User-defined Frame Size in X6

[jannadem]

I use GoPro cameras with 1280 x 960 (4:3) , 29 f/s. mp4 format. I need to edit and then save into the same format. Every editing software allow this except X6. The preformatted list shows just small sizes and User-define (frame size) is disabled (grayed).

I am very disappointed with X6. Can anybody show me basic steps how to achieve this, please? Why there is no option Save as original format? I need the output frame, quality and the mp4 type (the same as the original). Is this possible in X6? This worked in X2, but impossible now!

Currently I use PC MS WindowMaker2, which is very easy no question asked and no fiddling around, but the output is only in wmv. I have to convert it to mp4, which always looses some quality. I want to eliminate that nonsense.
Help, please.
Thanks
Jan

[lata]

Hi Jan

Welcome to the forums

First if you have not already done so set the preview screen to 4:3 aspect.
Go to Settings and deselect Widescreen 16:9

Yes I have to agree that MP4 templates are a little limited for “user defined”

Your video is using 4:3 aspect ratio, surprised at that and maybe setting the camera to record 16:9 may be a better option.
I am sure ken will reply afaik he owns a GoPro.

MP4 is akin to QuickTime, that option using Mpeg4 Visual compression will allow you to set the frame size to 1280 x 960. (User Defined)
Use Settings – Make Movie Templates Manager

QuickTime Movie Files
24 bits, 1280 x 960, 29.97 fps
Frame-based
MPEG 4 Visual
100% Quality, 15 Key Frame Rate
None, 8.000 KHz, 8 bits, Stereo

Oh, how did you manage to render same as original video properties using X2, I did not think MP4 had changed that much.

[jannadem]

Thanks Lata, for your reply. Unfortunately the video output is like from webcam. Totally destroyed. I received the same reply from Corel. It does not work. I use several free editing softwares and it is easy as select "As the first frame", but not in X6. There are several millions of GoPro cameras. People, like me, motocross, snowboarders, skiers use max viewing angle to capture whole scene, like handle bars, skis, snowboard. This could be eventually cropped after. I mount camera on the wing, to capture as much of the plane and the scenery below.

Also I already deselected Widescreen, but how do you reverse it? It is grayed now, disabled.
X2 allowed all the User-defined formats, but it is disabled on output screen in X6

The closest and the best methods for perfect output for YouTube is this, but only for wide screen:

New Template
Microsoft AVI files [*.avi]
General Tab: User-defined 1280 x 960, 29.97, Frame-based

Share:
Video file: Custom
Save As: MPEG-4 Files
Options:
General: 29.97, frame based
Compression:
Video Type: H.264-HIGH
Video data rate: 9000
General Tap:
Frame size: there are only 3 wide screen predefined, but not 4x3. User-defined is disabled, but why?
if I select 1280x720 then video quality is excellent, but wrong format. It does not look like it is cropped, but I cannot see the difference, because it is played on black background. I wish to change it to white to see the actual output frame.
I would like to send you 20 sec of my video.
Thank you for your help
Jan

[lata]

Hi Jan

As I say Ken may be your man as he owns a Go Pro.

A couple of templates to try with a view on quality and render times.

1 /
WebM aka Flash allows for user defined frames to 1280 x 690

WebM Files
24 bits, 1280 x 960, 30 fps
Frame-based
22.050 KHz, 16 bits, Stereo

2/
QuickTime Movie Files allows for user defined frames to 1280 x 690
24 bits, 1280 x 960, 30 fps
Frame-based
MPEG 4 Visual
50% Quality, 24 Key Frame Rate
None, 8.000 KHz, 8 bits, Stereo

Widescreen option should be available unless you have selected Enable 60P editing???

Changing the black to white …………..

Try changing F6 preferences – Preview window – Background Colour.

Send a sample by all means, try uploading to a sharing site, Windows Sky Drive is free as is many share options, I believe Google users can share files, not use myself.
4 Shared, Up for Down. I thing Windows would be the safest to use, others try to install all sorts of toolbars etc

How large is 20 seconds in MB??

[Ken Berry]

I am afraid I can't really help. I almost always use my Hero 3 set at 1920 x 1080p at 50 fps (occasionally varying the degree of fisheye in that frame size). I have only a vague recollection of seeing the 1280 x 960 setting in it, but I ignored it, knowing (a) that I did not need anything in that frame format (though seeing jannadem's explanation I can now understand why people might see value in it); but (b) I also knew it was likely to cause problems in Video Studio, especially if you wanted to produce a video using the same high def mpeg-4 used in the GoPros.

