What are the preferred setup properties for a Vegas Pro 22 project using .mp4 files from a Wolverine Film2Video digital Moviemaker?
I want to maintain full movie frame, not crop or stretch to 16:9.
I'd imagine when you load the mp4 into a new vp project you will be prompted to accept the suggested project properties based on the mp4.
Just take it from there.
As Johnny stated, having the project properties automatically set on the import of the first piece of this media should solve that problem for you. The bigger trick is rendering out the video in the proper aspect ratio. For that, you will need to ensure you are using the proper template, or customize your render template with the proper aspect ratio.
In order to give you more specific suggestions, we would need to know all the File Properties from your video captured by your "Wolverine." I suspect you have options there as well that I may be able to help you with. Follow these directions to post your captured file properties:
One common problem with conversion hardware in general is that many of them automatically stretch/crop your source to widescreen (something you don't want) and set the deinterlacing internally, making them rather inflexible to work with during editing.
Also, if you will upload an actual captured clip to Drive or Dropbox (not to this forum or Youtube) it will allow others to try it out on their systems, and perhaps provide suggestions for color correction and grading, as well.
I will check out what you guys have contributed, and I surely do appreciate your help, but here is an update.
My source files look and play with a normal aspect ratio, yet when I import them to the Vegas file, they appear in the media bin and on the timeline as stretched to 16:9. If I right click on the preview screen and deselect "Simulate Device Aspect Ratio", the screen appears normal, but the files in media bin and the visuals on the timeline remain stretched, and if I burn a DVD, it plays back stretched to 16:9. I'm sure I have something set wrong. I went back to an older Vegas file made from .mp4 Wolverine files, which used to appear normal on the timeline and render OK to DVD, but now I get 16:9 panels in the media bin and in the timeline visuals. Any ideas, guys???
I'm onto the problem. Video properties on these imports shows a pixel aspect ratio of 1.333; I think that needs to be 1.000. At least everything acts normal when I make that change.
It can become tricky, anamorphic etc especially when rendering out to mp4 or burning a dvd.
To save time perhaps do an mp4 output render 1st.
If u are sure u have it solved well and good.
If not supply a small source file sample via say dropbox as already requested or if that's not possible then give "Mediainfo " text output here.
Prematurely marking as "Solved" may put users off bothering to look as they figure u are good to go.
My guess is that it's a 4:3 source? If so your output should not be letterboxed (black bars on all sides) but will gave BB'S on both sides.
I'm onto the problem. Video properties on these imports shows a pixel aspect ratio of 1.333; I think that needs to be 1.000. At least everything acts normal when I make that change.
That seems be the ancient problem in which Vegas makes an uninformed assumption about your source aspect ratio.
You see, there are two distinct forms of 1440x1080, one is a squeezed HDV Widescreen Analog Tape format, and the other is a non-anamorphic 4:3 aspect, such as your Digital SD capture.
Magix has yet to come up with the "magic" third factor that would be necessary to distinguish between the two; they may not consider this a high priority given other more current development priorities, but that is only a guess.
If coming up with that third defining factor is not practical, it seems logical at this point for Magix to revisit the "lesser of two evils" debate, including current presumed customer usage data, to determine which is the preferred default state in 2025.
Being somewhat of a "less is more" technology advocate, my public posts have always reflected a preference for 1.0 PAR Default Media Properties for 1440x1080 Source Media. That said, I owned an HDV camcorder at one time...
The HDV anamorphic format hasn't been around too much since digital camcorder acquisition took over, and at the same time interest in capturing DV camcorder tapes (almost everybody had one!) for AI upscaling has taken off, so there is at least a chance that the developers will choose to revisit this long-standing equivocation of formats in Vegas at some point.
Thanks for posting, and welcome to the discussions.
Some Background Information
So if I understand this correctly the PAR\SAR of 1.333 that the OP sees is in his VP 's project properties.
That's why I'm curious what's in the file, maybe the Wolverine doesn't embedded any in the file?
Indeed...it would be helpful to have a piece of sample media to work with here.
I checked all of the Wolverine's specs.
I have a lot of captured 1440x1080 PAR 1.0 4:3 footage that Vegas misreads as if it were HDV Widescreen 1.333 Anamorphic.
One quote from @john_dennis link above to a four-year-old discussion:
Musicvid wrote on 9/15/2020, 7:18 PM
Wow, @VEGASNeal1 thanks! Since I see the hash marks in your icon, may I suggest a future revision?
Instead of making PAR assumptions based on dimensions, may I suggest Vegas "do nothing unless it's in the metadata?"
1440x1080 is not universally 1.333 PAR. In fact, it rarely is that in 2020.
HDV and AVCHD tape, nearly-deprecated formats from one or two decades ago respectively, always contains PAR metadata. At least that's the rule, as they are duly registered formats.
It's a PITA that has cost me extra time on certain projects. It doesn't seem necessary to have to live with it, as it can be bedeviling the first time one runs across it.
Respectfully, a former HDV post-editor.
It's good to know that this seems to be a Vegas problem, not something I'm doing wrong. I don't recall having this problem with Wolverine files before upgrading to Vegas Pro 22, but I do recall needing to convert the Wolverine .mp4s to standard .mp4 with Handbrake for them to work properly with Vegas. Maybe I forgot to do that this time. (Of all the things I've lost, I miss my mind the most!) Thanks, guys, for taking the time for your input.
I have a large source file, a small portion of which I want to import into Vegas. I know I can import the entire file and trim it in the trimmer or on the timeline, but isn't there another way to trim the large file into smaller files before importing into the Vegas project? Is there some free software that can be used for this simple task?
Think I found my answer in Wondershare Uniconverter 15.
You could also use Shutter Encoder - Function 'Cut without re-encoding'