Pixel Aspect Ratio under project properites verses pixel aspect ratio under the media tab

BillyBoy wrote on 12/16/2002, 9:58 AM
Just wondering if I'm missing something... The other day someone sent me a short PAL video. My first that I can recall, so I'm in the dark. Dropping it on the timeline and clicking on the media tab it showed it was 1.0921 pixel aspect. For my use I was going to convert it to DV NTSC and set my Project Properites accordingly, which means (I had assumed) that Vegas during rendering would change the pixel aspect ratio to .9091, but now I'm not so sure it does.

Just playing around I went back to the media tab, (it showed PAL aspect ratio) then I changed it to DV NTSC. I was rather surprised that this did have a noticeable effect in the preview window regardless if viewed off the computer or on a external monitor.

I had thought that you only needed to change project properites to set aspect ratio and other project settings. When going from PAL to NTSC or the other way around should you also change the setting on the media tab of the source file?

What are the benefits of changing, not changing?

Does the setting under Project Properties override what is set on the source file's media tab, or the other way around or what's going on?

Comments

Tyler.Durden wrote on 12/16/2002, 10:29 AM
Hi BB,

My understanding is that Proj. props is your output aspect/dimensions, and that any media in the project will be scaled to fit the frame while maintaining the media's aspect.

For example: a large, alternate-aspect graphic (or video) will be scaled to fit and excess screen is used to fill. Likewise for smaller images; they will be expanded to fit.

You *can* mess with the media's aspect in the media props, but it might be better to open P/C and right-click in the image area and select "match output aspect". P/C will crop to frame the media in the project aspect. Scale to suit.

Here's a draft of my next tut on the aspect subject, maybe it will add value to this thread:

http://www.martyhedler.com/homepage/Veg_Stills.html


HTH, MPH
SonyDennis wrote on 12/22/2002, 8:45 PM
The Media pixel aspect ratio should be set correctly for the source media in question, the Project pixel aspect ratio should be set properly for your project and what you are going to render it to. Note than when rendering, the render template's PAR overrides the project PAR. However, for WYSIWYG rendering, set your project to match what you're going to render to.

So, if you have PAL media, set it's PAR to PAL (it should do this for you), and if you want to render to NTSC, set your project to NTSC and render to NTSC. Vegas will resample the frame rate and scale the pixels as needed. You might want to turn on the "resample" switch on the PAL media's event(s) for better framerate resampling.

///d@
BillyBoy wrote on 12/22/2002, 9:49 PM
Oh... Thanks Dennis. So source media's PAR verses the file to be rendered PAR. So if you go from PAL to NTSC or the other way around, leave the source PAR as-is on the timeline and resample the whole thing, not such events you stretch. Makes sense.