editing odd framed sized older vids with new overlays

[Roddey_Phipps]

This is just driving me bananas.

Client has given me a bunch of old avis and mpgs, all at non-standard sizes, like 852x480 and 480x320.

They have a new logo and they want me to cover up the old one in the video. That isnt so difficult... I got that part done.

However, the only way to get it to rip a vid to those odd sizes is to use uncompressed AVI and half the time, the logo on my overlay track, doesnt appear where I set it to be. Its higher or lower, and therefore, the finished video is not anything I can use.

Same thing if I try to force it into a standard mpg format, 720x480 or whatever.

Anybody know what is going on, and is there a workaround for this? I've got a ton of these to do.

[lata]

Not sure I fully understand your problem, but some project setting changes may affect the positions of some clips / Text boxes etc.

You may be best to first set the project properties to match your output settings. You do not say what you are trying to create?

Now if you use the overlay tracks for the non-standard video you should be able to easily resize and position the clips, some Mpeg2 clips although having a frame size 720 x 480 may in fact be 16:9 ratio.

Render the project to Share – Same as Project Settings (your chosen output properties) should create a video as you see it on the preview screen.

[Roddey_Phipps]

thanks for that, some of that did help.

I still cannot find a way to rip an mp4 into the weird custom sizes. But setting the initial project size to the size of the video, at least seems to keep anything on an overlay, in place.

I pick the closest mp4 size I can and the resulting video usually has a wide empty black area on both sides, but the client seems to think this is acceptable.

[canuck]

thanks for that, some of that did help.

I still cannot find a way to rip an mp4 into the weird custom sizes. But setting the initial project size to the size of the video, at least seems to keep anything on an overlay, in place.

I pick the closest mp4 size I can and the resulting video usually has a wide empty black area on both sides, but the client seems to think this is acceptable.

Still confused on what you are doing.

In your initial post you mention you are working from avis and mpgs. Where do those mp4 all of a sudden come from? By "ripping" do you mean converting the source video to those weird sizes?
Are you trying to convert those weird sized source videos to mp4 video? If so, why? Why not convert to the original format?
Ripping refers to extracting videos/audio from CD s or DVDs.

[Roddey_Phipps]

Customer wants all mp4. Original videos were in other formats, some wmv,some mov, some avi.

By ripping I mean "sharing".

For example, if my source video is an AVI thats 852x460, I can set the project settings for 852x460... but then I cannot find an mp4 profile that I can make or edit, to be 852x460.

I know mp4 has standard sizes only and thats why.

[lata]

Hi

1 / Set the project properties to your Mp4 output properties.
2 / Now add your video to the overlay tracks, there are 20 overlay tracks available, set using the Track Manager.
3 / each clip can be re-sized and positioned on the overlay track, select the clip on the preview screen, dragging the corners will retain the aspect.
4 / right click the preview clip for other options.
5 / Adding an image of other clip to the top timeline would fill those black borders, giving a different effect.
6 / Render the project to same as Project Properties

[asik1]

Trevor, how he can pass step 1 if the standard VS dosn't allow 852x460 option, and this is what he is bragging about.
- not that it's too complicate to "correct" but it can cause VS havoc to untrained user.

[lata]

Hi Asik

Roddey should set the project properties to the default Mpeg4 1920 x 1080, that will render to a 16:9 ration video
All other video can be added to the overlay tracks where they are set similar to a Picture in Picture effect

The older videos will be 4:3 most likely, so will have a border left and right. But could be resized to remove that, doing so will also loose details top one bottom, effectively changing the aspect from 4:3 to 16:9, I do not think that should be necessary as the older video will look ok in their original format.

The other option would be to create a 4:3 project, so all video will fill the screen, any 16:9 video will of course cause those black borders, top and bottom.
I think 16:9 is the better option.

Its not a big deal using the older video as a P-in P effect

[Roddey_Phipps]

I finished.

I set up the project to the dimensions of the original video, built all the overlays, and then, output using an MP4 that was the closest I could find to the original. Mostly using 4:3, as the old videos were.

There were black areas on the sides, but that was acceptable to the client.

The issue I was having was the initial project set up dimensions. If I used a standard MP4 setting, then for some reason, items on overlay tracks were wrongly positioned in the final rendered video. I cant explain it any better than that, but that is what happened.

Setting the project dimensions up in advance to match the original video, and then importing it to a track, corrected those errors.