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Pan/Crop Aspect Ratio Differs from Project View?
Hello Friends.
I’m stumped by what’s probably a very simple oversight on my part.
I’m working with (Vegas Pro 8.1, Vista 64) 720×480 NTSC DV PAR 1.2 (16:9) content from an Everio camcorder. The Project Settings match the source via the ‘find file to match’ option in the Preview Window area. Yet, when I need to draw a mask around some content from within the Event Pan/Crop window, the source is black-barred on the left & right sides. The dashed outline of the window is 16:9 but it appears that the aspect ratio of the source content is altered to 4:3 which makes drawing masks a trial-and-error affair.
One thing to note is that whenever I bring in the source video to the timeline, I must first right click on it’s properties and change the PAR from 0.909 to 1.212 – Vegas never ‘sees’ that it’s supposed to be 1.2; I also must change the field from Upper First to Lower First. After that, everything appears correct in the preview window – just not the Pan/Crop window. It seems as though these changes are not making their way to the Pan/Crop window.
I don’t have these issue with HD content.
Any ideas on what I’m doing wrong?
Thanks.
-Kurt
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6 Replies
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The Project Settings match the source via the ‘find file to match’ option in the Preview Window area. Yet, when I need to draw a mask around some content from within the Event Pan/Crop window, the source is black-barred on the left & right sides. The dashed outline of the window is 16:9 but it appears that the aspect ratio of the source content is altered to 4:3 which makes drawing masks a trial-and-error affair.
You should set the project properties before adding any media to the timeline. If you do it after the fact, the media will not be cropped correctly. To fix this, in Pan/Crop, right-click on the frame and select Restore and then Match Output Aspect and the crop should correctly match your footage (if, in fact, you footage is really widescreenreen)
One thing to note is that whenever I bring in the source video to the timeline, I must first right click on it’s properties and change the PAR from 0.909 to 1.212 – Vegas never ‘sees’ that it’s supposed to be 1.2; I also must change the field from Upper First to Lower First. After that, everything appears correct in the preview window – just not the Pan/Crop window.
It’s odd that Vegas isn’t interpreting your footage correctly. Are you sure that you camera is really recording widescreen and not faking it in a 4:3 frame? What model Everio?
~jr
http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com -
John, the Everio model is GZ-MS100RUS – a small, flash-only unit. When I get home tonight, I’ll try a new project and follow your advice before dropping footage. I DID try to ‘adjust aspect ratio to source’ as well as ‘…to output’ and that had no effect on the footage but did change the dashed outline of the Pan/Crop window ever so slightly.
If I do not set the PAR of the footage (by right-clicking Properties), the footage is quite clearly squished-n-pillar-barred in the Preview Window. The footage, if played directly on WMP or VLC, is widescreen. Hence, my need to change the PAR to 1.212 from 0.909.
I’m pretty sure I didn’t have this problem when I was using Vegas Pro 8.0b but that could just be my flakey memory. I’ve always had to adjust the PAR but I’m quite certain I’ve not had a subsequent Pan/Crop viewing problem after doing so.
Thanks for helping. I’ll post tonight…
-Kurt
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I couldn’t tell from the JVC web site if that camera shoots true 16:9 or if it fakes it. All it says is that it records in MPEG2 format. When I record MPEG2 with my Sony CX12 camera Vegas important the files fine. I assume JVC is messing things up somewhere along the line (which is not surprising).
Good luck.
~jr
http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com -
Well, this is getting more and more…um..interesting.
Just to verify my sanity, I fired up 8.0a and everything works perfectly. I started a new project, set the Project Settings by choosing some source footage from that camera [note, I DID have to set the PAR from 0.9091 to 1.212 but the field order was correct], dragged the source to the t/l and the footage appeared aspect-correct in both the Preview and Pan/Crop windows. I did NOT have to right click the footage and change any properties. Glad to know I wasn’t dreaming 😉
Repeated in 8.1 and everything ‘seems inverted’. By that I mean, I set the Project Settings from source footage selected same as with 8.0 [changing both PAR and field order from what Vegas gave me as default from examination of the footage file], dragged the footage to the t/l and it was pillar-barred (4:3, squished) in the Preview window BUT IT WAS 16:9 IN THE Pan/Crop Window! Next, I right-clicked the footage to change its Properties to PAR 1.212 and the window views switched: the Preview window now shows 16:9 (normal looking footage) and the Pan/Crop window shows squished, pillar-barred footage.
Is this a bug, operator error or bad carma?
-Kurt
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Is this a bug, operator error or bad carma?
Not so much bad karma as bad Camera! JVC is notorious for producing non-standard cameras (like those stupid MOD files that no one supports) and I personally would never buy one because of this.
Vegas Pro 8.0c is the latest version of 8.0 so you might want to try that instead of 8.0a and see if there is a difference. Vegas Pro 8.1 is based on 8.0b so it doesn’t have the latest bug fixes and enhancements (like those to the trimmer) that 8.0c has and it never will. You might want to try 8.0c and see if it works better.
~jr
http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com -
John, thank you for trying to help. I’ve been reading this forum for four years and you’re always jumping in to help others.
On my prior, 32-bit PC, I was using 8.0c (that’s what I was basing my recollection upon). I only installed 8.0a on my 64-bit machine in order to update to 8.1. Therefore, I can say with certainty that 8.0a and 8.0c behave the same in this regard.
Okay then, if I have masking or careful cropping/animating to do, it’s back to 8.0. Maybe I can still render the .veg using 8.1 hoping for the 64-bit rendering speed improvements, if any. I’m hesitant to upgrade to V9 only to discover the same issue exists there. I”ll ping SCS and see if they can offer any advice.
Thanks.
-Kurt
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