Problems With Rendering To Widescreen (Any Format)

H18_ENF wrote on 2/12/2010, 12:55 PM
Hi Guys,

Wonder who can offer me some assistance.

I am quite used to working in Vegas off and on for various projects and have become completely stumped by this issue.

I am running on 7.0e (Only recently updated) and have just begun editing a sketch show that I've been developing for a couple of years.

We filmed last week in 16:9 and, having checked in the properties tab in each clip, each clip shows as being 16:9 and plays accordingly in the preview.

HOWEVER...

Whatever format I try to render in, be it avi or Mpg or Mov it comes out as 4:3.

The weirder bit comes that when I watch the raw footage back on the computer, through realplayer or Windows Media it is also claiming to be 4:3.

This has completely got me? What have I done differently this time then... anyone fancy pointing out my mistake?

Any help greatly appreciated.

Regards

Ben

Comments

rs170a wrote on 2/12/2010, 2:45 PM
Potentially dumb thought but I'll suggest it anyway?
Are you 100% positive that you're rendering with a widescreen preset?

Mike
H18_ENF wrote on 2/12/2010, 3:04 PM
Yep, It's the kind of dumb thing I would do though so not a stupid question. But yes I've checked and double checked.

I've just tried importing a known widescreen file into Vegas and then rendered out again still no luck! Really frustrating...
PerroneFord wrote on 2/12/2010, 3:31 PM
OK, try this. Render the file as 720x400 with PAR of 1.00... see what happens. Let's see if it's respecting your choices.
H18_ENF wrote on 2/12/2010, 3:33 PM
Right,

I have discovered that if I render to WMV and custom build the frame size etc then I can get it to be widescreen. But that is as far as I've got. Still no .avi or.mpg.

I even ran it through a VASST plugin I use - 'DVD Prep' and even that wont render it in Widescreen. There must be a setting I've missed somewhere along the line.

Any advice is good!

Cheers

John_Cline wrote on 2/12/2010, 3:38 PM
First of all, there is no aspect ratio flag in an AVI file to tell the video player whether it is widescreen or not. In standard-definition NTSC video both 4:3 and widescreen video have the same image dimensions; 720x480. If it's widescreen, the player must stretch the video from 720x480 to 854x480 to display it correctly, but there either needs to be a flag in the header of the file that says, "This file should be played at 16:9" or you can manually tell the player to stretch the video to 16:9. Like I said, except for the case of a DV-format AVI file, there is no aspect ratio flag in an AVI file so there is no way for the player (or Vegas) to automatically know how to treat it.

This flag does exist in an MPEG2 video file, so you should be able to render a widescreen video, author it up in DVDA as a widescreen project and the DVD player will figure it out.

If you're trying to make a widescreen file to be played back on a computer, you need to specify the 16:9 image dimensions with a pixel aspect ratio of 1:1, like 640x360 or 512x288. Here's a handy chart for frame sizes:

H18_ENF wrote on 2/12/2010, 4:43 PM
Ah Fantastic! Thank you, I now get it!. Sketches looking good again.

Probably should now go and remind wife who I am as I may have spent the best part of two nights swearing at the computer...

Thanks again all.

Ben
Former user wrote on 2/12/2010, 4:46 PM
H18 ENF,

Just to be sure, the chart John gave you is if you are rendering for computer viewing. If you are making a SD DVD, it needs to be 720 x 480 with the 16 x 9 flag.

Dave T2
H18_ENF wrote on 2/12/2010, 5:06 PM
Thanks Dave,

I'll be sure to remember that!

Cheers again all!
Chienworks wrote on 2/12/2010, 5:28 PM
"there is no aspect ratio flag in an AVI file to tell the video player whether it is widescreen or not."

I have to disagree with that, at least as far as DV .avi files are concerned. I've used a camcorder that records both 4:3 and 16:9. When i capture the files Vegas knows which format they are and so does Media Player.
fldave wrote on 2/12/2010, 5:29 PM
The other thing to check is your project settings. Is it set to widescreen also?
PerroneFord wrote on 2/12/2010, 7:53 PM
Which is why he wrote this:

"Like I said, except for the case of a DV-format AVI file, there is no aspect ratio flag in an AVI file"

At least read what he wrote before you tell him he's wrong...