Hey DiscDude!
Right, we captured to VF and the image is correctly proportioned in preview, but of course has black bars top and bottom.
We haven't rendered yet, so I am going to try the crop feature and see what we lose, probably not much except for the close shots which I could leave uncropped.
It does help, thanks, will let you know what happened.
Reg

DiscDude:
It worked fine. I used Pan&Crop, convert to output format, and it worked fine. We did a test VHS tape and it was great. Then proceeded to replicate on all 98 clips. Did 'em one at a time to make sure I wasn't cutting somebody out. This software is incredible, and the forum is a huge help. You have made at least 4 people happy tonight!
Many thanks,and we've got 16/9 turned OFF!
Reg

There is one other option. Crop a bitt off the sides and leav a bit of a black bar top & bottom.

I noticed that on TV these days a lot of programmes are semi-wide-screen. This halfway house option means you're less likely to chop people off the edge of the screen when you crop them, but be more 'pleasing to the eye' when viewed on 4:3 tv.

Makes you wish for a project wide pan/crop tool ;) Something to suggest to Sonic Foundry.

Glad to hear everything worked out.

After cropping 98 scenes, I couldn't agrre more about the project-wide tool! It took me about an hour, but considering the alternative, it was a breeze.
Thanks again, both
Reg

Sonic Foundry has a product suggestion form. Anytime I have a "bright" idea, I go and fill out the form.

http://www.sonicfoundry.com/support/productsuggestion.asp

As I've recently been applying my own "presets" to cropping clips, to get rid of messy bits on my analogue footage, I've been reading this thread with more than a little interest. It works very well.

My question to you, RW, is this: couldn't you have "rendered" a whole lump of clips, say 25% of your total footage, then apply your own preset or whatever, to that 25% and then move on to the next 25% of footage? And then so on and so on till you had the whole thing done. Yes, you would have had the extra render times in addition to the whole "project" time, but you wouldn't have had to repeat a process 98 times. Or am I missing something?

Anyway well down!

Regards

Grazie

Grazie:
It's good to hear from someone who spells analogue the same way I do! As to the crop preset, I am not that far advanced, although I did give it a quick try. I was under a time constraint, so I happily barged ahead as reported. Will try again. I am actually a still photographer, but do all the computer video work for my wife's wedding business, so am a learner on VF. Practice time is what I need! I find reading this site gives me a great ideas, for example I picked up on slow motion from a recent posting and had a need to use it in the next video.
And to DiscDude, I'll do that - suggestion submission, thanks. I am still amazed at how great this software is.
Thanks all,

RW - Oh yeah, AND Colour not color!

Speeaking from experience, barging ahead IS the way to go. When it comes to drawing the curtain apart on the virtues of this remarkable "budget-end" NLE, the VF manual just doesn't cut it. There is just sooooo much available here. I regard my purchase of VF as one of the better investments I've made. Having almost lost the will to live using VideoWave 3 and 5 AND as a result almost walking away from dig-vid work in general, VF came through for me. If it wasn't for VF I really do think I would have thrown in the towel. Honestly, I can't believe the stuff I'm now producing with this s/w package.

I'm presently editing some of my footage I did when I was invited by a Wedding Video pro, to film him and his mate on a marriage shoot. My "brief" was to produce a "training" type vid on what a typical wedding shoot needs to do and include etc etc. I'm not a pro, but have found this type of activity a majorly important spurt for improvement and up-skilling my "toolbox".

I think you may be UK based? If you wish to contact me directly we could share 'n compare on wedding video ideas. Up to you.

Oh yes, I'm also a Non-Qualified member of the Institute of Videographers - very valuable. Our next convention will be at Birmingham in, I think, March/April 2003. I would recommend a visit - can't do any harm!

Regards

Grazie

Graham:
Here's the scoop, I am a Canadian and my wife is British-Canadian (note which was first), but we are living in Cozumel, Mexico. I'd like to respond positively to all your items, but we should probably go direct unless you think this stuff would be of interest to the forum. My email is regmwatts@hotmail.com, Patricia's website is www.beachweddingscozumel.com

I agree on VF, as I was "VW4-burned" and Patricia was ready to revert to manual editing, it was a delightful surprise to download VF. I don't have a manual of course, and the Help function and tutorials rarely cover the points I need. That's where this forum comes in. It also seems to be uncommonly polite!

The training project you shot sounds fascinating, I would like to see it. Our wedding shoots are quite demanding, as most take place on or around the gorgeous beaches here, on sailboats, at ruins, and there is always a time constraint and wide lighting variations. After a dozen or so delivered to happy customers, we are still developing the "shoot" model as well as the production routines, so dialogue on this would be great, probably more so for me than for you. As Patricia is primarily a wedding planner, she shoots weddings for an associate here and we hire another chap to shoot her own customers' events. But I am on the receiving end for production. I love it!

England in April?....Oh to be in......, however that period looks pretty busy for us, we are even booking some wedding for 2004!

Let's chat more, must go now, wedding this PM (no video)

Reg

The Sonic Foundry manuals are here. The VF one, while useful, isn't 100% right though!

Cheers

Ian G.