Losing HD Video when rendering in X3

[x Agonize x]

I have a GoProHD Hero camera, I've been recording stuff mainly in 960p at 30fps because that's all my computer can handle at the moment.

My main problem is that I lose the HD part of the video after edit and render the video in VideoStudio X3. The file type is MPEG4, when I render the final project, I set it to save as the same file type, at 1280x720p with a data rate of 5Mbps all in the H.264 MAIN codec mainly for Youtube uploading purposes.

If I were to upload the raw footage directly to Youtube, it's in true HD and uses the full width of the player when played at 720p. However, when I upload the final project to Youtube even when set to play in HD (720p) it is only in letterbox format.

Am I rendering my projects incorrectly? Why does it keep doing this? Is it some sort of file compression issue or something? I'm pretty new to the whole video editing platform, I'm pretty much learning on my own.

[Ken Berry]

I've been recording stuff mainly in 960p

Sorry but I have never heard of this frame size... Are you certain that is the size? What is the rest of it? Could this be part of your problem?

[Trevor Andrew]

Hi x Agonize x

And welcome to the forum……….

First my Panasonic TZ5 uses 1280 x 720 PhotoJpeg.mov
and my Canon D7 to 1280 x 720 h264.mov

Are you saying that the video shows with black bars top and bottom?
It may be a Non Square Pixel issue.

Share Create Video File-select the type --- from the “Create video file” window choose Options. Disable Non Square Pixel Rendering.
Create the video.......
If the bars are still there try disabling Non Square from the project properties as well as the save options.

[x Agonize x]

Heres and example of what I am talking about:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wpCj0SbUm8A&hd=1[/youtube]


It should look like this:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8gSWpFbV6I&hd=1[/youtube]


Why are the side bars there? Shouldn't they not be there since it is in HD?

(I have edited your post to allow youtube to play, i removed &hd=1 from your link---trevor)

[x Agonize x]

I've been recording stuff mainly in 960p

Sorry but I have never heard of this frame size... Are you certain that is the size? What is the rest of it? Could this be part of your problem?

According to the camera's manual, setting 4 is 960p (1280x960) recording at 30 fps.

[Trevor Andrew]

Hi Agonize

Your original video is 1280 x 960 equates to 4:3 ratio, although it may display as widescreen 16:9
When you created the video file you chose a 16:9 widescreen option, this literally embedded the 4:3 into 16:9 hence creating the black bands.

Use make Movie Templates Manager to create your own template or use the Custom option from Share Create Video File.
Try the quicktime mov option.
You should be able to set 1280 x 960 from the general tab, frame size—user defined

Are you able to provide the original file as a download?

[x Agonize x]

Hi Agonize

Your original video is 1280 x 960 equates to 4:3 ratio, although it may display as widescreen 16:9
When you created the video file you chose a 16:9 widescreen option, this literally embedded the 4:3 into 16:9 hence creating the black bands.

Use make Movie Templates Manager to create your own template or use the Custom option from Share Create Video File.
Try the quicktime mov option.
You should be able to set 1280 x 960 from the general tab, frame size—user defined

Are you able to provide the original file as a download?

I'm trying to create my own template, however I can only set it to 1280 x 720 and not 1280x960.

Link for an original file:
http://www.mediafire.com/?4sh1almrwptcwb3

So for future recording purposes, I should be recording either in full 1960x1080 or 1280x720 just to avoid this issue? The file provided above is a clip of me surfing and its in the 4:3 format. If I were to make it 16:9 wouldn't I be losing parts of the picture or end up just stretching the video?

[Trevor Andrew]

Hi

The video sample you provided is:-
MPEG-4 H.264,
1920 x 1080
30 fps
15000kbps

It is not 1280 x 960.

The video contains black bars left and right.
It resembles a 4:3 video inserted to a 16:9 frame.
If this is the original clip from the camera, then your camera does not produce true widescreen HD 16:9
I can only assume that this video has been re-coded from 4:3 to 16:9.

[x Agonize x]

Try this one?
http://www.mediafire.com/?ozyes1e495mn5fb

I think the last one I edited it with Videostudio which I must have made it coded into 16:9.

[Trevor Andrew]

Hi Agonize

Please create a template using Make Movie Templates Manager

1 / Select New
2 / Choose File Format as Quicktime Movie Files, give the template a name
3 / Select the “Compression Tab” and choose MPEG 4 as the compression
4 / Select the “General Tab”
Set Frame rate as 29.97
Frame Type is Frame Based
Frame Size Choose User – Define set to 1280 x 960

Should look like this:-
QuickTime Movie Files
24 bits, 1280 x 960, 29.97 fps
Frame-based
MPEG 4 Visual
100% Quality, 1 Key Frame Rate
None, 8.000 KHz, 8 bits, Mono

As you are uploading to YouTube you may wish to try a Flash File.
As above but choose Flash as the file format.
Edit the details under the “General Tab”

These details should create a 4:3 video.

[x Agonize x]

That works, however the audio/video quality is horrendous. I'm playing around with it at the moment. I'll keep trying. I think the best option is to record in 1080p or 720p. Couldn't you change the project from 16:9 to 4:3 or would you get the same results?

[Ken Berry]

You can certainly improve the audio by choosing 16 bit stereo instead of the 8 bit mentioned above. But while the video using those Photo JPEG settings played smoothly, and the skater looked fine when I rendered it, the sky had noticable banding... I also tried a MOV template using Motion JPEG and 16 bit audio with the 1280 x 960 format, and it came out indistinguishable from the original. However, the file size jumped enormously to over 160 MB for those few seconds...