Make video aspect ratio same as my image? (Black bars)

Help/How To
1

Hi there!

I was wondering if there is a way to make the size of my video exact the same as the image I imported?

So, basically I created an image (900x640) and put it onto a video track. But when I export it, there are black bars on the left and right side.

Settings -> Video Mode is set to Automatic

Is there a way to manually say to Shotcut to make it exact 900x640?

Setting the aspect ratio to 4:3 helped a little bit but the bars just got a little smaler and are still there :frowning:

Unbenannt.png1920×1040 112 KB

2

After you start Shotcut, before you add any files, go to Settings->Video Mode->Custom ->Add… There you can create any video mode you want. In “Automatic” mode, Shotcut will only choose from the available video modes - it will not create a new one that matches your file.

As a developer, I would like to better understand your use case: Can you please explain why you would want the video in a non-standard size? Any display device you could show this video on will be forced to add black bars to make it fit. What device are you targeting with this?

3

Thank you for your help Brian.

I’m not really sure if my use case is really that representative for you. First of all you have to know that my knowledge about videos and video editing is virtual non-existent and this was my first ever made video.

My plan was to create a collage and therefore I created a picture. Once this was done it needed some music in the background. I did not thought about on which devices this will be played at the end. I also didn’t really thought about which aspect ratio or resolution my picture must have in order to be properly shown on multiple devices. I used Paint.Net and just draw a rectangle and filled it with content. I did this for an website like Imgur. So pictures/videos you open there auto-fit till a certain size if you ask me.

This is all what I can say about my use case. I hope it will help you nevertheless!

4

Thanks for the explanation. Just to set you expectations appropriately, 900x640 comes out to an aspect ration of about 1.4 - which doesn’t match any common device displays.So whatever device you decide to play this video on (be it a TV or a phone), the device will add black bars to make it fit.

Had you selected a more common resolution (like 1280x720 or 1920x1080), then it would fit most displays perfectly.

5

hi all,
perhaps im waking up the past, but i encountered a similar issue.
i imported a video with weird aspect ratio (recording a podcast with 2 people, so it has 1920x980, or something of some sort).
then i already started editing the video and i cut it into sections. i also used the crop filter to crop it into 16x9 aspect ratio.
but when i finished editing, i still have the 2 black bars from the original size.
is there any way i can update the aspect ratio at this point? or do i need to edit the entire video from scratch?

6

Change your Video Mode to something with a 16x9 aspect ratio and then reconfigure your crop filter to fill the screen.