Aspect Ratio Problems Importing Into Movie Maker Vista

I am having problems getting Movie Maker to import video from my digital
video camera in the correct aspect ratio. I am using Vista Ultimate on a HP
9205 Pavilion laptop and a Panasonic NV-GS25 video camera.

I filmed in "cinema" mode, which letterboxes a regular 4:3 image to mimic
widescreen. When I import this into Movie Maker, it stretches the image
horizontally, resulting in an aspect ratio more like 2.35:1. This occurs
whether I choose 4:3 or 16:9 as the video monitor aspect ratio. The only
difference that changing this setting has is to change the amount of black
space above and below the video.

I would use the proprietary Panasonic software that came with the camera
(Motion DV Studio 5.3) but this is not compatible with Vista - in fact, the
installer wouldn't even run.

Any suggestions gratefully accepted.

 

One of the glaring shortcomings of Movie Maker is it lacks many basic
tools and the ability to set up your project as YOU wish it to be as
opposed to what Microsoft thinks it should be.

The issue you're having is also related to frame size, not just aspect
ratio. What frame size does your camera output to when in "cinema"
mode and what file format? I'm guessing it is some flavor of DV AVI
which is fine, but I'm also guessing it is using a non standard frame
size which is easily overcome in professional editing software but if
I had to guess it throws Movie Maker for a loop.

To further muddy the waters all Movie Maker shows on your computer
monitor as options for it's preview window is a laughable small, large
or full screen which does nothing for you. The preview screen should
show your video in the frame size and aspect ratio you are going to
render it to. This is so basic it is laughable that you can't adjust
it. Just so you understand what you're missing most professional grade
video editors allow you to resize your source video within the preview
window so it confirms to your intended frame size. In other words it
DOESN'T MATTER what the size or aspect ratio of your source video is,
one click brings it to what you want it to be in perfect aspect ratio.
Further it will automatically crop or allow you to resize manually if
necessary.

What is your intended target for your finished project? You going to
try to make a CD, DVD, a actual video, slide show, send back to your
camera after editing, just play back off your computer, what?

 

Hi Adam,

Thanks for your response - most of what I film is just home movie style
stuff, so I plan to burn it off to DVD. I occasionally dabble with
amateur-level filmmaking, but nothing I would call serious. If there are
professional packages you use and could recommend, I'd be happy to hear the
advice - in the meantime, it doesn't fix the problem that Movie Maker appears
to be causing.