Cropping a 9:16 video to 16:9 does not work

Plekuz

Newbie Joined: Feb 21, 2015 12:30 Messages: 3 Offline

Solved by

Sep 24, 2016 14:59

I have several 9:16 (aka portrait) videos. What I try to do is use crop and zoom to cut a 16:9 (aka landscape) portion out of the video. Lets say the video is 1080x1920, I want to crop to 1080x608 and in production blow it up to 1280x720 or maybe 1920x1080.

I load the 9:16 portrait clip on the timeline. I select Power Tools --> Crop & Zoom. Crop to the part I want to keep in 16:9 landscape size (part of the top and bottom of the original video will be lost). The small preview window in the C&Z window show me exactly what I want, however when I get out of the C&Z window:

When I work in 16:9 mode, the preview window shows a horizontally stretched video and the resulting video is stretched as well and the crop does not correspond with what I selected. In 9:16 mode it just blacks out the top and bottom of the video. I cannot seem to get the crop to work as I want it too: cut a landscape video out of a portrait video.

I hope anyone out here can tell me what I am doing wrong or if it is at all possible what I want. I am using PD15 Ultimate Studio. Thanks!

ynotfish

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

Sep 26, 2016 00:15

Hi Plekuz -

You've discovered an issue with PDR15. It's not anything you're doing wrongly.

Following that same procedure in PDR14 would yield the result you're after... but PDR15 "glitches" at the Video Crop stage. It "reads" 16:9 clips properly apart from that.

I am sure this will be reported to CL & a fix will be included in a future patch.

Until then, you can achieve the same thing in PiP Designer, by resizing and repositioning the video so that your preferred 1080x608 section fills the screen. That's actually a simpler way to do it anyway.

Cheers - Tony
Visit PDtoots. PowerDirector Tutorials, tips, free resources & more. Subscribe!
Full linked Tutorial Catalog PDtoots happily supports fellow PowerDirector users!

Plekuz

Newbie Joined: Feb 21, 2015 12:30 Messages: 3 Offline

Sep 26, 2016 13:44

Thank you very much for your excellent answer! Never figured PiP designer could be used to create a crop that fills the screen. Tried it with a few clips and it works great. Again thanks!

philscomputerlab

Member Joined: Oct 09, 2014 03:04 Messages: 53 Offline

Sep 27, 2016 10:26

Nice to see that with version 15 it has proper video cropping

I don't think that was the case previously. Very happy about that feature. Website
YouTube

Longedge

Senior Contributor Joined: Apr 28, 2011 15:38 Messages: 1504 Offline

Sep 27, 2016 13:53

...................

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at Nov 08. 2016 11:07

philscomputerlab

Member Joined: Oct 09, 2014 03:04 Messages: 53 Offline

Sep 27, 2016 14:58

You're right of course!

My memory was a hazy. It was the freeform crop that was absent. PD 15 has that now

The older version had freeform crop for images, but not for video. Website
YouTube

Longedge

Senior Contributor Joined: Apr 28, 2011 15:38 Messages: 1504 Offline

Sep 27, 2016 16:16

.....................

This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at Nov 08. 2016 11:07

ynotfish

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

Sep 27, 2016 19:16

Hi Longedge -

Something PDR15 does facilitate, unlike any previous version, is the keyframing of masks... position, scale, opacity & rotation. That may well cater for what you're after, if I understand "create a graduated or fading crop" properly.

Example:

PDR15 can also crop to 16:9, 4:3, 9:16 or freeform

Cheers - Tony

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at Sep 27. 2016 19:39

Visit PDtoots. PowerDirector Tutorials, tips, free resources & more. Subscribe!
Full linked Tutorial Catalog PDtoots happily supports fellow PowerDirector users!

Dirk17

Newbie Joined: Jul 26, 2017 09:54 Messages: 3 Offline

Jul 26, 2017 21:33

I just downloaded the Director Suite with version 15 of Director, and when I use the freehand cropping tool, the PIP shows the clip correctly, but when saved, it distorts the ratio of the picture and zooms in instead. Same problem as mentioned above (see pictures of rugby player). I have seen Youtube videos that show it done properly, but I cannot get mine to work. Is there something I do wrong or is this a (big) bug that has not been resolved in the past 12 months? Any suggestions welcome.

ynotfish

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

Jul 27, 2017 22:36

Hi Dirk -

Because I never crop 9:16 videos to 16:9, I was blissfully unaware that this was still an issue. But is is. See attached screenshot.

Cheers - Tony


Filename	9.16-16.9 Crop.png	Download
Description
Filesize	689 Kbytes
Downloaded:	83 time(s)

Dirk17

Newbie Joined: Jul 26, 2017 09:54 Messages: 3 Offline

Jul 27, 2017 23:04

Quote Hi Dirk -

Because I never crop 9:16 videos to 16:9, I was blissfully unaware that this was still an issue. But is is. See attached screenshot.

Cheers - Tony

Hi Tony. You hit it right on the mark. That is exactly what happens to my project. Is there a solution for this?

Cheers.

ynotfish

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

Jul 28, 2017 16:25

Quote: Is there a solution for this?

I'm not sure about a "solution" to the Crop & Zoom issue, but a simple way to achieve the same crop is to open the 16:9 clip in PiP Designer & resize/reposition it to fill the 16:9 screen.

Screenshot attached. Same result. Different method.

It's important to be aware that (doing this) the resolution is seriously compromised. A 1080x1920 (9:16) video cropped to 16:9 will be 1080x608, so producing to anything more than anything more than that would give poor results.

Cheers - Tony


Filename	PiP Designer Crop.png	Download
Description
Filesize	1799 Kbytes
Downloaded:	56 time(s)

Dirk17

Newbie Joined: Jul 26, 2017 09:54 Messages: 3 Offline

Jul 31, 2017 07:11

Quote

Quote: Is there a solution for this?

Hi Tony,

Yep. That works. Took me a while to figure out how you did it, but that works. As you warned, resolution becomes quickly an issue but it is the solution. Thanks again.