Crop into HD to 320x240 with VSP X4 ??

[Roger]

I want to crop into a wide video recorded in AVCHD to WMV at 320x240.

I did a short test using the Crop filter and I got my entire video frame with black bars instead of my small area at 320x240. Can VSP X4 render just the subset of the entire frame at 320x240? If so, what tool(s), filter(s) should I use?

Thanks

[BrianCee]

I assume you mean you want just a small part of your video image rendered out to 320 x 240 not the whole picture.

after you have cropped the image to show just the bit you want you must make your image fit the preview screen again - in the options panel under the 'Attributes' tab and next to the list of applied filters is a box marked "distort clip" click that box to put a tick in it.

a dotted box will appear around the outside of the preview window with yellow boxes on the corners - using your mouse cursor slide the whole image diagonally up at around 45° until you can pull the yellow boxes on the corners outwards to make the picture bigger - do not pull the green dots that will distort your image - keep sliding and pulling until you can centre the picture in the preview and it touches the edges. you can use the keyboard arrow keys for finer movements. Make sure you keep the clip in the timeline selected - you get a different view otherwise.

Render out your 320 x 240 video

[Roger]

Not at all intuitive, BUT that worked!!!

I was expecting all the controls to be in the Customize Window.

Thank you

[Roger]

Hi Brian,

Hopefully you'll have a easy answer for this?

I applied the crop to my full frame, then went to do a multi-trim, and it all went away. Finished my multi-trim, redid the crop and it applied only to the first M-T segment.

How do I apply the crop, you explained above, to the entire M-T video? Does it require two complete edits and renders?

Thanks

[Roger]

Well I found I could Copy/Paste Attributes from the first segment to all other segments, not so bad.

But, when I preview the video, the cropping is dynamic, like someone is zooming the lens out. I checked the stationary box in the Customize dialog. How do I get rid of the dynamic cropping effect?

Thanks

[lata]

Hi
Some options……….
HD video uses a frame aspect ratio of 16:9 having a size of 1920 x 1080

Your 320 x 240 video is using 4:3 aspect ratio.
Are you sure you need this size/ratio?
HD Video uses Non Square Pixel Rendering, WMV does not, so to render that option may need de-selecting otherwise borders may be produced.

WMV standard 320 template uses a frame rate of 15fps, HD would be 25/29fps, this reduction may cause a stutter during playback?

Using Make Movie Templates Manager create your own WMV template, you will have to edit/create a new WMV profile, some problems with your operating system allowing that, if I remember correctly a read-only file in the WMV file structure is causing that problem.

You can use the cropping tools which will do just that crop the video.
If you need the full content of your frames then you should choose another size otherwise the frame will be distorted.

Try this
1 / Edit Preferences to use a different background colour, any but black, will identify the frames area.
2 / Edit the Project Properties to use 4:3 ratio not 16:9
3 / resize the clip to fill the screen, try to retain the aspect ratio so0 as not to distort
4 / Share Create Video File , Choose a WMV template, 320 x 240 will use the correct aspect but a low frame size. Make Movie Templates Manager may be useful.


The dynamic zoom effect may be because of changing from 16:9 to 4:3 aspect ratio.

[Roger]

Trevor, thanks for the detailed reply.

I was aware of the 16:9 vs 3:2 ratios. That's part of the reason I cropped into the frame and attempted a 3:2 crop. It's inexact because of dealing in percent instead of pixels. The good is that going from 1920 to 320 I have a lot of pixels to play with.

The dynamic zoom effect may be because of changing from 16:9 to 4:3 aspect ratio.

No, because when Brian first explained the how-to crop settings, I did a quick test and render. That 320x240 WMV file was perfect. Nice stable video, cropped as expected, with no borders in 3:2 ratio.

Clearly I changed something to get the unintended consequences of the apparent lens zooming. It's quite dreadful.

Thanks

[Roger]

So I was able to go back and replicate why this worked before and not later.

Turns out it's a BUG with Multi-Trim. If I apply the Cropping filter to the segments after multi-trimming, I get the dynamic zooming in my finished video. However, if I apply the same filter before editing in the main edit window (upper-left) the dynamic zooming doesn't happen.

I'll let you explain why. I'm using X4, you are no doubt are using X6, don't know if that matters. Don't know if you care to replicate the BUG.

Bottom line, I've condensed my 1.1GB, 9-min, AVCHD file into a 10MB, 2-min, WMV file. Looks very good at 320x240 because I've cropped away ~50% of the frame.

Thanks for the help.

[BrianCee]

I am wondering if 'copy attributes' just copies the application of the cropping filter and the area cropped but not the "non-zoom" bit - by default the cropping filter always goes to full screen over the duration of the clip and has to be set at the end as well as the beginning of a clip - worth checking what happens on each individual clip.

I am still not sure of exactly what you are trying to do - are you really taking a 1920 x 1080 video and taking a tiny segment of it which is only 320 x 240 that is about 1/27th of the picture area in order to render out and then you have a number of clips that you want to cut exactly the same area from even though presumably the main object of the image has moved.

OR - are we taking a 1920 x 1080 video and cropping it to 1440 x 1080 to get 4:3 then rendering out a 320 x 240 wmv ?

I think I would have put all my 1920 x 1080 video clips in the timeline and edited them then rendered out a single video using "same as first video clip" to keep the properties - then clear the timeline and put in only the one single clip which would now only require the cropping filter and adjustments to be applied once to get the 320 x 240 video.

the image below shows a 320 x 240 yellow box in a 1920 x 240 blue box - are you really doing this ?

[BrianCee]

AH - I see you posted while I was typing - I'll leave my reply though

[Roger]

This is the full coverage of my 1920x1080 AVCHD video. I ran it end-to-end and it never varied.



This is a Vimeo of my 320x240 video. Vimeo uprezzed it to 640x480 making it soft. No matter it demonstrates the VSP X4 strange behavior. Apparently one cannot link a video like an image? Only youtube and vimeo?

[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/69393233[/vimeo] Could someone explain correct Vimeo linking syntax? I would expect it would behave like img tags above?

My edit process was to add the cropping filter to the original clip on the timeline. Then advance the video until I paused it. Use the scissor to clip the video, advance, clip, etc. I deleted the segments I wanted to remove and retained the "good" clips. Did this perhaps a dozen times. When finished, I rendered the good clips to 320x240 WMV.

Notice how the width of the rendered video grows/widens with each clip. No way that should happen.

Clearly VSP X4 is Strange Behaving Software! Is VSP X6 equally strange? If so, I won't upgrade.

Thanks for looking.

[BrianCee]

are you sure that the cropping area is set to exactly the same percentages at the start and end of every clip and that there are no intermediate key frames set at a different percentage - by default the cropping filter is set to full screen at the end of the clip and needs setting to your requirements.

With videos I usually just post the link without any tags - so - yours is http://vimeo.com/69393233


...

[Roger]

are you sure that the cropping area is set to exactly the same percentages at the start and end of every clip and that there are no intermediate key frames set at a different percentage - by default the cropping filter is set to full screen at the end of the clip and needs setting to your requirements.

I set the crop once and only once per your instructions, with no changes at any time. I did not inspect the crop with each clip, so if it changed, VSP made the changes, not I.

Seems I posted a Vimeo in another forum and it showed a thumbnail, but a year ago so don't remember how. Would seem if just a URL, then I could link my original 320x240 WMV? Would it play inside the forum?

Here's a test: 320x240 WMV

Thanks