Video converted to 4:3 when added to timeline

First, I apologize because i’m not familiar with technical terms. I’ll try to describe the issue as accurately as possible, but please feel free to ask for more details if necessary.

I cut an edit with 2 source clips. One was 542x432 H264 with 785x432 aspect ratio.
The second clip is 1280x720 H264 with 16:9 aspect ratio. There are narrow vertical black lines on both side of this clip, so I zoomed it in with Size and Ratio filter to hide those lines.
No matter which one I add to timeline first, the HD clip turns into pillar box (much thicker black pillars on both sides) with wrong aspect ratio in the final export.
I did the same edit in KDEnlive and the result was good.

I recommend to first set a specific Video Mode (rather than “Auto”).

Next, I recommend to apply the Crop: Source Video Filter to cut off the parts that you do not want and to fill the full dimensions of the video mode.

Setting video mode fixed it. Thanks. Btw why there isn’t a 720p 25fps mode?

There is; you need to look more thoroughly. Hint: that is not a broadcast standard mode.

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