Letterboxing Doesn't Work

RockeyNumber2 wrote on 9/26/2013, 2:55 PM
Every time I render my project, there are black bars on the sides as well as the top and bottom. I don't know what this means. I am fine with the ones on the top and the bottom but not the ones on the side. I do not know much about aspect ratios.

I have tried it as MPEG 1, MPEG 2, and quicktime. The quicktime seemed to work but the file was way too big and every time I tried to play it, it was really choppy.

I am old school and using Sony Vegas Movie Studio 6.0

Please help! Thank you.

Comments

Steve Grisetti wrote on 9/26/2013, 4:21 PM
What model of camcorder is your source video coming from and what format and resolution is it?

What are your Vegas video project properties?
RockeyNumber2 wrote on 9/27/2013, 9:30 AM
The camera is a Kodak Zi8 Pocket camera. I am shooting at 720p NTSC. The videos come out as .MOV but those didnt seem to work with Sony Vegas so I converted them to MPEG.

I have tried every project setting I could think of. I have done MPEG-1, MPEG-2, Quicktime all doing both NTSC and PAL.

Are those the project settings you are talking about or are you asking for different ones?

Also, thank you for your help!
Steve Grisetti wrote on 9/27/2013, 11:26 AM
Converting the file is what's caused the problem. You lost the indicators that tell Movie Studio your video's specs.

Open your video in Media Info or G Spot and check out the codec. Once we know it, we'll be able to proceed.
musicvid10 wrote on 9/27/2013, 11:39 AM
You'll need Quicktime 7.6 to open those zi8 files in Movie Studio 6, if at all. Later versions absolutely will not work.
You can also use the free GoPro Studio to convert them to 720p Cineform, which will will handle better on the timeline.

Either way, your Project and Render properties must match your Source Aspect in order to work without letterbox. I work from zi8, Playtouch, and Playsport footage all the time. Worst case, you would have to ungroup and slip your audio a couple of seconds to sync up. You "may" also need to change the file extension from .mov to .mp4 in older Vegas.

Steve, his files are vanilla 720p AVC/AAC wrapped as MOV.
Chienworks wrote on 9/27/2013, 2:47 PM
Sounds like these widescreen files are being edited in a 4:3 project, which adds black bars on the top and bottom, and then the 4:3 project is being rendered to a widescreen output, which adds the black bars on the sides. The fix should be as simple as making the project widescreen.
RockeyNumber2 wrote on 10/7/2013, 12:21 PM
Using G Spot, the codec for the files are MPEG2. It says its a DVD "VOB" format. Is there other information that I need to know? As you can probably tell, I am in a little over my head here. It says the codec are already installed so I should be fine now.

On a different note, I now have Sony Vegas Movie Studio 10.0 and reinstalled Quicktime and can import .MOV files there but it is still doing the same thing when I render it.
Chienworks wrote on 10/7/2013, 4:11 PM
What project settings do you have? (File / Properties / Template)

What render settings are you using : file type, codec, template, custom settings?

I'm still pretty sure my previous answer is what you need.
RockeyNumber2 wrote on 11/11/2013, 1:12 PM
So I am just now coming back to this project.

The project settings are as follows:

720x480

Frame rate: 29.970 (NTSC)

Pixel Aspect Ratio: 1.2121 (NTSC DV Widescreen)

I have tried every combination of render setting it seems like but the one I started with and keep trying is MPEG-1 and NTSC. It still has the black vertical bars on the left and right of the project.


Is there another setting I need to change to make it widescreen?
Chienworks wrote on 11/11/2013, 9:42 PM
By default Vegas will size the source video to fit the frame in one dimension and be smaller than the frame in the other dimension, if the source and project frame sizes are not the same ratio. This means that by doing nothing other than dropping your video on the timeline the original image will fill the frame either left-right or top bottom. To get the result you see i would guess that your source video already has black bars top-bottom or left-right. Perhaps when you converted it to MPEG you chose the wrong output format there, such as converting from 16:9 to 4:3 or vice versa.

When you click on the source MPEG file in Vegas' explorer window it should show you the frame dimensions and aspect ratio, or you can right-mouse-button click on the video on the timeline and bring up media properties. What does it tell you there? This is more important information at the moment than your project properties.

For a work-around for now, can you simply crop down to the image and eliminate the side bars that way?