Render in 1280x720, but Vid is Stretched

[Edmond Engler]

Here's a weird one (at least weird to me).

I take videos on my t2i at 720p, 60fps. I transcode using the matrox codecs. Same resolution . . . 1280x720. I edit in Vegas, set property settings to 1280x720, pixel aspect ratio 1.0, then I render Sony AVC, 1280x720, but my dang video comes out stretched!

I can change the render settings to 1920x1080, and then the vid isn't stretched. It looks just right when rendered (even though the project settings don't match the render settings) but it's upscaled. But when I try to render to the size I want, 1280x720, it's about half the height and just as wide as the original. Any thoughts on this?

When I check "properties" of the rendered video, it still says 1280x720 but it clearly is NOT. Much too wide and much too thin (from top to bottom). And all my subjects are squished.

It's got to be something simple, but I've checked my render settings and my project settings over and over and can't figure out what I'm doing wrong.

[Adam Stanislav]

Are you rendering to progressive?

[Edmond Engler]

Yes.

Project settings:

1280x720
field order: none (progressive scan)
pixel aspect ratio: 1.000 (square)
frame rate: 23.976
resolution: best
deinterlace: none

Render settings:

video format: AVC
frame size: high definition (1280x720)
allow source to adjust frame size: not checked (but I've also tried it checked)
profile: baseline
entropy coding: CALVC
frame rate: 23.976
allow source to adjust frame rate: not checked (but I've also tried it checked)
field order: none (progressive scan)
pixel aspect ration: 1.000
bit rate: 12,000,000

[Adam Stanislav]

Have you tried rendering at 60 fps (since that is what the source material is in) to exclude that as the possible cause? Would be a bug, of course, but that would be first thing I would try to eliminate as the culprit.

[Michael Hutson]

I compared my render setting to yours.
Please try changing

Profile: Main
Entrophy Coding: CABAC

If that does not work, I would try changing Frame Size to custom and manually put in 1280 x 720.

Please keep us posted. Good luck

[Edmond Engler]

You know, it's very strange. I changed the frame rate to 59.94 (to match the original clips) and it rendered correctly! I tried changing it back to 23.976 and changed to "baseline" and "cabac" instead of "calvc" ("main" was not available at 1280x720) and it rendered incorrectly again.

Maybe this is a limitation of Vegas Platinum. I don't think it matters much that I rendered it at 1920x1080 because online it plays at a smaller size anyway but I didn't really want to upscale my video and I want the final to be at 24fps, 1280x720, NOT 60fps, 1280x720, or 24fps, 1920x1080, which is all Platinum seems to be allowing me to do. So this is weird. Can it be fixed?

[Adam Stanislav]

Perhaps you could compromise and go with 30 fps? That would probably work (it’s worth a try anyway). I am looking at it mathematically. To convert 60 fps to 30 fps, you just take the average value of every two frames. But to convert from 60 to 24, you need some serious math.

If you do not wish to compromise (or if it does not work), I suspect that an AviSynth script might exist to convert 60 fps to 24 fps. I would search the web for such a script and if/when you find one, just render to 60 fps and then use AviSynth to convert it to 24 fps.

[Jeff Harper]

Edmond, you did not say (or I missed) your final destination, is it the web or DVD? I presume it is DVD from your settings.

If you are going to DVD, 30fps as Adam suggests is not an option for DVD or Bluray as it is not supported.

If your original was recorded in 60fps I'm not sure what the benefit would be going to 24fps. You are, of course, free to do whatever you wish, but 60p is the frame rate of choice for several major networks, and gives excellent results.

To converts 60p footage to 24p I would think you would need to use a third party program to get decent results, and then you still will not see any kind of aesthetic improvement. You might be knocking yourself out for nothing.

[Jeff Harper]

I was wrong about 30p I think...30p is listed as not supported in bluray specs, I thought.

I thought wrong, apparently.

[Edmond Engler]

I hear what you guys are saying. There definitely is a difference in the look of 60fps as opposed to 24fps.

And I don't know why I'd need a third party application to get this to work. Vegas should be able to do this. In fact, when I render 1920x1080, it comes out looking just like I planned it to look, however, it's upscaled to the larger size. See the following link . . .

YouTube - ‪Portland, Oregon Montage‬‏

I was able to get the video to 1280x720 (my original size) by rendering to 60fps . . . I have a link to the video rendered at 60fps below. The fast motion scenes look MUCH different (check out the guy dancing at around 2:15 . . .

YouTube - ‪check it‬‏

60fps, to me, when not in slow motion, looks like a soap opera or something. 24fps, to me, looks much more like a movie, which is what I like. I haven't played much with 30fps at this time. Usually I record my original clips at 1920x1080, 24fps and then render to that exactly. That works fine.

But when I'm doing a lot of slow motion, I'll record at 60fps, then slow the clips down to .4 in Vegas, which is exactly 24fps . . . so it all works. In the reading I've done, it's best to slow down to a speed that's a factor of the original (like I did). I don't know if that's true or not.

But anyway, 24fps is what I like and what I want, so I should be able to render to that in a mature video editing program like Vegas. It works fine if I upscale to 1920x1080, so why won't it work when I use the resolution of my source files (1280x720)? Weird stuff.

I can live with the upscaled version but I find it very strange that I can't get this to work. I still think I must be missing something simple.

My final destination is my computer (I have my comp. hooked to my HD LCD TV in my living room where I watch my vids) and I also put my vids online (youtube, vimeo) for family and friends to watch.

[Phil Lee]

Hi

I would double check the pixel aspect ratio is set to 1.000 on the render out settings, having this set to something else will squish or stretch.

Regards

Phil