HDV 1440x1080 rendering as 4:3 aspect ratio

pmcb wrote on 3/21/2011, 7:26 PM

Hi,

I'm having a problem rendering my home videos. The source material is 1440x1080 HDV video from my Canon camcorder. I'm rendering to MP4 files using the Sony AVC codec.

Before I upgraded to VMS 10, I had a custom template that was working great. For some reason I had to delete and re-create the template in VMS 10 (I think... to be honest I haven't used the program in a while).

The videos in question are not creative. All I'm doing is taking the .m2t clips, droppingf them on the timeline, and rendering. No effects, transitions, etc.

The template shows the "=" sign beside it, but when I view the resulting video, it appears as in a 4:3 aspect ratio. I've checked settings all around and can't figure out why this is happening. I've tried changing some settings and re-rendering, to no avail. When I view the source .m2t files in Media Player, they appear normally.

I'm not sure what information is relevant to help diagnose this, but the rendering template settings are:

Video Format: AVC
Frame size: High definition (1440x1080)
Profile: Main
Entropy Coding CAVLC
Frame Rate: 29.970 (AVCHD)
Field Order: None (progressive scan)
Pixel Aspect Ratio: 1.3333
Bit Rate: 10,000,000

Project properties:

Template: HDV 1080-60i (1400x1080, 29.970 fps)
Width 1440
Height 1080
Pixel aspect ratio 1.3333
Field order Upper field first
Frame rate 29.970
Full-resolution rendering quality: Best
Deinterlace method: Interpolate fields
Adjust source media to match project/render settings (unchecked)

Any ideas? This worked perfectly before and I don't think I've changed any settings. Most of what I've rendered since upgrading to VMS 10 has been to a 720p resolution for Vimeo. None of my 1440x1080 output since upgrading is ending up as I would expect.

Thanks.

Comments

musicvid10 wrote on 3/21/2011, 8:00 PM

How are you viewing your rendered videos? Not in Quicktime by chance? (QT does not support non-square pixels).

You can always render your video to 1920x1080 at 1.0 PAR and it will play correctly in all players.

Eugenia wrote on 3/21/2011, 11:54 PM

Your project properties and exporting template is correct. If you're not getting widescreen anymore is either because your media player stopped recognizing the flag somehow, or because the new version of AVC on Vegas doesn't set it right.

However, you should not be setting h.264 with non square pixels. I mean, you're exporting in MP4 because you want to watch the video, not because you want to re-edit. Therefore, the right way to export is to use the Main Concept MP4 format, and then export in 1920x1080, MainProfile, Aspect ratio 1.000, Progressive, uncheck the two checkboxes on that customizing dialog, and then give it 12 mbps average bitrate, and 24 mbps max bitrate. Then export.

There is absolutely no reason why you should be exporting your HDV videos in 1.333 for viewing purposes. Even if the camera shoots as such, always try to export in square pixels, because it's way more compatible overall.

pmcb wrote on 3/22/2011, 11:42 PM

Thanks for the responses. I'm watching the videos in Windows Media Player. I don't think I've changed anything on my PC since upgrading VMS, but who knows. It looks like everything I've rendered since starting to use VMS 10 shows in 4:3, while everything I did in VMS 9 is fine.

Eugenia, I'll try what you've suggested in terms of outputting. I was using the Sony AVC to take advantage of the CUDA acceleration, but it doesn't seem to make much of a difference on my computer.

pmcb wrote on 3/23/2011, 3:42 PM

Okay, I rendered a file using the Mainconcept encoder as Eugenia described, and the output is fine.

I also tried playing one of the "problematic" files in Quicktime Player instead of Windows Media Player, and it appeared in 4:3 as well, although if I understand musicvid's post it's not supposed to work properly.

Anyway, I'll stick with the Mainconcept settings provided and submit a case to Sony about the output from their encoder.

Thanks for the help.