16:9 Footage to 4:3 Footage (without cutting away footage)

[EkaCoralian]

I'm just going to assume that this section mainly deals with footage, so I hope its ok to post here. =s

So I have these nice-quality episodes of a show all on my computer for AMV purposes and such. Thing is, the show is is 4:3 and the episodes themselves are in 16:9, making the footage look slightly stretched (I did not change the aspect ratio of the footage, it is literally stretched as 16:9).
So I guess I want to make the footage 4:3, but the problem is that every time I place the episode in Vegas, set the properties to the normal 4:3 setting and fiddle around with the aspect ratio of the episode, when its in 4:3 a huge chunk of the footage from each side of the shots is taken to make it 4:3.
I'd rather like to keep all of my footage in the same shot rather than make it 4:3 and only focus on a specific part in the middle in the shot.

Here's what I've done:
Properties set to 4:3 AR.


Clip inputted (in original 16:9 form).


4:3 option selected for clip.


Lots of area cut from clip, only focused in the middle. :[

[mirkosp]

To my better knowledge, Eureka 7 is 4:3.
You should probably just do something like

Code: Select all

crop(8,0,-8,0)
spline36resize(640,480)

in AviSynth and then just edit at 640x480 in Vegas.

[Phantasmagoriat]

Yeah, my initial thoughts are to just use avisynth, but if you are using BD footage, you'll want to use a larger 4:3 resolution:

Code: Select all

spline36resize(960,720)

If you can't do that, you can do it in your editor... if you trust their resizers >.>
First set your Project Properties the way you intend to render:
Width: 960
Height: 720
PAR: 1.00000

Then, in your timeline, right-click the footage you want to fix:
Properties > Media > and change PAR to 4:3 (1.333333)
Note: for whatever reason, some editors may require the inverse of that... so 3:4 (0.7500)

Make sure to use the same settings as in Project Properties for everything else, including any effects, and rendering.

Hope this helps

[Cannonaire]

It looks like there is a settings mismatch in Vegas... let me explain. You set your PAR correctly in the project settings, but you also need to set it to that for every video clip you import (very annoying, but this is actually pretty much the best way you can do things). Just right click on the project media files and change the PAR. If that still doesn't help, I could probably take a look at some sample footage and try to help you figure it out. Any scene with a real circle in it should help.

[mirkosp]

Not sure if Eureka Seven got BDs aside for the movie, but if it did, it's an upscale from 480, so doing 960x720 should be discouraged...

[Phantasmagoriat]

Not sure if Eureka Seven got BDs aside for the movie, but if it did, it's an upscale from 480, so doing 960x720 should be discouraged...

Oh IDK, even if it is an upscale, it'll still look better than 480p... unless they did a crappy upscale, which can happen.

[EkaCoralian]

Eureka seveN got released on BD in Japan, but just not in English yet (to my knowledge).
Anyways the 960x720 thing seems to have worked (I think). I didn't even know the Media tab existed to be perfectly honest. =s
Does this look about right?

[mirkosp]

It does, though I seriously would discourage keeping an upscaled res. E7 is a BONES anime, and BONES, even nowadays, doesn't go beyond 960x540 (even star driver BDs were just that), so an even older and 4:3 show has certainly no chance of being 720p and just a very very slim one of being 540p.

[Phantasmagoriat]

Looks alright to me.

As long as your video completely fills your 960x720 canvas (doesn't have any black bars on the edges) it probably worked.
An alternative method would be to right-click a clip, and uncheck "Maintain aspect ratio" so that the clip is forced to use the height and width in your Project Properties.

[Cannonaire]

Eureka seveN got released on BD in Japan, but just not in English yet (to my knowledge).
Anyways the 960x720 thing seems to have worked (I think). I didn't even know the Media tab existed to be perfectly honest. =s
Does this look about right?
Quoted Image converted to link:
http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p240 ... /fixed.png

What resolution was your footage originally? Was it 720x480, or was it higher res? If it was originally 720x480, there was no need to upscale.