Cropping

So I know that once you crop something, you can make it fill the screen by zooming in under Size, Position, & Rotate…but I often deal with videos where they only fill the screen once you’re in fullscreen mode (in VLC for instance). So if I crop something on the sides, the video becomes a little square in the center of blackness (unless you’re in fullscreen mode)…Does anybody know if it’s possible to make it fill the screen no matter what?..I realize that there’s a chance this question might be better suited for a VLC forum, but Shotcut offers a wide array of options, & I wanted to make sure I’m not missing something…Thanks ahead of time if anyone has any suggestions.

This is impossible because different screens are different sizes. There is no-one-size-fits-all.

The key to aspect ratios in Shotcut is choosing the correct Settings > Video Mode before you start your project. If you have a specific screen size that you want to target, set the video mode to match it. If you don’t have a specific screen size to target, then you are probably better off setting the video mode to match the native resolution of your source clips. In that case, you would let the user control the aspect ratio conversion in their player (like you mention with VLC).

I shouldn’t have used the word screen. I think I meant window, like the VLC player window. So for instance, I have this video thats 480 x 558 that fills up the VLC player window no matter what. Doesn’t matter if its small or fullscreen…but the quality is terrible, so Im trying to replace the clip with a better copy. The best I could find is 1280 x 720, which Shotcut automatically gauged in the advanced section (I think it does with all videos right?). Anyway, it only fills up the VLC window in fullscreen…so to make it fill the window regardless of size like the bad copy does, you’re saying I’d have to alter something in VLC? Or is there something I can do in Shotcut? Sorry for being slow btw. I’m still a bit new to this stuff.

Does that not make sense?

This does not make sense, that resolution is almost a square slightly longer on the vertical axis. There’s no way that fills up your screen, you probably have a standard screen like 1920x1080 which is a horizontal rectangle with the ratio 16x9.

Try to set video mode to 1280x720 (or 1920x10800) and use the Crop:Source filter with the center checkmark checked.

Sorry again for saying the wrong thing. You’re right; it doesn’t fill it up on the sides, but at least it’s not a little square in the center. Here, it’s easier just to show you:

Old Version

New Version

If the new version looked that way in Shotcut, I would just zoom in under Size, Position & Rotate, but it doesn’t. It looks normal…& when it’s fullscreen it looks normal…It’s only when the VLC window isn’t fullscreen…& the preview for the video (i.e. the video image/thumbnail) is also tiny in the center like that…Btw, if it was only this video, I wouldn’t bother asking, but it happens pretty frequently, so I’d love to know if there’s a way to avoid it…Also, I just tried what you suggested. Video mode was already on 1280x720 (again, Shotcut automatically gauges that as far as I know). I did check the center box though, but the result was the same…

@daniel47
@brian Does it still not make sense?

The screenshots are very useful. You must first make sure the video fills the entire Shotcut preview, this is done with the Crop:Source or Size position&rotate filer. You’re probably using crop:Square?

Show us another screenshot from the Shotcut screen with your crop filter and how the video video area in shotcut displays it.

I’m actually using Crop Source. Here it is:
New Version in Shotcut window
Thanks so much for your help by the way.

Ok, so there are black areas to the sides in your preview. Those remain in the video because the “canvas” (=video mode) that you’re working on is a big horizontal rectangle.

Now I am guessing you want to cut the sides so the final video is just the vertical rectangle that we see now in the video, right?

For this, there is a better option than crop (so disable it for now), it is called Reframe. See here for details on how to use it. Basically you select an area on the screen that the final video will contain.

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Thank you so much! That worked…The sides never actually bothered me; it was more about the black bars that would appear on top & bottom, but this is even better. The fact that Reframe allows the video to show exactly what you want is amazing…Thanks again.

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