I see that you use the essentials/ free version of PD. This version does have limitations compared to the full version. Bare that in mind when trying the following:
What you get may also be caused by the media player you use…
The steps I would take are:
Open a new project and define / set the format to 16:9
Open you video clip(s) to put them in the media-room and put them on the timeline.
When you get a message like “aspect ratio conflict” then say no, you don’t want to change. (I don’t expect you get this message since the aspect ratio for 1280x720 is still 16:9)
Now click on the clip in the timeline and in the tools-menu click on crop/zoom/pan
In the window that opens, move the white box to make it smaller. In the right-hand top corner, you can see what the result of that “cropping” does.
Now click on ok and in the preview screen you should now the image of the clip you want to get. (in the image included in your message, I see that there is some distortion of the ratio. I guess that is not what you want. (and don’t get if the follow the above steps).
Repeat the above for each clip in the timeline.
No produce the clip(s) to an output format, but when select one, make sure that the ratio is still 16:9
Let us know whether that will do the trick (and whether this can be done with your version at all).

There are many good tutorials out there. Please look at: https://www.cyberlink.com/learning/powerdirector-video-editing-software/445/how-to-use-the-zoom-and-crop-tools
but there are others too like:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-krFuzyOcik&ab_channel=PowerDirectorEssentialsfromtheSharperTurtle
etc. etc.

Hi

Thanks very much for your quick reply. I followed your instructions, had one problem, but in the end, it rendered in the cropped size.

The difficulty was moving the cropping lines to cover the area I wanted for the final product. Even using free form, it was difficult to centre the part of the clip I wanted for the final product. This may have been because I was using the free version, which I wanted to try before making the investment. It has happened before, that when I made the investment, then the software wouldn't do what I wanted.

In the meantime, will read the link below on cropping

Thanks again for your help!!!!!

Quote I see that you use the essentials/ free version of PD. This version does have limitations compared to the full version. Bare that in mind when trying the following:
What you get may also be caused by the media player you use…
The steps I would take are:
Open a new project and define / set the format to 16:9
Open you video clip(s) to put them in the media-room and put them on the timeline.
When you get a message like “aspect ratio conflict” then say no, you don’t want to change. (I don’t expect you get this message since the aspect ratio for 1280x720 is still 16:9)
Now click on the clip in the timeline and in the tools-menu click on crop/zoom/pan
In the window that opens, move the white box to make it smaller. In the right-hand top corner, you can see what the result of that “cropping” does.
Now click on ok and in the preview screen you should now the image of the clip you want to get. (in the image included in your message, I see that there is some distortion of the ratio. I guess that is not what you want. (and don’t get if the follow the above steps).
Repeat the above for each clip in the timeline.
No produce the clip(s) to an output format, but when select one, make sure that the ratio is still 16:9
Let us know whether that will do the trick (and whether this can be done with your version at all).

There are many good tutorials out there. Please look at: https://www.cyberlink.com/learning/powerdirector-video-editing-software/445/how-to-use-the-zoom-and-crop-tools
but there are others too like:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-krFuzyOcik&ab_channel=PowerDirectorEssentialsfromtheSharperTurtle
etc. etc.

Hi I spoke too soon!!!! Following my success with the trial version PD of rendering the cropped version of a clip, I purchased the full up to date version. However was not able to able to duplicate this with the full version.

This is what I get:





Instead of this.






Any suggestions? Thanks in advance

Quote Hi

Thanks very much for your quick reply. I followed your instructions, had one problem, but in the end, it rendered in the cropped size.

The difficulty was moving the cropping lines to cover the area I wanted for the final product. Even using free form, it was difficult to centre the part of the clip I wanted for the final product. This may have been because I was using the free version, which I wanted to try before making the investment. It has happened before, that when I made the investment, then the software wouldn't do what I wanted.

In the meantime, will read the link below on cropping

Thanks again for your help!!!!!

Your screenshot of what you want shows an aspect ratio of about 1.06 to 1. I don’t use the freehand pan and zoom. It may be better to change the Aspect Ratio to 1:1 or one of the supported AR. This project is set to 1.0 AR and the sample 16:9 AR video was edited to provide the center portion produced as a square video. Use the PiP designer set to maintain aspect ratio and you can pan anywhere in the video and not have stretch distortions.

If you want distortions then right mouse click on the clip on the timeline and choose Set Clip Format/Set Aspect Ratio… and tick the different settings.

Thanks very much for reply! However I am not sure I have the technical knowledge to understand it. The examples I gave were edited by me just to give ans example of what I wanted. Essentially what I want is to crop the video and save the cropped version as is.

Thanks again

Quote Your screenshot of what you want shows an aspect ratio of about 1.06 to 1. I don’t use the freehand pan and zoom. It may be better to change the Aspect Ratio to 1:1 or one of the supported AR. This project is set to 1.0 AR and the sample 16:9 AR video was edited to provide the center portion produced as a square video. Use the PiP designer set to maintain aspect ratio and you can pan anywhere in the video and not have stretch distortions.

If you want distortions then right mouse click on the clip on the timeline and choose Set Clip Format/Set Aspect Ratio… and tick the different settings.