VS X4 Pan and Zoom Box Size

[TheListener]

New to VS X4. Importing Nikon NEFs and 1920x1080p video from new D5100. Target video is 1920x1080p h.264. No matter what I do, I can't get the custom pan and zoom box to be widescreen aspect ratio, it is stuck in 4:3. I KNOW it can be done as I managed to do it once with the trial version, but wasn't sure how. Now I want to do it again. What's the trick? Thanks.

[Ron P.]

Welcome to the forums,

Do you have the project ratio set to 16:9 widescreen? Check under the Settings menu, there should be check-mark beside it.

[TheListener]

Just toggling the Widescreen Settings check box item didn't work. However, I think I stumbled on an answer. I was trying to use MPEG in the Project Settings Edit File Format. It won't allow me to set the Frame Size to any 16:9 resolution (and User Defined was inoperative). However, AVI did allow me to set a User Defined frame size to 852x480. Now the Pan and Zoom Box Size is right (seems correct, anyway). Does this seem right? Why doesn't the Project Properties make it easy to choose a widescreen size? Even though it lists "Widescreen" when the Settings has that checked, if the project's aspect ratio doesn't match up with that, it seems like a bug and source of confusion.

[Ron P.]

I think it has to do with Non-square Pixel rendering. I just ran a little test, toggling it on and off in the Project Properties>Edit dialog. Try it with a 16:9 video in the timeline.