Parkimedes

Q: My 4:3 footage gets stretched into 16:9

I have standard video footage from my (Samsung Galaxy S4) phone, which has resolution 1440x1080 (4:3).

 

When I import the footage into Final Cut Pro X, it comes in stretched. However, I can't find any settings to fix or force a pixel aspect ratio. So I figured I would fix it later and edited a video: the project has the same 1440x1080 settings, but the video is visibly stretched horizontally. When I export it, it still has the correct resolution, 1440x1080, but when I open it in Quicktime, it still appears stretched and its properties say

 

Format: 1440x1080

Current Size: 1440x810

 

This is a recurring problem for me with different phones and video cameras. For the life of me, I can't figure out how to change the pixel aspect ratio of a clip or project in Final Cut. And I can't even create a project with the correct settings. When I open the original footage in Quicktime, it shows up correctly. So, it seems Final Cut Pro is changing it. In the past, with mixed footage, I've just manually stretched the footage that came in stretched, but this time, all the footage is the same. There should be an easy way to fix this for all the clips at once. And I'm sure I'm not the only one having this problem.  Has anyone figured this out?

MacBook Pro, Windows 7, i7 2.4ghz 8gb Ram

Posted on Oct 21, 2014 7:22 AM

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Q: My 4:3 footage gets stretched into 16:9

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  • by Tom Wolsky,Helpful

    Tom Wolsky Tom Wolsky Oct 21, 2014 7:31 AM in response to Parkimedes
    Level 10 (118,086 points)
    Apple TV
    Oct 21, 2014 7:31 AM in response to Parkimedes

    It sounds like your phone is shooting 4:3 video at 1440x1080. That's very unfortunate. Thats specification is the standard for anamorphic HD video, so when FCP sees it, it will always stretch the video out to fill a 16:9 frame. 1080 is HD. There is no 4:3 HD. Samsung should never have created this non-standard spec.  You might be able to get around it in the Info inspector in settings, and anamorphic handling option might appear.

  • by Russ H,

    Russ H Russ H Oct 21, 2014 7:46 AM in response to Parkimedes
    Level 7 (21,770 points)
    Quicktime
    Oct 21, 2014 7:46 AM in response to Parkimedes

    .

  • by Parkimedes,

    Parkimedes Parkimedes Oct 21, 2014 2:32 PM in response to Tom Wolsky
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 21, 2014 2:32 PM in response to Tom Wolsky

    Interesting.

     

    It seems FCP doesn't really like 4:3, if there are some round numbers for height that are basically not allowed. As for settings, do you mean the settings for the project? There aren't really any settings to change there. And on the media import, there aren't really any options either.

     

    Maybe my best bet is to create a 4:3 project, with a different resolution, then copy/paste my edit into it, then scale accordingly.  I'll try that now.

  • by Tom Wolsky,

    Tom Wolsky Tom Wolsky Oct 21, 2014 2:54 PM in response to Parkimedes
    Level 10 (118,086 points)
    Apple TV
    Oct 21, 2014 2:54 PM in response to Parkimedes
    It seems FCP doesn't really like 4:3

     

    That's wrong. FCP can work with 4:3. Just this exact, specific frame ratio is the specification for anamorphic HD. If whoever is making video at Samsung had any brains they'd know this and would have made the 4:3 format slightly different. Even a single pixel resolution difference in both dimensions would not have conformed it to internationally agreed standards for anamorphic 16:9. It's unbelievably dumb to do this. Samsung is not alone in this. GoPro for instances uses a 960x540 4:3, which also is a compressed anamorphic standard for HD.

     

    Your best bet is to make a 4:3 custom project, put your media in it, and use the distort to reshape the image back to normal 4:3. You're paying the price for the singularly narrow-minded, foolish, and short-sighted behavior of some camera/phone manufacturers.

  • by RafaLinares,

    RafaLinares RafaLinares Aug 28, 2016 9:45 AM in response to Tom Wolsky
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Aug 28, 2016 9:45 AM in response to Tom Wolsky

    Well,

     

    Guess who else is doing the exact same thing? Apple. The "live pic" option creates a 1440x1080 at 15 fps movie alongside your regular pic. When trying to edit it in FCP it gets the 16:9 treatment. Doesn't happen with live pics from the front facing camera, as those movs are 1280x960.

  • by Tom Wolsky,

    Tom Wolsky Tom Wolsky Aug 28, 2016 9:59 AM in response to RafaLinares
    Level 10 (118,086 points)
    Apple TV
    Aug 28, 2016 9:59 AM in response to RafaLinares

    That's always going to happen in a video application because 1440x1080 is a video standard specification. If you want video use the video option of the phone.

  • by RafaLinares,

    RafaLinares RafaLinares Aug 28, 2016 10:05 AM in response to Parkimedes
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Aug 28, 2016 10:05 AM in response to Parkimedes

    its a pain in the ***, but just change the scale of your clip to 133,4% on the Y axis. Video gets to 4:3 filling your 16:9 frame horizontally.

     

    Been there....