16 x 9 movie window

[Taddy]

I have a movie that plays at 16 x 9 in the quicktime player but whe I import it to my Pro Tool session it squeezes it to a 4 x 3 movie window. I know there is a way to get a 16 x9 movie window happening? I know you can because I have a quicktime movie that's in 16 x 9 and plays as 16 x 9 in a Pro Tools session.

Why don't all 16 x 9 quicktime movies do this? Do they have to be in a special format / size?

Thanks.

[Taddy]

OK, so here's some more info from the "Movie Info" window in Quicktime.
The follow plays happily in Pro Tools at a 16:9 (Widescreen) aspect ratio.

Format

DV, 720 x 576 (1024 x 576), Millions
16-bit Integer (Big Endian), Stereo, 48.000 kHz

FPS
25

Normal Size
870 x 490 pixels

Current Size
870 x 490 pixels (Actual)

And this one plays all squeezed up into a 4:3 aspect ratio.

Format

16-bit Integer (Little Endian), Stereo (L R), 48.000 kHz
DV, 720 x 576 (1024 x 576), Millions

FPS
25

Normal Size
1024 x 576 pixels

Current Size
1024 x 576 pixels (Actual)

Are there any quicktime movie experts out there who can tell me what's going on here?

Thanks.

[Taddy]

I found this thread where Polaris seems to have the 16:9 / 4:3 problems sorted. Trouble is I don't quiet understand what he means. He says something about

resizing the DV file to 640 x 480 to have PT line double the picture on his second monitor".

and somthing about a "presentation flag setting" in Quicktime Pro 7.1.3 (which I have).

Can anyone explain what he means by this in layman terms to someone (me) who doesn't understand the complexity of digital video to get 16:9 aspect ratio pictures happening in the Pro Tools movie window.

I need to understand how to change the video file size in Quicktime Pro. Do I export as a different size and format or do I change the size in the "Show Movie Properties" window? And what DV format works the best in Pro Tools to acheive a 16:9 aspect ratio in the movie window.

Any help would be greatly appriciated as I am damn tired of looking a squished up pictures all day!

[Taddy]

Hooray! I think I've worked it out. Here it is step by step on how to make that squished up 4:3 aspect ratio picture, thats suppose to be widescreen, 16:9 in the movie window.

1. Open the video file in Quicktime 7.1.3. (I think you may need Quicktime Pro. Not sure about that one.)
2. Go to Window > Show Movie Properties.
3. Select the name of your video file then "Presentation".
4. Set the "Conform aperture to Classic".
5. Select the "Video Track" and then visual settings.
6. Set the "Scale Size" to be a 16: 9 pixel size. (May need to untick "Preserve Ratio" if it's not a 16:9 ratio.) 1024 x 576 pixels works well accross a 17" monitor.
7. Close the "Properties" window and save the file.
8. Open it up in Pro Tools and it should come up as the size you set.

As you can see, I've spent hours researching this to no avail. This is a bunch of self taught steps worked out mainly by trial an error. If anyone knows of any other way to acheive this, or these steps don't work for you, let me know.

Finally, I get to look at normal sized heads!