Paul-
Thanks, but by capturing in the trimmer, I mean that I *do* capture from the preview window while the trimmer is displayed in the preview window. I do have the project displayed at project size and best settings. I just tried to repro on a different machine here at work (with different media), and it doesn't repro like the project I have going at home...

There's also a difference between "Save Snapshot" and "Copy Snapshot to Clipboard". Save will produce a 655x480 file while Copy will produce a 720x480 image (both NTSC) that you must paste into a paint program.

Alright, I'm back at home and I tried a more controlled experiment this time. In my first post I incorrectly reported the pixel aspect ratio as being different - actually, the *still image attributes* are different, resulting in an incorrectly proportioned photo.

Jetdv - thanks, I did realize the difference and checked it, and that's why I ran through this exercise (btw - GREAT newsletter - thanks for the effort):

1) Start new project. NTSC DV Template (720x480, 29.97fps). Change "Full-resolution rendering quality" to "Best", and "Deinterlace method" to "Interpolate"

2) Import short DV Clip to media pool

3) Open Clip in Trimmer, and find frame for capture

4) Set "Video Preview Quality" button to "Best (full)" - preview window goes black (Why does this happen - focus of preview window shifts back to timeline view?)

5) Hit Alt-2 (to go back to Trimmer View), then "Save Snapshot to File" button, Saves TrimmerImage.png

6) Drop clip onto Timeline (thus far empty). Now timeline view is in preview window, and navigate to same frame as (3)

7) Hit "Save Snapshot to File" button, Saves TimelineImage.png

Now, all I have in project is original .avi clip, and two .png files, with properties as follows (note different attributes):

TrimmerImage.png: Attributes: 720x480x32, 00:00:00.00
Field Order: None (progressive)
Pixel Aspect Ratio: 1.0000 (multimedia)
Alpha Channel: Straight (unmatted)

TimelineImage.png: Attributes: 654x480x32, 00:00:00.00
Field Order: None (progressive)
Pixel Aspect Ratio: 1.0000 (multimedia)
Alpha Channel: Straight (unmatted)

8) Now, I drop both still images onto timeline, which now contains original clip and the two stills.

9) In the preview window, TrimmerImage has black bars top and bottom, and people are "short and fat". Same results while previewing on external monitor (via firewire/camcorder), except that black bars do not show up (they're barely outside of safe areas)

Please be patient with me here...

10) Ok - render clip and two stills to avi using default NTSC DV template. While viewing the newly rendered vid (in preview window OR on external monitor), the location with the TrimmerImage has identical results as (9) above, while TimelineCapture image has the "correct" and identical proportions as the original vid.

If I change pixel aspect ratio in media properties of TrimmerImage.png to 0.9091, the TrimmerImage photo looks ok (of course).

So with that I restate my original question, deleting number 4 (since my experiment has shown me that I DO need to be concerned): 1)Is this the expected behavior, (2)have I overlooked a preference setting, (3)is it a bug, or 4)What am I doing wrong?

thanks

Frenchy

Ok, I just duplicated the experiment on a different machine, with the same media, and the results are identical:

Capturing a still image via the preview window from a DV clip in the *Trimmer* results in an image with dimensions of 720x480, resulting in a "squashed" image, while capturing an image (same frame on same clip) via preview window from the *Timeline* results in a correctly sized & proportioned image of 654x480.

So, what am I overlooking? (other than the necessity of changing the pixel aspect ratio of images captured from the Trimmer)

Frenchy

I'm really curious about this, so I'm bumping it back up - I know how to work around it - either capture from the timeline, OR change the pixel aspect ratio in the media properties to 0.9091 for those stills captured from the trimmer.

But-

isn't this behavior unusual/unexpected to anyone else? I've got a support request in to SF, but I'd really like some other user feedback. Or is it because of my handle - and everyone hates anything to do with anything French ;) (which I am not)

Frenchy

I have never USED the trimmer. To me, it's nothing but trouble.

Actually, this sort of makes sense to me. Here's my possibly twisted logic:

When you are previewing things in the trimmer, they aren't "part of your project". They're in the trimmer and may be added to the project, but they aren't part of the project yet. Because of this, your project settings don't affect them, and so the preview shows you the raw image. When you preview something that is on the timeline, it is part of your project, and the preview windows shows it with all your project settings applied.

Could this be what you're seeing?