JOHN ROFRANO PLEASE HELP!!! – 2:35 ultrawide

[Martin Stanesby]

Well I’ve cropped it in Sony Vegas to 1920 x 816 (2:35) and adjust the clip in the aspect ratio to my liking. This obviously gives me black letterbox lines top and bottom. If i’m doing this right, my next question will be how can I lose the letterbox black lines to view on Vimeo etc? I have seen some with the letterbox effect, but here’s one without it which is what I’m after…..how has this been done???

https://vimeo.com/58548933

[John Rofrano]

[Martin Stanesby] “Well I’ve cropped it in Sony Vegas to 1920 x 816 (2:35) and adjust the clip in the aspect ratio to my liking.”

I believe you actually want 2.39:1 not 2.35:1. The most common aspect ratios used today in the presentation of films in movie theaters are 1.85:1 and 2.39:1.

[Martin Stanesby] “This obviously gives me black letterbox lines top and bottom”

Not obvious to me. Black bars indicate a mismatch in aspects. If you do it correctly there should be no black bars.

To do this set your project properties to 1920×804. I realize that the math would suggest a height of 803 but video encoders like even numbers so you will need to use 1920×804 for rendering so you should set your project up to match the render. This means you will need to make both a new project preset and a new render preset. Both should use 1920×804. When you drop media onto the timeline, you should open Pan/Crop on the event, right-click the window and select Match Output Aspect. That will crop all of your events to 2.39:1.

[Martin Stanesby] “my next question will be how can I lose the letterbox black lines to view on Vimeo etc?”

I’m not very familiar with how Vimeo works with aspects as I’ve only uploaded 16:9 videos. I suggest you contact the owner of the video that works the way you would like yours to and ask them how they did it.

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com

[Martin Stanesby]

Hi John,
Thanks for your reply.

Ok, thanks for the correct aspect ration of 2,39:1.

As it happens, after messing about for a bit last night I actually came across what worked. I did what you said with regard to matching the properties, aspect ratio and rendering preset to the same. This has no letterbox lines as you said.
I then also ticked the ‘stretch video to fill output frame size (do not letterbox)’ in the ‘render as’ screen….this seemed to get rid of the letterbox lines after the footage was rendered. If I didn’t tick this the finished footage would still have the letterbox lines even though they are not visible in preview.
This was then successful once uploaded to Vimeo and had the full screen with no lines 🙂

My question now is what is the best format to render as?? I note there are some that appear tailored more for the internet, and others best if using Architect….however, only some enable you to actually customize the aspect ratio? so this narrowed it down.
I used ‘Internet HD 1080p’ to upload to Vimeo; ‘Sony AVC Blu-ray 1920×1080-50i’ to edit in Architect; I also found ‘Windows Media Video as Quality VBR’ also worked ok.
Are these rendering formats ok? And also, if I want to edit to DVD or Blu -ray in Architect is ‘Sony AVC Blu-ray 1920×1080-50i’ ok for both??
i realise mpeg-2 is the format for DVD but MainConcept MPEG-2 does not allow you to customize the aspect ratio.

Thanks again.

[John Rofrano]

[Martin Stanesby] “I then also ticked the ‘stretch video to fill output frame size (do not letterbox)’ in the ‘render as’ screen….this seemed to get rid of the letterbox lines after the footage was rendered. If I didn’t tick this the finished footage would still have the letterbox lines even though they are not visible in preview.”

‘Stretch video to fill output frame size’ should not be needed. I didn’t need it when I tested this out. If your project is 1920×804 PAR 1.0000 and your render is 1920×804 PAR 1.0000 then there is no need to stretch anything because everything matches.

Here are the project properties for 2.39:1

Here are the render properties for 2.39:1

If you use these settings there should be no need for the stretch option.

[Martin Stanesby] “My question now is what is the best format to render as?”

If you are delivering to Vimeo and using Vegas Pro 12.0 use MainConcept AVC as I suggested.

[Martin Stanesby] “I used ‘Internet HD 1080p’ to upload to Vimeo; ‘Sony AVC Blu-ray 1920×1080-50i’ to edit in Architect”

That’s good. If you are using Vegas Pro 11.0 or later you should be using MainConcept AVC for internet delivery. If you are using Vegas Pro 10.0 or earlier you should use Sony AVC for internet delivery. You didn’t say which version you were using.

[Martin Stanesby] “‘Windows Media Video as Quality VBR’ also worked ok.”

