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Activity Forums Adobe Premiere Pro Created video in 16:9 project, need in 4:3 (for youtube)

  • Created video in 16:9 project, need in 4:3 (for youtube)

    Posted by April Dauz on August 18, 2008 at 10:57 pm

    Hi,

    I created a 16:9 project using 4:3 quality clips in order to create the illusion that my video is widescreen. The problem is, when I upload it to youtube, it “pans and scans” it, cutting off the sides and sometimes adding a black bar of varying length to the top of some of the clips. I tried fixing this by creating a 4:3 project and importing the “widescreen” sequence, but this does not work either. Instead of cutting off the sides, youtube does the complete opposite and “squishes” it beyond a 16:9 ratio. That is, the letterbox bars at the top and bottom are way too large, resulting in a widescreen video with a perfect width but extremely small height. Anyone know what I’m doing wrong? I’ve tried to correct this in every way I can think of but nothing seems to work. Thanks in advance!

    Ann Bens replied 17 years, 11 months ago 3 Members · 6 Replies
  • 6 Replies
  • Joe Garcia

    August 19, 2008 at 1:43 am

    Hi April
    If I understand what you are saying ,,,

    It sounds like you started the project in a 720p or higher, HD Preset.
    When you do that it all looks good while you’re in the app working and doing cuts and such,,,
    but if you burn a dvd you’ll see the frame is off center and nothing is right.

    You say “I created a 16:9 project using 4:3 quality clips in order to create the illusion”….. etc

    I’m taking this to mean, correct me if I’m wrong, that you shot ‘Standard Definition’ video on a ]Standard Definition’ camera and used a 16*9 preset in the editor to conform your clips to 16*9,,, that does not work

    16*9 and 4*3 are hard and fast dimensions in your camera. A 4*3 camera can produce 16*9 by using ‘LetterBox’ , and ‘Squeeze” modes, or by using special lens, or lastly by cropping the footage.

    Am I helping at all?

    JOE
    X-Porter

    Gen 1:1

  • April Dauz

    August 19, 2008 at 4:45 am

    Hi Joe,

    Thanks for the quick reply.

    Some of the terms you’re using are kind of going over my head a little bit, so forgive me, but maybe I can be a little more clear if I give a step by step process of what I did.

    1. Started project in DV NTSC with frame size 720×480 and pixel aspect ratio 16:9
    2. Imported clips sized in 4:3 (from a tv show, actually)
    3. Enlarged these clips to fit the 16:9 frame
    4. Exported using frame size 720×480 again
    5. Uploaded to youtube, but the sides were cut off and sometimes (uneven) bars appeared at the top

    Tried again:

    1. Imported sequence created using the project settings above to a new project with settings set at frame size 720×480, pixel aspect ratio 0.9, and in editing mode DVD NTSC
    2. This imported sequence appeared in the video editing screen with the sides cut off (so I couldn’t just shrink it in to fit and apply letterbox bars to the top and bottom)

    Tried one more time:

    1. Used the same settings above, but this time imported the sequence (from the first try) after having exported and rendered it to avi
    2. Uploaded to youtube and this is when it looked all “squished”

    Sorry, that was a bit convoluted. Let me know if this helps any more. I appreciate you taking the time to help.

    – April

    Note: I actually successfully got the video up on youtube with letterbox bars, but that was after having rendered and exported it in Adobe After Effects. Surely there has to be an easier way of doing this via Premiere.

  • Ann Bens

    August 19, 2008 at 9:32 am

    If you want to create the illusion of widescreen for your 4:3 clips open a standard project and add a black bars over the clips. There is a standard matte in the titler for this.
    Export with 4:3 settings. This will be just fine for YouTube.

  • Joe Garcia

    August 19, 2008 at 4:47 pm

    What Ann said for sure. !!

    JOE
    X-Porter

    Gen 1:1

  • April Dauz

    August 25, 2008 at 4:54 am

    Hi,

    The problem is, I already created my sequence in a 16:9 project so when I import to 4:3, the sides are cut off. What I’m trying to do is get a smaller version of the 16:9 sequence into the 4:3 project and then add the letterbox effect.

  • Ann Bens

    August 26, 2008 at 12:36 am

    Scale the sequence, it should show up as a letter box movie.

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