Maybe I'm missing something, but my screen captured videos (desktop resolution 1680x1050, or half resolution 840x525) are detected as 4:3 aspect ratio by Avid Studio instead of 16:10.  No matter what format I export as, or what settings I use for project settings, or timeline settings, it makes no difference.  The video ends up being forcibly squished and looks terrible in both the preview window and as a finished product.  In every other video player I use (ex: WMP, VideoLan etc.), the aspect ratio is properly preserved.  The video is in AVI format, recorded by FRAPS.

I'm guessing I will receive a response of something in the form of:

1. Buy another monitor that is 16:9 (pff, yea that'll happen)

2. AS doesn't do 16:10, it never will, surprise surprise.

3. Use program "x" to convert your video since AS doesn't even support forced aspect ratio conversion then re-import it.

 I hope someone here has a better solution

Cheers

16:10 is not a TV aspect ratio, Avidt Studio supports only aspect ratios of TVs, i. e. 4:3 and 16:9

Thanks for the quick reply.  Its unfortunate I had to find this out now.  It would be nice if it could at least crop to 16:9 rather than squish the video to 4:3, then force me to stretch it and zoom.  Maybe I can capture the videos at 1680x945 from now on.

Can you not just click the gear-wheel icon at the top left of the timeline and force the project format back to whatever widescreen 16:9 format you want to use?

I haven't got any video clips of 16:10 aspect ratio, but when I tried with a still image it seemed to work reasonably well; it was inserted into the project at full height; its aspect ratio was maintained and as a consequence was pillarboxed with (fairly narrow) black bars to the left and right.

But right-click the clip on the timeline and you can choose "Scaling | Fit or Fill". Didn't appear to do anything for the still image, but might for video...

Regards,
Richard

I tested a few clips and photos, and here is what I found:

When it is a photo, the black bars are scaled appropriately to keep the same aspect ratio, and all is good with the "widescreen" setting in the timeline settings (gear wheel icon).

For videos that are 4:3 and properly recognized as 4:3, the black bars are inserted into the image correctly.  They are however larger than the photo black bars above in order to keep the proper aspect.

For videos that are 16:10 (like a photo might be), the image is squished into a 4:3 box first, then the same size black bars as above are added to the image.  The video ends up being squished.  The scaling options, fit or fill, still have the same squished appearance.

I'm not sure if I wrote that well enough to be understood, but basicly photo's are scaled well and dynamically based on their size, where as vidoes are forced into one of two ratios by stretching or squishing, then the black bars of the same size are added to the picture on top.

I don't mind publishing videos in 16:9 with black boxes are whatever is necessary, but I don't think its too much to ask for Avid Studio to be able to accept various ratios and add black bars of different sizes as required like in the photos rather than squishing videos to accommodate the only size of black bars available.

I wonder if there is a way to get Studio to recognize a 16:10 video as 16:9.  At least it would be less altered, but as 4:3 it does not look good.

Thanks

1. Buy another monitor that is 16:9 (pff, yea that'll happen)

That decision of course is up to you but if you continue with a 16:10 monitor you will have a problem. Perhaps you have an HD TV lying about you could use as a monitor.

I have been looking at Camstudio and with that is the option of defining the area of the screen to be copied. Hence you could copy an area with a ratio of 16:9.

However, mabe you have Pinnacle Studio. If you right click on a clip in the album the aspect ratio can be changed from 4:3 to 16:9.   No?

In AS set to a 16:9 project and all clips on the timeline, open the editor and select the 2D Editor, choose no preset and unlock the padlock between the horizontal and vertical size. Stretch the preview by adjusting the horizontal value such that the preview fills the 16:9 view. Exit the editor (OK). Right click on the coloured line of the clip that has been edited and copy the effect. Select all the remaining clips and paste.

I just started to play with the size presets but couldn't quite figure it out, the trick was choosing "no preset".  Thanks for that one, that worked great.  The video turned out better than I thought.  I was worried it would be far to pixelated after stretching etc. but AS does a reasonable job when rendering, and it is quite fast ( 30fps-ish ).

Thanks again for all the help to everyone.  I think in the long run, I'll have to set the monitor resolution to a 16:9 ratio when recording, or try my HD tv sitting above my desk for all that.  In the mean time, the 2d editor trick seems to work well enough.

Cheers