[John Gregoriades]

Thank you, Norman,
But I must be doing something wrong…
I set the Preview at “Best Full,” enlarged its view as much as possible on-screen, then placed two clips onto the timeline, then extracted “stills” from both of them.
One was an XXX.MP4 from a Nokia N95-8G Cellphone, and the other an xxx.MOV from a Nikon 5100 DSLR. I then viewed their attributes via a photo editing program: Corell Paint Shop Pro X6. They both came out 655×480 pixels, which cannot be correct.
(I am not sure what their video resolution is, but the Nokia takes 5 megapixel stills, 2592×1944 pixels, and the Nikon takes 4741×3225 pixel stills.)

John23GR

[John Gregoriades]

Thank you, John…got it! (I was right-clicking the clip on the timeline, not the “F” on the Pan/Crop.
Interestingly, using the “Match Output Aspect” ended up matching the clip’s width to full screen width (no letterboxing), but although it filled the screen both horizontally and vertically, unfortunately by doing so it cropped the top and bottom of the shot, thus losing needed material. (It sort of zoomed in until the widths matched.) Luckily, then using the “Preset 1:1” ratio it restored the vertical part of the shot, while stretching (distorting) the horizontal to fit. (In my particular case, it was acceptable.)
Got lots more to learn, thank you.
John
p.s. glad you are able to add a picture (1,000 words.) I’ve always felt this forum had a problem, explaining only by words, when sometimes a visual works best.

John23GR

[John Gregoriades]

Thank you, John
I added a fresh MPG on the timeline, opened the Pan/Crop but on then right-clicking that video I did not see the “Match Output Aspect” option. However, I noticed that on the Pan/Crop there is a “Preset” that reads: “1:1 Square Aspect Ratio.” I don’t know what it means, but selecting it – just out of curiosity – seems to have done what I was after!

John23GR

[John Gregoriades]

This is mind-boggling! I vaguely recall asking this once before (eons ago) and it’s still around to be found! What a kick! But I’m not clear just “where” in my HD this little applet should be placed, before being double-clicked to “run” and install itself. In the same location as the Vegas program files? Somewhere else?
Regardless, this was a great “trip” to the past! Hohoho!
John

John23GR

[John Gregoriades]

Thank you again Rick. I will now start customizing for fun, something I had not done before. YouTube: Look out!

John23GR

[John Gregoriades]

Thank you, Rick. I found the “Match Media…Settings” & followed your directions. To my surprise, upon the command: Render As, Match Project Settings, the resulting list did not include the choice of MPG2 at all. It included among others AVC/MVC with a star, at 16Mbps; one could lower that to a non-matching selection, by un-checking the “Match Project Settings,’ to say: “Internet 1280×720-30p” which shows 8Mbps, but I have no idea what this will do, but it’s less than 10Mbps which you recommend, I gather, for YouTube?
But…what happened to the higher quality MPG2 for making DVDs?
John

John23GR

[John Gregoriades]

Thank you, Steve. When I push the “Render” command, under “MainConcept MPG2….” there are only two settings with the “=” sign: Program Stream NTSC Widescreen; and DVD Architect NTSC Widescreen video stream.
(I use the “Program Stream”, realizing there may be some loss in audio quality, but for my amateur work it’s not critical.)
John

John23GR

[John Gregoriades]

Many thanks again!
John

John23GR

[John Gregoriades]

Thank you, Mike, I sure appreciate the effort!!! He has a fairly new computer (not very fast) a gift which he does not really know how to use, with Windows 7 on it. So he does have Windows Movie Maker.
My (last?) question is: What is the format that I should render my video (with Vegas) to then copy into his PC, so that he can then, via WMM, send to his DV casette? (Should I render to mpg2 or something else?)

John23GR

[John Gregoriades]

Thanks, Mike and John.
I was sorry to hear the answer (but expected it.) Incidentally, you may wonder why is anyone using 20-yr old technology? Well…he’s a sprightly 90-year old “young at heart”, still at it after 28+ years broadcasting on radio & TV, currently delivering a 2-hour program on TV every single week, all by himself! (in the Philadelphia & NY area, on public “Mind” TV.) I’d love to convert him to computers and Vegas, because the TV station techs would prefer raw mpg2 they told me, but…
Many thanks again
John

John23GR