On first seeing the original post above, I had a look at the possibilities, but lata (Trevor) already seems to have covered all bases there.

[lata]

Hi Jan

Thanks for the sample.
Can you add the link to your post so others may test to give their opinion.
This weekend I am on holiday for 14 days so wont be available on the forum.

First no version of video studio allows us to set User Defined frame sizes when creating a MP4 template.
I cannot do anything about that, in-fact I have my own grumble that Mov H264 is not possible to create.
I tried X2 VS 12 and was unable to add the samples to the program with a file mismatch error.

Using X6

When you upload a 4:3 video file to youtube they play that video within a 16:9 frame adding borders left and right to fill the gap, usually black.

If you add your video to a 16:9 project it will look identical to how it is viewed on You Tube.
Choose to render the project to maybe Upload to Web - YouTube HD and the black borders will be added, or in fact any colour you choose, on YouTube it will look no different to viewing a 4:3 sample.

MPEG-4 Files
24 bits, 1280 x 720, 25 fps
Frame-based
H.264 Main Profile Video: 5000 Kbps
44100 Hz, 16 Bit, Stereo
MPEG AAC Audio: 128 Kbps

I created my own template increasing the data rate to 12000kbps which retained a similar file size and I assume quality.

Have you tried recording Go Pro as widescreen, it should retain the vertical dimension with a wider view?

[Ken Berry]

Just a note, Trevor. AFAIK the GoPro does not use 4:3 or 16:9 settings as such -- just a choice of various frame sizes and various mpeg-4 types, high def and all mpeg-4 up to 4K with the Hero 3 and 3+. I suspect jannadem is aware of this, but explained that he specifically chose the (to me strange) frame format of 1280 x 960 precisely because it not only gives a wide screen effect horizontally but also gives more vertical coverage. This is apparently useful when using the Hero in its widest or medium aperture settings which are heavily and medium fish-eye respectively. The camera will also film in 'normal' i.e. non-fish eye mode, but you can still select from a variety of frame format sizes.

In other words, I am not sure that talking in terms of 4:3 and 16:9 really means all that much in high def terms. A 1920, 1440 or 1280 high def video will fill a HDTV screen horizontally, regardless of the vertical measurement. It then becomes just a question of how much is chopped off top and/or bottom if the vertical size is not 1080 or 720 but something larger like 1280 x 960... Although I have never tried it, I think further that if you changed the frame format to 4:3, you might get the full vertical field but would end up with black bars to right and left and the video itself appearing squished vertically.

[lata]

Hi Ken

Thanks for the explanation regarding the aspect ratios.

Jan provided a link http://goo.gl/id1Yzz
Im sure he wont mind me passing this on

I ran a quick render to Mp4 HD which looked good, and as far as I know would display on YT the same as using the 1280 x 960

Anyway a little busy today, starting to pack the camera gear.............

[Ken Berry]

OK. I've downloaded that original file and have done a few experiments. In the main, since Jan wants mp4, I concentrated on those. As we know, there is no way in VS to set that frame size and get output in it. But I chose Custom, then MP4 as the format, then clicked Options. On the Compression tab, I selected H.264 HIGH. The default bitrate was 500 kbps. I tried that but the resulting video had obvious pixelation on my 24 inch 1920 x 1080 monitor played full screen in VLC player. I upped the bitrate to 5000 but still found the pixellation (less than the previous one) unacceptable. (I tried separately the AVCHD 1280 x 720p option which also used a bitrate of 5000 kbps but that looked much the same as this mp4 output.)

So next time I upped the bitrate to 18000, and the resulting video looks fine. No pixellation that I could see. I also tried outputting to AVCHD (1920 x 1080) and got a similar result. The MP4 file was 45 MB and the AVCHD 46 Mb -- both up significantly on the original 32 MB. I guess with a bit more experimentation, lowering the bitrate, say to 15 Mbps, could reduce the file size without compromising the quality noticeably. (EDIT: I just tried this myself. The resulting video still looked very good on screen and had gone down to around 37 MB in size.)

I should add that in all these experiments, the resulting files displayed on screen exactly the same amount of image in its vertical coverage as the original, and had black bars to either side of the video itself.

Jan: try setting up a Custom template as described above and play around with the bitrates a little if you are worried that the resulting file is too big. When satisfied, you could use Settings > Make Movie Template Manager to make it a permanent template.

