Widescreen rendering problem with VS9

[ramakaila]

I'm in the process of trying out a 30-day trial version of VideoStudio 9.

I've been using VS7 for a couple years now, and I'm impressed with the additional features that VS9 offers. I expect I'll purchase VS9 before my trial time ends.

Except I'm having one major problem that renders the program virtually useless to me:

I edit video transferred from a Panasonic miniDV camera. My camera has a recording setting called "widescreen," which, as far as I can tell, isn't actually widescreen. It simply inserts horizontal black bars at the top and bottom of the regular 4:3 image to create the illusion of widescreen. Whether I edit video recorded in regular 4:3 or the artifical widescreen, my computer reads it (and renders it) as a 4:3 image -- at least that's how it is with VS7. And I want to keep it that way.

The problem now is that VS9 seems to read any video recorded in "widescreen" (but it's not actually widescreen remember) as a 16:9 image. So what it's actually doing is STRETCHING the image horizontally, and flattening it vertically, to make it fit into the 16:9 widescreen format. The result is a flattened, ridiculous-looking image that, even when finally rendered in 4:3 format, comes out distorted.

This distorted image appears in both the preview window and whatever rendered video I finally make from it.

It happens whether I select 16:9 during the startup or not.

This problem does not occur in video NOT recorded in artifical widescreen. But seeing how I record most of my video in "widescreen," this makes VS9 unuseable for me.

Has anyone encountered this problem? Is there any way to fix this?

Thanks,

RAM

[Trevor Andrew]

Hi
Have you tried changing the project properties.

Go to File / Project Properties / Edit / General Tab / Change the Aspect ratio to 4:3
Also
Go to File / Project Properties / Edit / uncheck perform non-square pixel rendering

[ramakaila]

Thanks Trevor.

Looks like unchecking the non-sqaure pixel rendering works -- at least in the preview window.

I'll report back after I've rendered a project.

Thanks,

RAM

[Klaus Christo]

I have been using uvs9 for a while now (since it first came out actually) as well as vs8 and 7, i always thought you had to leave the non square rendering on. can someone explain what the heck it is?
Also I am trying to put my movie onto dvd in widescreen format for the first time now, I captured the video in widescreen (or so I thought) but when I check the project properties it is always set on 4:3, if I try to change it the picture goes into the postbox style and I loose most of my picture.

[Trevor Andrew]

Hi

As I see it.

There are two standard aspect ratios 4:3 and 16:9

Both use the same frame size Pal 720 x 576.
The pixels making up the frame are normally square.

When you use 16:9, the pixels are stretched into a rectangle, producing the longer look.
( perform non-square pixel rendering. ) (as it says)

This option would normally be selected, sometimes VS gets it wrong due to the type of video it reads
(quote :- from ramakaila
The problem now is that VS9 seems to read any video recorded in "widescreen" (but it's not actually widescreen remember) as a 16:9 image. So what it's actually doing is STRETCHING the image horizontally, and flattening it vertically, to make it fit into the 16:9 widescreen format. The result is a flattened, ridiculous-looking image that, even when finally rendered in 4:3 format, comes out distorted. Unquote)

Ok so VS has provided the means to override the option.

Capturing widescreen.

If you are capturing from a digital camera via Firewire (i-link) to DV-AVI then you should have no problems, what you have in your camera is what you get in VS capture.
If you are capturing to any other format then you have to select the capture properties including 16:9 ratio.
From the capture screen, selecting the ‘Options cogwheel ‘ accesses the Capture Property Settings.

Good Luck

Trevor