Preview and Render Aspect Ratios are Different

Byron K wrote on 4/22/2011, 2:47 PM
Posted this in the Studio Forum but hope someone here can also 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 from his cam but the video is in an aspect ratio that Vegas cannot seem to adjust to 16:9 preview in Vegas.

Media player and VLC plays the video back fine in proper 16:9 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 Studio so I can help him out 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:
link=i648.photobucket.com/albums/uu208/bk-vegas/videopreview-01.jpg]

Render:
link=i648.photobucket.com/albums/uu208/bk-vegas/render-01.jpg]

Properties:
link=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

SuperG wrote on 4/22/2011, 4:37 PM
The preview window is always controlled by the project properties.

In this particular case, it's set to 720x480 (.909) Which is a standard NTSC 4:3 square display. What is needed, to match the media, is 720x480 (1.2121), It's an easy mistake to make... use the NTSC DV Widescreen preset.
Byron K wrote on 4/23/2011, 12:54 PM
Thanks for the assistance!
Applied the settings and the preview displays black pillars, the video does not fill the screen.

Here are some screen shots of the Properties and preview window.

http://i648.photobucket.com/albums/uu208/bk-vegas/p-prop-vpro-01.jpg

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


Any other suggestions? Thanks!
Byron K wrote on 4/23/2011, 1:37 PM
Recommended by musicvid on the Studio forum:

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.

It works fine now. (:

But, 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 again!


SuperG wrote on 4/23/2011, 7:56 PM
It is just as musicvid said, the aspect flag was/is incorrect in the media itself. Normally, match media would work - *if* the media were reporting correctly.

You went through the right steps. Once you had set the project set to what you *knew* the media was supposed to be (720x480 wide) - when it still showed up pillared - then it became obvious the media was misreporting. And, we both knew the media was widescreen - because the image was 'squashed' horizontally.


Anyway - it's not a problem with Vegas so much as it is with sometimes strange media. Not that you've run in to this issue, you'll likely know what to do in the future - it won't be much of a problem.

Byron K wrote on 4/24/2011, 1:18 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 SuperG for your assistance!
Byron K wrote on 5/17/2011, 10:40 AM
This is not a bug, Sony Vegas officially does not support DVD Camcorder format video. So I'll unfortunately be recommending that my friend use another software to edit his home DVD videos.

Thanks for all the assistance!

Response from Tech Support:

Our file analyzer is identifying the video as a DVD video which is encoded as a program stream. Files directly copied from a DVD are unsupported for editing due to being encoded in a destination format.
rmack350 wrote on 5/17/2011, 11:40 AM
There are a couple of scripts that can change the clip or the event aspect ratios in your project. I use one of them for DVCPro-HD quicktime files because Vegas can't tell that they're anamorphic.

See this thread: http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/forums/ShowMessage.asp?Forum=4&MessageID=761364

I don't know if Studio supports scripting. If it does then I'd either grab the DVFilm script or use RobWood's example. You'll need to alter the PAR number within the script in either case.

Rob Mack
musicvid10 wrote on 5/17/2011, 12:43 PM
"Sony Vegas officially does not support DVD Camcorder format video."

Well, actually it does, via the "Import DVD Camcorder Disc" function in Vegas.
Does importing in this manner correct the aspect ratio inconsistency?

"I don't know if Studio supports scripting."

It does not.