Widescreen rendering issue

LibbyKino wrote on 4/18/2008, 12:35 PM

I recently made the switch from Premiere to Vegas, and some of the settings are literally driving me insane... here's my problem:

The movie footage I'm using was captured via FRAPS from a video game on a widescreen monitor (1920x1200 res) at "half size" which makes my video initially 960x600. Since Vegas' highest setting appears to be 720x480, that's what I'm trying to use. -- Even though at that size I should have a little empty black space at the top and bottom since my footage will only be 450 pixels tall. But I'm fine with that... really.

So I edit away, adding sound and text and all sorts of stuff, and I'm watching in the preview box and everything looks great. However, when I render the movie, the finished product doesn't match the preview... There's a humongous black space on the bottom and both sides of the actual content, and the content itself looks like it's been squished from widescreen to 4:3. And no matter what I change in the settings, this always happens...

I've tried:
NTSC DV Widescreen (720x480, 29.970 fps)
NTSC DV Widescreen (720x480, 29.970 fps) with Square Pixels
NTSC DV (720x480, 29.970 fps)
NTSC DV (720x480, 29.970 fps) with Square Pixels <-- btw... why are these two ratios the same? One's widescreen and the other is not.......
PAL DV Widescreen (720x576, 25.000 fps)

And they all come out the same... disfigured with lots of empty space.

I know it's more than likely user error... but I for the life of me cannot figure out what I'm doing wrong, and I'm getting ready to abandon this whole project. Please help! Perhaps someone much wiser and more experienced with this program could just tell me the correct settings I'm supposed to use for a widescreen video.

OH and also, not sure if it matters... but if I ever do finish this thing, it's going on the internet and not onto a DvD.

Comments

Seth wrote on 4/18/2008, 12:49 PM

First off, Vegas has been able to handle up to 2k cinema resolution for many years now. Here's how you change the settings:

Alt+Enter will open up your project settings, where you can change the project resolution, frame rate and color depth, among other things. You can use a preset, or you can create a custom frame size just for your project.

bStro wrote on 4/18/2008, 1:14 PM

why are these two ratios the same? One's widescreen and the other is not..

Google "pixel aspect ratio."

Simply put, standard and widescreen video use the same number of pixels. Widescreen just uses wider pixels in order to get more information in the same amount of space. The camera simply "squishes" the image for storage and then the display device (DVD player, generally) "unsquishes" it.

Note that "pixel aspect ratio" is different from "display aspect ratio." 16:9 and 4:3 are display aspect ratios and refer to the full image itself. Common pixel aspect ratios are .9117 and 1.2121 -- these refer to the size of the pixels.

Rob

johnmeyer wrote on 4/18/2008, 1:23 PM

You can render at any resolution you want, unless you are rendering to DV, HDV or some other format that has fixed resolution. Just type the numbers you want. The easiest is to simply specify, both for in the Project Properties dialog, and in the Render As dialog, the exact same resolution, field order, and pixel aspect ratio as your original footage.

LibbyKino wrote on 4/18/2008, 1:25 PM

Well thanks for the info, I guess... but I'm already aware of how to change the project settings. Like I said in my OP, I tried several of the presets that you can chose from that window. And when I try to put in my own dimensions (like 960x600), they don't stay... it automatically reverts to 800x600. Not to mention that I can't even change the dimension settings at all on the Render As window. I can choose templates from a drop down menu, but the height/width options are grayed out. I can only change the options when I select "Default Template (uncompressed)." But when I try to put in my own dimensions (960x600) I get an error message that says "Vegas Movie Studio does not support output frame sizes greater than 1440 (width) by 1080 (height). The template you selected has been removed from the template list."

I just don't understand why my video is normal looking (widescreen) in the preview, and all squished up (4:3) in the finished product? There should be an option for noobs like me that says "make the finished product look like the preview." Honestly, isn't that what a preview is?

Thanks for helping, but my problem is still unsolved. :/

rmack350 wrote on 4/18/2008, 2:24 PM

Vegas Movie Studio supports SD resolutions, Movie studio Platinum supports HD resolutions, Vegas Pro supports more tracks, etc.

Try downloading the studio Platinum Trial and see if that does what you need.

Rob Mack

rmack350 wrote on 4/18/2008, 2:26 PM

Libby is using Vegas Movie Studio, which is limited to SD resolutions.

Rob Mack

kkolbo wrote on 4/18/2008, 2:26 PM

What version of Vegas are you using? Vegas has no difficulty excepting odd sizes for the output in the project settings or the render as.

Are you by chance using Vegas Movie Studio? Movie Studio will accept custom project settings by clicking the modify default template box, but it is limited with the output. I do not see a way to modify output sizes from the normal templates.

LibbyKino wrote on 4/18/2008, 3:07 PM

I'm using Vegas Movie Studio 8.0.

Honestly I really don't have a problem with not being able to completely customize the frame size... I can live with black bars filling the empty space. The only thing I really have a problem with is my movie being squished. No matter what project settings I use, the video always renders in a 4:3 ratio, even though the preview looks like it should.

I really feel like there's just some setting that I'm not doing correctly, so let me go through what I've done...

At first, I was just editing the video and adding tracks, and I hadn't even touched the settings at all. Then when I went to render it for the first time, I found the Project Properties window. It was default set on NTSC DV (720x480, 29.970 fps), so I changed it to NTSC DV Widescreen (720x480, 29.970 fps). All this did was add black bars to the sides of my video in the preview screen.

Then I click on the Make Movie button at the top and chose the same settings as before from the Render Settings window. -- But after the movie is rendered, the proportions are all wrong, and completely different from the preview.

What am I missing?

farss wrote on 4/18/2008, 5:34 PM

The reason why your video is squished is you're using non square pixels. VMS will display this correctly, other things most likely will not. Make certain in your project you are using square pixels and that you render to something with square pixels.

Bob.

Serena wrote on 4/18/2008, 5:37 PM

I'm not familiar with the limitations of Vegas Movie Studio, so may not be of much help here. These are all obvious steps that you probably done already.
1) in a clip click on the event/pan/crop symbol to open that window, right click, select match output format

2) in rendering to NTSC widescreen check option "do not letterbox"

I gather, from other posts above, that options are quite limited in Movie Studio, so your preferred formatting isn't permitted. However the widescreen format is. I presume you have pixel AR set correctly, and there doesn't seem to be much else to suggest.