I would avoid this proprietary format and stick with industry standard MPEG4.

[Martin Stanesby] “And also, if I want to edit to DVD or Blu -ray in Architect is ‘Sony AVC Blu-ray 1920×1080-50i’ ok for both??”

If by “both” you mean both internet and DVD/Blu-ray then no. If you mean both DVD and Blu-ray then yes. Keep in mind that you will need to to render with letterbox black bars for Blu-ray and DVD since they only support 16:9 so you definitely can’t use the same render for Vimeo with Blu-ray.

[Martin Stanesby] “i realise mpeg-2 is the format for DVD but MainConcept MPEG-2 does not allow you to customize the aspect ratio.”

Yea, MPEG-2 is a rather strict specification. You need to deliver 4:3 or 16:9 and that’s it. everything else needs to be letterboxed.

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com

[Martin Stanesby]

Hi John,
I tried your properties and render settings and it worked without the need for ‘stretch video to fill output frame size’! I’m not sure if I left this ticked whilst trying a previous test but for some reason it wouldn’t work without it then…but hey, it works fine now. The only change I made was to the pixel format as 8-bit left my footage looking less colourful in the preview window, I used 32-bit floating. My frame rate is 25fps so not sure if that affects it.

I use Sony Vegas Pro 11. I’ll stick with the Mainconcept AVC for internet as you suggested.
Yes, I was referring to both DVD and Blu-ray for Sony AVC format. Glad that’s a good one as it works well for me in Architect.

I really appreciate your help and advice John, you’re very knowledgable. I also saw one of your other threads regarding rendering audio separately for Architect which I will also do.

Thanks also for your website which is a great help and resource.

Martin

[John Rofrano]

[Martin Stanesby] ” The only change I made was to the pixel format as 8-bit left my footage looking less colourful in the preview window, I used 32-bit floating. “

Unless you are working with 10 bit video you should not be using 32-bit pixel format. This might get you into trouble with other plug-ins. If you want more color in your video, drop the Color Corrector on the Master Video Bus and increase the Saturation. It’s important to properly color correct your video and just flipping a switch without fully understanding what is does is not the answer (although it is tempting).

Thanks for the kind words. I’m glad that I could help you out. Feel free to ask more questions. That’s how we all learn more. 😉

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com

[Martin Stanesby]

Yeah you’re right, i do need to understand more of what these things actually really do, and why.
Oh I see, so in reality 8-bit is more of a true representation before enhancing?

I also noticed that on your screen capture of settings in properties that you had ‘full-rendering resolution quality’ set on ‘good’ and not ‘best’. I would normally check everything on ‘best’ as this seems a natural thing to want to do I guess, is this not a good idea? I suspect it would slowdown the rendering process a touch.

Thanks

[John Rofrano]

[Martin Stanesby] “Oh I see, so in reality 8-bit is more of a true representation before enhancing?”

No, 8-bit is the standard pixel format for 8-bit video. 32-bit can give more accurate colors with 10-bit video, but it has a number of side-effects that you must be aware of. If you’re not using 10-bit video you should stick with 8-bit pixel format.

[Martin Stanesby] “I also noticed that on your screen capture of settings in properties that you had ‘full-rendering resolution quality’ set on ‘good’ and not ‘best’. I would normally check everything on ‘best’ as this seems a natural thing to want to do I guess, is this not a good idea?”

No, putting everything on “10” is not a good idea. Do you own a stereo? Would you put volume, base, and treble all on 10? No, you adjust them so that it sounds good for the style of music you are playing. ‘Good’ is the default and works fine in most circumstances. ‘Best’ should be used if you are resizing your video like going from HD Blu-ray to SD DVD. If you set your render to Best and you’re not resizing your video then the render will take twice as long with no change in quality.

[Martin Stanesby] “I suspect it would slowdown the rendering process a touch.”

If you call twice as long a “touch” then yes. I’d say it significantly impacts render time so when your 3 hour render takes 6 hours and doesn’t look any better, you have to ask yourself was it worth it?.

It’s really important to understand what these controls do. If placing everything to the max was the best thing to do, the developers would not have wasted their time making sliders. 99% of the time, you should leave everything at the default for best quality. These are the settings that the developers have chosen as the best balance. You should only tweak settings when you are not happy with your output and you know that the control will improve it. Otherwise, you are probably going to make things worse not better.

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com