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Letterboxing by using a mask- Bars not black...
scottF123 [Avatar]
Newbie Joined: Sep 12, 2013 00:37 Messages: 32 Offline
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Hello- I want to create a wider than 16:9 video. Letterboxed on top and bottom. So I go in to masks, select one, choose not to maintain aspect, I drag the top and bottom to get a wider than 16:9 format video with black bars on top and bottom. The problem is, these bars are more a dark gray than black. I have done the same in sony movie studio, and the produced clip has black bars. I even tried making a new mask that is just all black, but its still comes out a real dark gray, not black... Doesn't look nice on a tv. Help!
BarryTheCrab
Senior Contributor Location: USA Joined: Nov 06, 2008 22:18 Messages: 6240 Offline
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scottF123,
welcome to the forum.
You could just place a black color board on the top and one on the bottom. HP Envy Phoenix/4thGen i7-4770(4@3.4GHz~turbo>3.9)
Nvidia GTX 960(4GB)/16GB DDR3/
Canon Vixia HV30/HF-M40/HF-M41/HF-G20/Olympus E-PL5.
Tape capture using 6 VCR, TBC-1000, Elite BVP4+, Sony D8 camcorder with TBC.
https://www.facebook.com/BarryAFTT
BarryTheCrab
Senior Contributor Location: USA Joined: Nov 06, 2008 22:18 Messages: 6240 Offline
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Odd,
I just opened PD12 to try this.
A) Place stock technology image in timeline. Nothing else.
B) Modify with a square mask.
C) Untick aspect ratio.
D) Resize mask to mimic very wide screen.
E) Produce----INSTANT crash.
This is repeatable.

EDIT: I cannot test more now, but it seems it may NOT be from the exercise, as my computer as PD is crashing every time suddenly in Produce, no matter what is in the timeline. I got issues...

This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at Sep 12. 2013 06:35

HP Envy Phoenix/4thGen i7-4770(4@3.4GHz~turbo>3.9)
Nvidia GTX 960(4GB)/16GB DDR3/
Canon Vixia HV30/HF-M40/HF-M41/HF-G20/Olympus E-PL5.
Tape capture using 6 VCR, TBC-1000, Elite BVP4+, Sony D8 camcorder with TBC.
https://www.facebook.com/BarryAFTT
Dafydd B [Avatar]
Senior Contributor Joined: Aug 26, 2006 08:20 Messages: 11973 Offline
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Hi BarryTheCrab,
Please look up thread: http://forum.cyberlink.com/forum/posts/list/29846.page

Best if you take your issue to a new thread - you know all that anyway . I wouldn't be sure it's your computer (PDR11 running ok?).

Dafydd

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at Sep 12. 2013 07:29

Dafydd B [Avatar]
Senior Contributor Joined: Aug 26, 2006 08:20 Messages: 11973 Offline
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HI scottF123,
If you can follow Barry's guide and carry out the task/test (without his crash), you should be ok.
Dafydd
ynotfish
Senior Contributor Location: N.S.W. Australia Joined: May 08, 2009 02:06 Messages: 9977 Offline
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Hi Scott -

That dark grey colour... make sure the mask transparency is set to 100%. Anything less may give you less-than-black.

Just tested here using (a) mask, (b) Barry's color board idea & (c) prepared overlay and each produced file came out out black (i.e. 0,0,0).

I've attached the overlay, sized to replicate a 2.39:1 video.

Cheers - Tony

[Thumb - Cinema_2.39x1 Overlay.png]
 Filename
Cinema_2.39x1 Overlay.png
[Disk]
 Description
 Filesize
10 Kbytes
 Downloaded:
10967 time(s)

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scottF123 [Avatar]
Newbie Joined: Sep 12, 2013 00:37 Messages: 32 Offline
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Hi,

Thanks for all the replies. Yes the transparency was set to 100% in the mask. Thanks Tony, I saved that overlay, I will have to figure out how to use those. (new to this).

I was just trying the different suggestions, and realize it is a matter of how my video is being displayed. I have been trying different programs before I bought powerdirector 12 last night, and I realized that Windows media player and the editing programs were out of sync with colors and contrast. As in WMP showed a lot more contrast and saturation it seems. I found a setting in my Nvidia control panel (nvidia video card), where you can choose to use either the video player, or nvidia settings for color adjustments. I chose nvidia settings and adjusted so that the editing programs and WMP looked similar. In playing with that just now, I see I can make the same video file with the mask look totally black, so I need to go back to the drawing board on that to resolve this.

Thanks very much for all the help!

Scott
ynotfish
Senior Contributor Location: N.S.W. Australia Joined: May 08, 2009 02:06 Messages: 9977 Offline
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Hi Scott -

It's true that different media players - and DVD/BR players & TVs - vary in how colours are displayed. Different editors will render colours slightly differently too... even different formats/profiles.

For viewing on your monitor, in the NVIDIA Control Panel go to Video > Adjust video color settings - select "with the NVIDIA settings" > Advanced > Dynamic Range = Full (0-255).

That doesn't help your TV display, of course!

Cheers - Tony

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at Sep 12. 2013 17:56


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scottF123 [Avatar]
Newbie Joined: Sep 12, 2013 00:37 Messages: 32 Offline
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Hi Tony,

I found the exact setting you mentioned (the full dynamic range thing.) Made the bars black immediately. (Makes sense, the other setting was 16-235 so wouldn't show black as black)... Wonder why that's even there... Anyway, I am looking at now, but just that one setting may have done it!

I am trying to figure out some general things like moving up the music track toward the top in the timeline interface or removing other tracks like video track 2, and turning off the shadow file - (seems to be the way to go especially to adjust sharpness), and the "video enhancement" setting. Will probably make a new post about general settings like that later.

Thanks again,

Scott

Sam2099 [Avatar]
Newbie Joined: Mar 12, 2013 07:14 Messages: 21 Offline
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I have sameproblem with music track
If it can't be moed in time track is there some other way to get a music track higher
Any help would be appreciated
Thanks
borgus1 [Avatar]
Senior Contributor Joined: Feb 27, 2013 00:33 Messages: 1318 Offline
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Quote: I have same problem with music track...


Sam, please start a new topic re your concern.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at Sep 19. 2013 09:13

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