I’ve edited together a project on my timeline using two different source videos. The videos are of similar, but slightly different, resolution and aspect ratios. The project is set to the resolution of the initial source video. Using the “Size, Position, & Rotate” filter, I have everything looking nice and consistent when I preview the project in the player; both video sources take up the full screen (about 4:3 ratio) with no letterboxing.
When I export, though, the first video source looks fine, while the second is squashed and letterboxed, despite looking fine in the preview. I’ve been poking around all night but just can’t figure out a solution. Any pointers?
Were those filters set while Preview Scaling was turned on? It is not precise for the sake of speed. Preview is not guaranteed to match final export. If you provide us with the exact dimensions of the first clip, second clip, and Video Mode, we can provide exact scale settings.
I found the solution! Austin, thank you for prompting me to look more closely at the dimensions. I’m posting my solution here in case any other newbies encounter this.
As seen in my Properties tab, clip 1 is 708x480 resolution and 629x480 aspect ratio. Clip 2 is 706x586 resolution and was set to 748x576 aspect ratio. Upon export, clip 2 was displaying in the final video at 708x480 while the whole screen is 708x540 (equivalent to the 629x480 ratio of clip 1). This was making clip 2 squashed and adding black bars at the top and bottom.
The solution was to adjust the aspect ratio of clip two, and required some math to find the correct numbers. The aspect ratio divided by the resolution needed to be equal for the two clips. This meant adjusting clip 2’s aspect ratio in the Properties tab to 706x648.
clip 1 AR / clip 1 res = clip 2 AR / clip 2 res
(629/480) / (708/480) = (706/x) / (706/576)
x = ~648
Adjusting clip 2’s aspect ratio to 706x648 solved the problem.