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Aspect Ratio Conversion Program?

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MADDECENT
Posts: 5579 - Karma: 951
I film with a T2i in 1920x1080p, and was playing around in MPG streamclip with making the shots wider. I converted a clip to 1920x800, and think the wideness looks nice, but it essentially just squished the shot vertically to make it wider, and thus distorted it significantly.

I was wondering if anybody knows of a program that could change the aspect ratio of my shots through cutting the top and bottom of the clip a little, making me lose some of the shot, but not distorting it, rather than squishing the entire shot?

Thanks in advance
Oct 20 2010 9:17PM
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MANDER
Posts: 4017 - Karma: 2,038
i would like knowing this as well. bump
Oct 20 2010 10:32PM
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Bentley@DOSMedia
Posts: 1410 - Karma: 1,827
The only way I can think of is just using a timeline with the size you want. 1920x900 for example and throwing the clips in there. The shots should not distort and should just fit to that size.
I would just recommend editing in that timeline, or if for some reason you want some shots in an edit or movie to be that and others the standard 1080, I would put all the shots I want to be different in a timeline thats not 1080 (custom) and render them there and then export as a self contained movie file and they would stay the same and stay raw (SCMs shouldnt convert gamma to 2.2 like quicktime movs... or is it 2.0? I dont remember).
Then just import those raw files into the timeline your editing in. Sounds like a pain, but Im pretty sure this is the only way you can do this.
If you want to do it shot by shot its not too bad since SCMs take like 5 seconds to export. My 30 minute movie takes about 5 minutes to export as an SCM for example.

Hope that helps some.

If your confused, let me know.
Oct 20 2010 10:51PM
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MADDECENT
Posts: 5579 - Karma: 951
Thanks so much. +K
Oct 20 2010 10:53PM
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Bentley@DOSMedia
Posts: 1410 - Karma: 1,827
Yeah no problem man. Let me know how it goes actually. Im not 100% sure it would work perfectly, but I think it should. I would like to hear how it goes.

I actually just tested it realllly quickly in FCP and it works. A bit confusing to set up, but it works.
I know it would be REALLY easy to do in AE, but that would be more annoying.
Oct 20 2010 11:03PM
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Heath.
Posts: 838 - Karma: 149
If you want a whole edit to be say 1920x900, when you export go to the custom size selection, put in that size and (if youre using quicktime pro, not sure about other export/compressors) there will be a selection to "keep aspect ratio" and it will crop it to that size. I did a shitty job explaining it, pm me if you have more questions.
Oct 20 2010 11:08PM
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Bentley@DOSMedia
Posts: 1410 - Karma: 1,827
You can do it that way too, but if he wanted to integrate those shots into a normal 1080p timeline and mix them, it would make more sense to have a 1920x900 timeline (1400 but whatever) and then export those as SCMs to use in the normal 1080p timeline so it doesnt go through the gamma process twice or if your converting to DVD then it would get really messed up.

Also, if you want to keep the black letterbox, I dont know how that would work on quicktime?
Oct 20 2010 11:14PM
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MADDECENT
Posts: 5579 - Karma: 951
Well, it didn't work, but I'm in Vegas and you guys are in FCP, so no worries. It just adds letterboxing to the sides and leaves the clip the same.
Oct 21 2010 9:02PM
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