Black frame around 16:9 after rendering to AVI

[Gary Kleiner]

How are you outputting your video to the TV? You are not going to make a DVD from this project?

Gary Kleiner

Learn Vegas and DVD Architect

http://www.VegasTrainingAndTools.com

[Douglas Spotted eagle]

if your display or player doesn’t support widescreen, then you’re going to see either letterboxing or squeezed content. Does your display support wide?
Project settings to wide?
Render settings to wide?
Display set to display wide?
Is the source content wide?
There are several variables that could be responsible for why you’re not seeing wide display without letter boxing. Are you seeing pillarboxes too (vertical black lines on right/left)?

Douglas Spotted Eagle
VASST
Aerial Camera

[Terje A. bergesen]

[Oregondanne] “But when rendering into an AVI file, choosing DV Widescreen seems to make the project into 4:3,”

Probably not. When rendering to DV-AVI Widescreen, the project should come out in 16×9. Why do you think it is 4×3? What player are you using that shows it at 4×3?

[Oregondanne] “ust DV keeps the 16:9 ratio intact but creates a black frame around the project”

This is because when you render it to DV, Vegas (correctly) crops the picture and adds the frame around it to avoid “squishing” the image.

[Oregondanne] “equiring me to zoom in on the TV to view the file properly”

Just curious, how do you watch an AVI on your TV?

[Oregondanne]

Gary,

I used some kind of converter program and then Nero to burn it to DVD. But the black frame I’m talking about remains the same throughout.

[Oregondanne]

Dear Douglas,

Thanks for your reply!

My player as well as TV support/is widescreen, and like I wrote in my original message the widescreen is intact; the problem is not squeezing or letterboxing but black frames on all sides of the scren. I.e. the project is somewhat shrunk down, so I need to press the zoom button on the TV to view it in full.

“Project settings to wide?
Render settings to wide?”

Project settings are to wide, but also having render settings to wide seemed to mess it up (and at least made it look like 4:3, the same way two minuses in mathematics create a plus). So I did not set render settings to wide, but still ended up with a smaller widescreen format (not squeezed or letterboxed).

“pillarboxes too (vertical black lines on right/left?”

Yes, that’s what I meant with a black “frame” around it (that is, both vertical and horizantal lines).

Any ideas?

[Oregondanne]

“This is because when you render it to DV, Vegas (correctly) crops the picture and adds the frame around it to avoid “squishing” the image.”

This sounds very interesting! I guess this is the answer to my problem, then? That Vegas always creates a “black frame”?

“Just curious, how do you watch an AVI on your TV?”

I didn’t. =) Just left out a few steps in my original message. A more technically oriented friend of mine converted it with a program and then burned it to DVD using Nero. But the bottom line is that the black frame remained throughout.

I’ve had previous experience working in Final Cut, and after converting to Quicktime and burning to DVD with, let’s say, DVD Studio Pro, the project automatically fits on a widescreen tv without having to press the zoom button. Hence my confusion…

But thanks a lot for your insights!

[Terje A. bergesen]

Vegas will do the right thing if you use the correct work flow. It will never squish the image or add black bars unless you want it to. The work flow should be as follows:

1. Project settings are NTSC-DV, 720×480, Pixel Aspect Ratio 1.2121 (NTSC Widescreen)
2. Render to NTSC-DV Widescreen
3. Watch movie on PC, there should be no bars anywhere.

[Oregondanne] “more technically oriented friend of mine converted it with a program and then burned it to DVD using Nero.”

If your movie after this comes out incorrectly, the problem lies with your “technically oriented friend”.

[Oregondanne]

Thanks again! I double-checked my settings and noticed that the template was set to NTSC-DV (not widescreen), although I am quite sure I set it to widescreen when I started the project…

Anyway, I changed the template/pixel aspect ratio to NTSC Widescreen, and what emerged was something that seemed like a substantial drop in quality (of the video as viewed in the preview window); it looked somewhat blurry and not as sharp as when the templete isn’t set to widescreen. Would that be because it should have been set correctly to begin with, not to alter afterwards? I guess I will try to render a portion of it and see if it still looks bad.

Thanks for your help and I apologize for my abysmal level of knowledge in these matters….

[Terje A. bergesen]

[Oregondanne] although I am quite sure I set it to widescreen when I started the project…”

Probably not 🙂

[Oregondanne] “what emerged was something that seemed like a substantial drop in quality”

There should be no drop in quality. Again, there is probably some issue with your work flow. Can you start from scratch and detail each and every step, including specifying what source your video events have?

[Oregondanne]

The drop in quality is, luckily, only evident in the preview window (it looks very blurry). After re-rendering the project (in Widescreen DV), it looked much better! It seems like this should solve my problem, so thanks a lot!

The only other issue I have with the rendering process is that Vegas cuts off my project after rendering 16 minutes of film, requiring me to render twice/create two AVI files (it automatically creates two AVI files to complete the rendering, but since it’s hard to piece them together afterwards I’ve decided to divide the project in two and have the break at a black interval).

Do you know if there is a setting that enables longer AVI files? Since my film is 20 minutes long, it feels somewhat annoying that it cuts off just when the credits start to roll… (the size of the project/file seems to matter less than the length, as it cut after 16 minutes even before I added sound effects and music)