVCHD hasn't really been important to me. My current HW is performant enough to handle any DV AVI editing so I probably never paid much attention to this when I initially looked at the features of 11.x. But a bit embarrasing to have missed it, anyway.

I need to have a more detailed look at this and read some instructions in more detail at some point to see how it really works. And I still only have the good old DV camcorder.

Many thanks for the hint and all your help with my original question.

Riv