Videowave - How To Import A Video To Display Correct Aspect Ratio

[Chris Nicola]

I shot a 4:3 video from an old JVC camera recorded onto an LG DVD recorder using a rewritable disc and imported into Videowave for editing. I have done this before in the past reading the video directly from the DVD drive in the computer and have not experienced any problems. This time the imported video always had black bars on the top and bottom and the video was stretched and looked distorted. The videowave project is 4:3 and the video is 4:3. I also coped the VOB file to my HD and renamed .mpg and imported into videowave with the same result. I also used the free program DVD patcher to ensure all the DVD data was set to 4:3 but that did not help. The video properties are 720 x 576 at 25 fps. In the end I had to abandon the project and use another editor. Is there a way to force the video to stretch to fill the frame in videowave?

 

Kind Regards

Chris

[Chris Nicola]

Thanks Jim and Dave. I just tried that and it works! Its exactly what I wanted to do! My apologies because I did not read Jim's post carefully enough. I was not aware of this technique and it seems that Videowave is a lot more powerful than I previously thought. Now the video looks normal with a 4:3 aspect ratio by stretching it vertically to fill the frame. Thanks again. Now I will have to check the camera and DVD recorder settings to see If I can avoid getting this problem again.

 

Kind Regards

Chris

[Jim_Hardin]

I tried to hide it within my post

 

You will probably have more questions as you go along, by all means stop by and ask

[Chris Nicola]

Yes that is true Jim! I will look for that 4 sided triangle! . What I mean s that when the video appears it looks distorted with a black bar on top and the bottom in Videowave with a 4:3 workspace. When it is force stretched to fill the video pane then it appears normally. VLC player and pro show and this. Its a bit like the options on a PC desktop to stretch an mage to fill the available space.

 

Kind Regards

Chris

[Chris Nicola]

I eventually found out why the video was distorted. The camera was set correctly to 4:3 but the DVD recorder was wrongly set to 16:9. I corrected the settings and now the new videos are fine. Its good to know that Videowave is powerful enough to fix this problem if ever the same mistake is made again.

 

Kind regards

Chris

[d_deweywright]

So then if you do as Jim suggested in Post #2, to add your video into the fx track, then you can "force it" to fit the 4:3 window and look "normal."

[Jim_Hardin]

It's like rolling dice sometimes

 

Thank you for your follow up!

[Chris Nicola]

Thanks for your comments. Setting 25 fps pal does not make a difference. It may be the Anamorphic video setting Jim mentioned. I will check the camera settings. Its a shame there is not a way for Videowave to force the video into the correct aspect ratio like vlc player or proshow editor.

 

Kind Regard

Chris

[Jim_Hardin]

"Force"?

 

You understand that Ratios are LAWs of Mathematics

 

You can "Force" ratios to change, the secret to do that is to the left of the 4 sided triangle...

[Jim_Hardin]

Sounds as though your video was shot as 'wide screen' using Anamorphic technique.

 

You could try loading it into a 16:9 Project to see if it does any better.

 

And you can try it both in a 4:3 and 16:9 project but put a Color Panel on the Video Track first then add your clip onto the Fx Track.

 

There you can drag and expand it as you want. It will most likely never be just right, so settle for getting it as close as you can

[d_deweywright]

720x576 @ 25fps sounds like a PAL video. Make sure when you start your new production as 4:3, go into "More Settings" and select, "25 fps (PAL)".

 

Let us know if that makes a difference.