Preview and Render Aspect Ratios are Different

Byron K wrote on 4/22/2011, 2:32 PM

Hope someone can provide some assistance or point me to a thread for a minor issue I'm having.

Helping a friend do a highlight video of high school sports. He gave me sample video clips but the video is in an aspect ratio that Vegas cannot seem to adjust to 16:9.

Media player and VLC plays the video back fine in proper aspect ratio.

If the settings are set to 1280x720, the displays in the preview is 4:3 but with black pillars on the sides.

The interesting thing is, Vegas renders the video out as 16:9 but just cant view in preview in 16:9.

For me it's not a huge issue but I would like to get my friend to pick up vegas but he's not video savy andif possible I would like for him to edit in 16:9.

I've tried setting the Properties to match video settings and all the pixel aspect ratios.

Here are some screen shots of what I'm referring to:

Preview window:
http://i648.photobucket.com/albums/uu208/bk-vegas/videopreview-01.jpg

Render:
http://i648.photobucket.com/albums/uu208/bk-vegas/render-01.jpg

Properties:
http://i648.photobucket.com/albums/uu208/bk-vegas/screenshot-02.png

Media Info:
Format : MPEG-PS
File size : 44.6 MiB
Duration : 1mn 19s
Overall bit rate : 4 726 Kbps

Video
ID : 224 (0xE0)
Format : MPEG Video
Format version : Version 2
Format profile : Main@Main
Format settings, BVOP : Yes
Format settings, Matrix : Default
Duration : 1mn 19s
Bit rate mode : Variable
Bit rate : 4 154 Kbps
Nominal bit rate : 7 700 Kbps
Width : 720 pixels
Height : 480 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate : 29.970 fps
Standard : NTSC
Resolution : 8 bits
Colorimetry : 4:2:0
Scan type : Interlaced
Scan order : Top Field First
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.401
Stream size : 39.2 MiB (88%)

Thanks in advance for any assistance!

Comments

Eugenia wrote on 4/22/2011, 4:34 PM

Your project properties are wrong, and you're exporting wrongly too. Your project properties' aspect ratio must be the 1.2121 NTSC 720x480 widescreen template, you're using the 4:3 one instead.

Then, when you export, export like this:
http://eugenia.queru.com/2007/11/09/exporting-with-vegas-for-vimeo-hd/
BUT with the following differences:
854x480 resolution
1.000 aspect ratio
progressive
3,000,000 bitrate (max 6 mbps if you're using VBR)

Byron K wrote on 4/23/2011, 1:00 PM

Thanks Eugenia for the assistance.

I applied the recommended settings to the properties and am still getting the black pillars. The video does fill the preview screen.

Here are some screen shots of the settings and preview screen in Studio.

http://i648.photobucket.com/albums/uu208/bk-vegas/projpropvstudio-01.jpg

http://i648.photobucket.com/albums/uu208/bk-vegas/preview-vstudio-01.jpg

Any other suggestions or assistance greatly appreciated. (:

musicvid10 wrote on 4/23/2011, 1:14 PM

Byron,
Vegas is not reading your source aspect flag correctly.
Go to Project Media, right-click on your file(s), Click Properties, and change the pixel aspect flag manually.
This should fix it.

Byron K wrote on 4/23/2011, 1:30 PM

Pure Genius! It works!!

Not sure why Vegas cant detect this automatically.

Could this be a minor bug? Should Match Media Settings, in the File, Project Properties window automatically adjust this setting?

Is there a way to select all the events on the time line and make this setting?? Right now it looks like I have to select each event individually and change the Media, Pixel aspect ratio.

Thanks Eugenia, Musicvid for your suggestions and assistance! (:

musicvid10 wrote on 4/23/2011, 2:11 PM

Vegas responds to the flags in the file header -- if they are incorrect the appearance in Vegas will be incorrect. Doesn't happen very often, but it happens.

Byron K wrote on 4/24/2011, 1:16 PM

The work around is fine for now, as I won't be the one editing the 80-90 clips. (:

In another consumer video app, the videos open fine in the proper aspect ratio.

I also opened a ticket w/ Sony Tech to have them verify this.

Thanks everyone for your assistance!