Incorrect aspect ratio. Using Crop making sense of the numbers

MMiles wrote on 11/5/2023, 10:42 PM

I have several videos that (when played back) have the wrong aspect ratio. In this case they appear to be horizontally stretched. All are showing up in Media Info and VLC as 1280 x 720 16:9. But really they are 4:3.

Using Vegas and Crop/Pan FX (see image), I can adjust the horizontal dimensions. What is confusing to me are the dimensions displayed on the left. In this case, to get the correct look (4:3) the horizontal value has to be approximately 1702.4 x 720 That first number doesn't make any sense to me. I would think I could just plug in any 4:3 ratio to fix things.....for instance: 1440x1080, etc. Perhaps, I'm doing things the wrong way?

Thanks

Comments

Former user wrote on 11/6/2023, 1:06 AM

@MMiles Hi,1280 x 720 is 16:9 but to get 4:3 you need a different Pixel aspect ratio. right click on the event on the timeline- Properties. think you need to right click in the Pan/Crop - Restore to get the settings back to orig, somebody else can correct me & explain better.

Dexcon wrote on 11/6/2023, 5:33 AM

All are showing up in Media Info and VLC as 1280 x 720 16:9. But really they are 4:3.

Do you have the original video media or has it been sourced from YouTube or the like such as from a TV broadcast? If the latter, it's likely that whoever uploaded that video converted the 4:3 image stretching it to 16:9 - or that's how it went to air on broadcast TV - hence the MediaInfo/VLC data showing them being 16:9. To get ithem back to 4:3, you'll need to use pan/crop to reframe those videos via pan/crop to 'unsqueeze' them.

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MMiles wrote on 11/6/2023, 9:21 AM

@Dexcon

"To get ithem back to 4:3, you'll need to use pan/crop to reframe those videos via pan/crop to 'unsqueeze' them."

Exactly my thinking. But as I said above, the numbers don't make any sense. And when I do the math, I get around 1702 to get things back to what looks to be correct using the pan and crop tool. In other words, it's easier to enter in a horizontal value then it is to just eyeball it.... I would think. Although I can get close.

mark-y wrote on 11/6/2023, 10:01 AM

It is possible that you have a Frankenfile, which has been encoded to a new aspect 16:9, while the original source metadata has vanished. Try setting your Project and Pan/Crop to 960x720. Here's a related thread; if the ideas there don't work, upload a short clip of your source to Drive or Dropbox and post the link here. Usually an easy cake to unbake.

https://www.vegascreativesoftware.info/us/forum/how-to-prevent-auto-resize-what-s-the-point-of-disable-resample--142867/#ca893512

 

EricLNZ wrote on 11/7/2023, 1:54 AM

Surely the solution is simple. As @Former user said "to get 4:3 you need a different Pixel aspect ratio. right click on the event on the timeline- Properties." There alter the PAR from 1.0000 to 0.7500. This will squash the image to 4:3. No need to fiddle around in the Pan/Crop window.

It works for me with VMS17 so I assume it will work with VP.