[jannadem]

The majority of cameras have sensors at 4:3 format, so all pictures and videos are recorded in 4:3 and if you chose 16:9 then pictures or frames are cropped 25% vertically (symmetrically). I like to record full screen and then crop it myself. I make decision to chop the head or feet off. It is similar principle as digital zoom. Why would I ever use it to take picture or video. I can crop it myself and better.

I fly motorized hang glider, which needs my full attention. Last time I had 3 cameras mounted. I fly without monitors to save batteries. I continually change camera angle in flight to make it more interesting, but I just estimate (glance) where it is aiming.
After the flight, when air was turbulent, I process it in special stabilization program to get proper hang glider motion in that turbulent air. The aircraft is moving rather than the horizon. This obviously crops the picture mainly in vertical position.
If I started with 16:9 then I could lose a lot of interesting footage. It is different if you fly as passenger and take pictures or video. You have time and both hands to fiddle around with camera to take the best shot.

The original TV and old video cameras have resolution 640:480, which is 4:3 or 1.33333. Millions of iPads and I believe iPhones too are in 4:3 format. HD 4:3 format is multiple of 640:480, which are 1280:960, 2560:1920 and so on.
16:9 formats are cropped from in camera recorded in 4:3 as 1280:720, 2560:1440. The camera sensor pixels are getting much smaller for HD, which also decrease sensibility and quality. Every camera pixels has 3 sensors for red, yellow and blue color. One, three-color pixel become 4 then 16 and so on. Lower resolution produced better quality, because there are more sensors per pixels to capture the light. Of course there is limit to it.
I bet that very few people watch YouTube videos on TV. I have HD TV, but I use iPad like millions of other users and my relatives. 16:9 format on iPad loses 25% of viewing experience, because black bars on top and bottom. 4:3 looks perfect.
When I ride motorcycle with head cam, I want to include the handlebars and sky. It looks much more interesting that just slow moving horizon. Again it looks perfect on iPad and imperfect on TV where nobody watches it anyway.
http://youtu.be/i_O5WVRXfck
The next is video taken by ActionPro (knock off of GoPro) which has only 16:9 and it is in camera cropped: http://youtu.be/eoB_VlUHAF4
Here is my latest flying video, where I tried to combine two different formats from 3 cameras, but the results from YouTube looks totally different from my PC. I have to redo it. http://youtu.be/oTz1PC5uVT0
This video result started to resurrect Corel X6, because I totally gave up on it. I am giving it 2 chance, because I paid for it so I deserve better. My free packages do the work, but I am loosing quality due to various conversions.

[Ken Berry]

I notice in your original flying video that it seems to be filmed using 'normal' view i.e. with no wide fish-eye effect. Or did you use a program like proDAD proAdrenaline to get rid of the fish-eye effect?

[jannadem]

I did not do any fish eye correction. There is distortion, but it is bearable, to me.
Jan

[lata]

Hi

This is how a video looks rendered to a 16:9 frame, I created the yellow background to show the full frame, but if it were black you would not see any difference to your 1280 x 960 frame size.
Or have I simply got the wrong end of the stick

MPEG-4 Files
24 bits, 1280 x 720, 29.97 fps
Frame-based
H.264 Main Profile Video: 12000 Kbps, 16:9
44100 Hz, 16 Bit, Stereo
MPEG AAC Audio: 128 Kbps

[jannadem]

Trevor,
If you save original 1280x960 to 1280x720 then you will actually shrink it to 960x720. The original video was 33.3% wider.
Majority of people (millions) these days watch YouTube videos on iPads which is 4:3. If you watch your example on iPad full screen then you will get black stripes on the top and bottom, which is 25% loss vertically on to of it. This is definitely not the solution.

1280x960 is default setting of all those millions of GoPro Hero 2 cameras

I receive official reply from Corel that I am using wrong format which is not supported. This is what I posted on their Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/corelvideostudio

I have to sadly announce that Corel considers 1280x960, which is HD of 4:3 wrong format and therefore it is not supported by Video Studio X6.
This is the final answer from them after several days of inquires.
As you can see in the copy from GoPro Hero 2 manual, 1280x960 is default setting. There are several millions of these cameras used all around the world, but Corel slept behind the wheel.

What a shame.

Video Studio just supports the old video camera format 4:3 at 640x480, but not the high definition. Millions of iPads are in 4:3 format. Very few people watch YouTube videos on 16:9 TVs but millions do on iPads and similar devices. But Corel proudly supports 4k format, which you cannot even record with today technology, unless you spend several thousands dollars on camera and computer system. UNBELIVEABLE.