Project Properties & PAR Question

[Mike Kujbida]

Set your PAR to 1.000 instead of 1.333

[Marlen Mathers]

Thanks Mike. That did the trick of filling the screen, but it seems like the wider aspect “came down” to fill the screen rather than the video “widening” to fill the full aspect ratio. Why would the preview window show a much wider aspect with no video (when set at 1.33). Is my original footage not being shot in that format?

Sorry about the “basic” questions here, but I’m trying to understand what I’m shooting in vs what my timeline is set up to edit in.

Thanks.

Marlen

[Mike Kujbida]

Marlen, I hate to use an old and often abused phrase but “it depends”.

Do you have the “Simulate Device Aspect Ratio” or “Scale Video to fit Preview Window” options enabled on your preview window?
Right-click on the window to enable/disable them.

I prefer to have my Project Properties set to my desired output format.
I shoot in 144×1080 (PAR of 1.333) but deliver most of my material on DVD so I have my properties to 720×480 widescreen (PAR of 1.2121).
If it’s for the web, then I have it set to 1280×720 (PAR of 1.000).

The biggest advantage I find to doing this is that (especially when I’m working on a DVD) I can zoom in on my source footage and, as long as I don’t go past 720×480, not lose any quality.

All your footage “should” be at a PAR of 1.333 but, if you want to confirm this (or you get footage that you’re not sure about), open the Project Properties window, click on the icon that looks like a folder at the top right of the video tab, browse to a folder with the footage in it, click on one of the events and click OK.
This will bring you back to the Properties window with all the relevant information filled out.
You can save this as a preset if you want to.

I hope this rather convoluted explanation helps a bit.

[Marlen Mathers]

Thanks Mike.

Yes – this does make sense..and as I get to play around with these settings, I’m learning more. I did have the “Simulate Device Aspect Ratio” and “Scale Video to fit Preview Window” both enabled – and was able to see the impact of toggling them on and off. Very helpful.

I am delivering the final video product to the web. For standard video projects I’m shooting 144×1080 and the rendering down to 720×480.

I also offer clients the ability to upgrade to “HD” and shoot those projects in 1920×1080. I then render that project down to 1280×720. (This is just a pricing strategy for people who want a higher quality video experience versus the standard 720×480)

What I just found interesting was that I noticed in my standard 1440×1080 projects that render down to 720×480 I was using a PAR of 0.9091 – and It looks okay. However, after reading your response, I went in and tried changing the PAR to 1.2121. I did that – and noticed that the rendered file came out “squished”. It looked out of aspect ratio. Which I found surprising. I’ll keep tinkering around to see what I can come up with.

One last question, is there another setting versus the 1280×720 that I can use for the web using the 1.333 PAR? I really like that wide aspect ratio, but I don’t want to go much larger that 1280 wide.

Thanks again.

Marlen

[Mike Kujbida]

[Marlen Mathers] “However, after reading your response, I went in and tried changing the PAR to 1.2121. I did that – and noticed that the rendered file came out “squished””

Were you using the “NTSC DV Widescreen (720×480, 29.970 fps)” preset?

“One last question, is there another setting versus the 1280×720 that I can use for the web using the 1.333 PAR? I really like that wide aspect ratio, but I don’t want to go much larger that 1280 wide.”

The “Default Template” for the MainConcept AVC/AAC is 1440 x 1080 with a PAR of 1.333 so you could try that one.
Be advised that you’ll have to experiment with CBR vs. VBR bit rates to find a setting that you like.

I always render my web material using the Sony AVC/MVC Internet 1280×720-30p preset and I’m quite happy with it.
https://www.stclaircollege.ca/healthsciences/ has several examples that I shot in 1449 x 1080 and uploaded to YouTube using this preset.

[Marlen Mathers]

Hey Mike – that footage on St Clair College looks great. What Bit rate were you using for the Sony AVC/MVC Internet 1280×720-30p preset? I noted the default template has it at 8M, but that was blowing the file size up quite large for me. I reduced to it 2M and got a decent result. (I shoot mostly talking heads – so not a lot of movement).

I’m still having trouble understanding what is affecting my renders. I took my 1440×1080 clip and tried rendering it as MainConcept AVC/AAC Default Template for 1440×180 PAR 1.333 Variable Bit Rate. While Rendering the aspect looks great (Simulate Device Aspect Ratio & Scale Video to Fit Preview Window are “checked”). However when I open the rendered file, I’m still getting that “squished” look. It almost appears 4:3

I’ll keep tinkering – thanks for your help.

Marlen

[Mike Kujbida]

Thanks Marlen. I used the default setting which is 8M like you said.
I suppose I could lower the bitrate but no one has complained yet so I’ll leave things alone for now 🙂

[Marlen Mathers] ” However when I open the rendered file, I’m still getting that “squished” look. It almost appears 4:3″

Set your PAR to 1.0 (that’s what it is for all the MP4 renders I do) and see what happens.

[Marlen Mathers]

[Mike Kujbida] “Set your PAR to 1.0 (that’s what it is for all the MP4 renders I do) and see what happens.”

Thanks Mike – that did it. Although I’m now getting black bars at the top and bottom of the screen. I can live with that…

Marlen