Match Media Settings / Match Output Aspect

Kimberly wrote on 12/21/2009, 10:04 AM
Hello All:

I am using VMS Platinum Pro.

In a few weeks I will start creating videos that use SD widescreen footage next to HDV widescreen footage. This is a temporary situation as I will be re-shooting all my stock footage in HDV, and at some point I will stop using my SD footage. But for now, I have mixed media . . .

In project properties, I can use the "Match Media Settings" to match either the SD footage or the HDV footage properties.

As you know, if I match media properties on the HDV footage, my SD footage will have skinny horizontal pillars on the top and bottom. If I match the media properties on my SD footage, then my HDV footage will have skinny vertical pillars along each side. (I am aware there are upper and lower field differences in SD versus HDV as well as differences in aspect ratios of SD 1.2121 and HDV 1.3333, which is why I get the pillars.)

So my question is:

I am looking for a way to globally change the output aspect of the SD footage. I can open the "Pan/Crop" tool and right click to choose "Match Output Aspect." This works really well and doesn't create enough distortion to worry about. But I have a zillion SD clips among my 12 projects, so that would be a lot of right-clicking.

I fear that I will need to manually edit the "Match Output Aspect" for each SD clip, but thought I would ask the VMS Gurus.

Thank you all for reading!

Kim

Comments

musicvid10 wrote on 12/21/2009, 10:14 AM
None of what you are asking has any impact on how your video will be rendered.
Set your project properties for the HDV, or the format that is the majority of your video.
The goal is to place the least burden on your preview performance, and little else.


That being said, check the "Stretch video to fill output" option when you render, and you won't have black bars in your finished video.

There is no need to match the aspect exactly in the preview. But if you are determined to do so, there is a much easier way than going to pan/crop. Right-click on one event, go to Switches, and uncheck Maintain Aspect. Then copy the event, select all the other events on the timeline, and Paste Event Attributes. Done.
timtowtdi
Kimberly wrote on 12/21/2009, 1:31 PM
Well Musicvid,

I was almost ready to doubt the guru-ness of your reply. I had the "Stretch Video to Fill Output" box checked when I rendered, thinking this would eliminate the skinny black bars, yet I could see them in the preview windows for both VMS and DVD-A.

But your comments on minimizing the load on preview performance make perfect sense. I burned a DVD from DVD-A and plopped it into my DVD player. Presto! No skinny black bars. So your guru status remains intact : )

I liked your tip to copy and paste the attributes from one clip to the next. I do that all the time in Word, Excel, etc., but sort of forgot about that for VMS. I'll keep that for future use.

Thanks again for your help.

Kim
musicvid10 wrote on 12/21/2009, 3:29 PM
Ehh, I'm far from guru status on these forums. All bets are I won't make it.
Just keep in mind that project properties affect the preview, and render settings affect the output. They can for most purposes be considered mutually independent.
The only exceptions are the deinterlace properties, which will affect the output under some circumstances. Generally they should be kept at Best and Blend.