Aspect Ratio Problems Importing Into Movie Maker Vista Cthu1hu 6/24/2007 9:09:00 AM I am having problems getting Movie Maker to import video from my digital video camera in the correct aspect ratio. I am using Vista Ultimate on a HP 9205 Pavilion laptop and a Panasonic NV-GS25 video camera. I filmed in "cinema" mode, which letterboxes a regular 4:3 image to mimic widescreen. When I import this into Movie Maker, it stretches the image horizontally, resulting in an aspect ratio more like 2.35:1. This occurs whether I choose 4:3 or 16:9 as the video monitor aspect ratio. The only difference that changing this setting has is to change the amount of black space above and below the video. I would use the proprietary Panasonic software that came with the camera (Motion DV Studio 5.3) but this is not compatible with Vista - in fact, the installer wouldn't even run. Any suggestions gratefully accepted.

Re: Aspect Ratio Problems Importing Into Movie Maker Vista Adam Albright <AA[ at ]ABC.net> 6/24/2007 2:06:41 PM On Sun, 24 Jun 2007 02:09:00 -0700, Cthu1hu <Cthu1hu[ at ]discussions.microsoft.com> wrote: [Quoted Text] >I am having problems getting Movie Maker to import video from my digital >video camera in the correct aspect ratio. I am using Vista Ultimate on a HP >9205 Pavilion laptop and a Panasonic NV-GS25 video camera. > >I filmed in "cinema" mode, which letterboxes a regular 4:3 image to mimic >widescreen. When I import this into Movie Maker, it stretches the image >horizontally, resulting in an aspect ratio more like 2.35:1. This occurs >whether I choose 4:3 or 16:9 as the video monitor aspect ratio. The only >difference that changing this setting has is to change the amount of black >space above and below the video. > >I would use the proprietary Panasonic software that came with the camera >(Motion DV Studio 5.3) but this is not compatible with Vista - in fact, the >installer wouldn't even run. > >Any suggestions gratefully accepted. One of the glaring shortcomings of Movie Maker is it lacks many basic tools and the ability to set up your project as YOU wish it to be as opposed to what Microsoft thinks it should be. The issue you're having is also related to frame size, not just aspect ratio. What frame size does your camera output to when in "cinema" mode and what file format? I'm guessing it is some flavor of DV AVI which is fine, but I'm also guessing it is using a non standard frame size which is easily overcome in professional editing software but if I had to guess it throws Movie Maker for a loop. To further muddy the waters all Movie Maker shows on your computer monitor as options for it's preview window is a laughable small, large or full screen which does nothing for you. The preview screen should show your video in the frame size and aspect ratio you are going to render it to. This is so basic it is laughable that you can't adjust it. Just so you understand what you're missing most professional grade video editors allow you to resize your source video within the preview window so it confirms to your intended frame size. In other words it DOESN'T MATTER what the size or aspect ratio of your source video is, one click brings it to what you want it to be in perfect aspect ratio. Further it will automatically crop or allow you to resize manually if necessary. What is your intended target for your finished project? You going to try to make a CD, DVD, a actual video, slide show, send back to your camera after editing, just play back off your computer, what?

Re: Aspect Ratio Problems Importing Into Movie Maker Vista Cthu1hu 6/26/2007 4:48:03 AM Hi Adam, Thanks for your response - most of what I film is just home movie style stuff, so I plan to burn it off to DVD. I occasionally dabble with amateur-level filmmaking, but nothing I would call serious. If there are professional packages you use and could recommend, I'd be happy to hear the advice - in the meantime, it doesn't fix the problem that Movie Maker appears to be causing. "Adam Albright" wrote: [Quoted Text] > What is your intended target for your finished project? You going to > try to make a CD, DVD, a actual video, slide show, send back to your > camera after editing, just play back off your computer, what? > >