keynote quicktime -> widescreen, help with aspect

seanfl wrote on 1/16/2010, 6:00 PM

a little complicated, but here goes.

My church uses keynote [apple iwork suite] to generate some nice looking looping info pages.

keynote will also export out a video. I've done that, the file is 800 x 600. When we play that on a WD LIVE media player, the file comes out 4 x 3 and since it's playing on a wide screen lcd tv, they want it converted to be wider.

seems like an aspect ratio change to me. I've tried modifying the media properties on the timeline (to 1.333). Tried to match and/or change the project properties, as well as the export settings to 800 x 600 as well as standard widescreen dv. I can get it to export into wide screen format mpg2 or mpg4...yet whatever I do, the text starts to jump a little and become difficult to read.

The best results were from exporting a wmv file with custom 800 x 600 and widescreen 1.3333 settings.

Am I changing too many variables? The rendered file looks ok when played on the pc, it starts to look bad when played on the WD TV Live media player.

Any ideas on why the mpg2 and mpg4 files I'm exporting out are having a tough time?

If I want to take 4 x 3 material and make it widescreen, do I adjust the aspect ratio on the media, project settings, and render to all be 1.3333 or in just one place?

Thanks for the guidance helping me get the aspect ratio correct.

Sean

Comments

musicvid10 wrote on 1/16/2010, 6:09 PM

If you want widescreen from 4:3 material and you don't want the material distorted (stretched horizontally), you will have to crop it to fit the 16:9 aspect. The Event Pan/Crop features in Vegas are the way to do this.

Standard Definition Widescreen is 720x480 at 1.21212 Pixel Aspect ratio.

Changing the project properties does not affect the aspect of the media. I hope you clearly understand this.

Hope this helps.

Coursedesign wrote on 1/16/2010, 6:31 PM

The best way to do it would be to change the Keynote template to a widescreen version.

That is quick and easy to do, and most templates nowadays come in 4:3 and 16:9 both.

Other than that, crop or fake the sides (with a blurred version of itself, etc.).

seanfl wrote on 1/16/2010, 7:14 PM

thanks for the replies. They generate with keynote 08, and this template does not come in widescreen. I'll tell them that's the simple solution.

I DO want to stretch it wide. Not looking to crop out anything or fill the outside edges with black.

If I merely want to stretch it to 16:9 dimensions, do I adjust the settings in the render only, or would I need to adjust the project settings too? I think I understand what project settings do and how it won't affect the render, but I did wonder if it was getting involved and I was adjusting it a few too many places.

Thanks. Sean

musicvid10 wrote on 1/16/2010, 7:22 PM

Then choose a Widescreen rendering template and check the box that says "Stretch video to fill output." It's that simple.

Project Properties affect the Preview.
Render Properties affect the Output.