Is there ANYTHING that can help?

Simon Page wrote on 2/6/2005, 8:51 AM
I've trawled the forums for an answer but now give and have to ask..

I've just put the 16:9 adapter on my DVX100 to use and shot a whole load of stuff for a client in widescreen 25p. It looks great. BUT...

After setting up my project for PAL 16:9 I know that I have to set each clip to a pixel aspect ratio of 1.4568 (PAL DV Widescreen). No problem. But EACH clip nneds to be done seperately. Over 200 clips in the media pool. Surely there is a way round this. If I select them all and bring up properties, it just changes the first clip I selected and not the rest.

I've looked for scripts to do this but there seems to be nothing. Can anyone help?

Simon.

Comments

Spot|DSE wrote on 2/6/2005, 8:55 AM
Ultimate S will do this for you. www.vasst.com/ultimate.htm
In fact, this particular feature was written specifically from a request related to anamorphic and PAL.
BillyBoy wrote on 2/6/2005, 9:02 AM
The settings under PROJECT PROPERTIES determines how the rendered project ends up. You have no need and shouldn't adjust the aspect ratio of the source material. One feature of Vegas is it takes mixed media on the timeline and converts it in real time to however your project is set up. So you can throw on JPEG's, MPEG's, AVI, whatever all at various aspect ratios and they will render according to your project settings.
filmy wrote on 2/6/2005, 9:07 AM
When you captured the material did you have the capture settings set for 16:9 / Widescreen? If all your material is marked as 4:3 it sounds like you had the properties set for 4:3. Keep in mind that you are shooting 4:3 with the adapter so the material coming off the camera will *not* be flagged as 16:9 unless you tell VidCap to flag it as such.
JohnnyRoy wrote on 2/6/2005, 10:06 AM
> You have no need and shouldn't adjust the aspect ratio of the source material

But in this case, Vegas has no way to know he was using a 16:9 adapter and thinks the video is 4:3. So you have to change the aspect of the source to match what it really is.

> I've looked for scripts to do this but there seems to be nothing.

I do have a free script available on the VASST site called "Change Media Pool Aspect Ratio" that will make the aspect ratio of all the video media in the media pool match the aspect of the project. If you’re project aspect is set to 1.4568 (PAL DV Widescreen), this script will make the media match.

(Of course you should still check out Ultimate S which does this and 54 other functions) ;-)

~jr
Spot|DSE wrote on 2/6/2005, 10:13 AM
Arrgghh, I forgot the free version was on the VASST site. Thanks, JR!
Simon Page wrote on 2/7/2005, 3:39 AM
Thanks to all for your advice. JohnnyRoy, that script would be good, I'll try and track it down.

I know that the footage I took is really 4:3 and Vegas wouldn't know that automatically but let me make this a little clearer: my PROJECT settings is 1.4568 (PAL DV Widescreen) but everything I capture defaults to 1.0926 (PAL DV) in the media pool and hence when I drag it up to the timeline. Therefore, the project setting doesn't seem to do a lot?!

The only setting I can find on CAPTURE is the preview window being set at 1.4568 (PAL DV Widescreen) but nothing else.

As for Ultimate S, I tried that. It does not change the pixel aspect ration, just simply squashes the down uing Pan/Crop. Same thing? I don't know!! Maybe that's another topic.

Off to find that script!

Simon.
Simon Page wrote on 2/7/2005, 3:48 AM
Yep. That did it. "ChangeMediaPoolAspectRatio" script. Changed all that clips to the same setting as the project! Fantastic.

Vegas, I still love you but I'm glas there are some brains out there making great scripts for it! (Also thinking of my beloved Excalibur for multicamera).

Simon.
JohnnyRoy wrote on 2/7/2005, 4:55 AM
> As for Ultimate S, I tried that. It does not change the pixel aspect ration, just simply squashes the down uing Pan/Crop.

There are two functions for this in Ultimate S. One uses Pan/Crop and the other changes the media. On the Audit page is a function called Audit and Change Media Aspect. That’s the one that goes into the media pool and changes the media just like my free script.

Here is what the Ultimate S help file says:

Audit Media Aspect will search the Media Pool can change the Pixel Aspect Ratio of every video media asset to match what you specify. You should only use this function when the media pool does not correctly recognize your media’s aspect. This could happen if you add images that are the correct aspect for DV but are being recognized as square pixels.

So Ultimate S does do this. The free script defaults to the project aspect but Ultimate S will let you set it to any aspect you want.

~jr
filmy wrote on 2/7/2005, 5:15 AM
>>>The only setting I can find on CAPTURE is the preview window being set at 1.4568 (PAL DV Widescreen) but nothing else.<<<

Sorry - my bad. SCLive has an option to "set 16:9 flag" when captureing. MainConcept DV also has a setting for the 16:9 flag. I believe Premieres capture utility does as well. But VidCap does not - so that was my bad for not saying that. A lot of people use SCLive for vairous reasons, in your case if you will be shooting a lot of 4:3 that is really 16:9 you might want to look into getting it so you won't have to change all the media after capture. It is very cross NLE compatable and version 4 is in Beta phase right now.
Simon Page wrote on 2/7/2005, 12:35 PM
Ah yes. I found it now. Still, as your free one does the job and is, errr, free, I guess I'll stick with that :-)

Simon.
Simon Page wrote on 2/7/2005, 12:36 PM
Yeah, I'll have a look at it and see what it's like.