I use the trim function to adjust the start/stop points of a clip and use the little camera pushbutton in this window to create a snapshot bmp at a point in the clip. Aspect ratio is 4:3, 25fps PAL, OS is XP Media Centre Ed.

If I now insert that bmp into the timeline I get an annoying black border each side of the snapshot still and it appears a little squashed - it's as if the aspect ratio of the snapshot is different to that of the project, indeed it is!

Hover over the thumbnail in Windows file explorer and you'll see that it's dimensions are 720x576 (should be 720x540 to be 4:3).

You'll see the effect in this short clip I posted on YouTube

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=sBmikeTL0K0

The clip is about a faulty gas pipe, not the most exciting of subject matter I admit, but see what happens at 32secs where the still is a snapshot taken of the previous frame. The same thing happens again in the middle and at the end of the clip where I essentially wanted to freeze the action and superimpose a title.

Hope someone can help.

Many Thanks,
Ivor Davies

The following has been added by the Moderator Dafydd Bevan

Ivor Davies' posting duplicated the same issue - and it isn't necessary, they've been combined.

PD5 Snapshots can have crazy resolutions

You can read this in connection with another of my posts as it may be connected.

I recently filmed a trip on my Panasonic camcorder set to 'Cinema' mode. This essentially inserts black bands top and bottom of the picture to create a pseudo 16:9 aspect ratio. If I view the analogue output of this camcorder on my widescreen telly then the image fills the screen nicely.

Using DV capture into PD5 I have to set the project to 4:3 because the material coming out of my camcorder is still essentially 4:3 but with black bands at the top and bottom. This works fine because when the produced video is played on a widescreen telly, the television compensates, when played on a 4:3 telly, you just get black top and bottom. No problem.

Snapshot BMP's taken from this footage in PD5 are VERY strange. Hover over the BMP thumbnail in Windows File Explorer shows that its a bitmap of dimensions 720x540 - correct for 4:3. This is what I would expect.

Open the snapshop BMP in a picture editor like Corel PhotoPaint or Microsoft Photo Editor and it appears to be a tiny little picture with a MASSIVE dpi - totally maxed out dpi of 9999 and dimensions of less than a millimetre! To insert this snapshot BMP into a Word document or anything similar requires tricky resampling to avoid losing quality.

The reason I thought you might want to read this post in connection with the other one I posted is because snapshots taken from footage shot on 4:3 come out with dimensions 720x576 (incorrect aspect ratio but correct resolution) but snapshots taken from footage shot on 4:3 with black bars top and bottom come out with dimensions 720x540 (correct aspect ratio but crazy resolutions).

Anyone else come across this snapshot problem and know a cure to get consistent BMP's out of your footage?

Best Regards,
Ivor Davies