Is there any way that an aspect ratio for the project be set before the start of the project? For example, to view on a 55" TV screen, or a post in Instagram? Currently, the newest version of iMovie is set to an aspect ratio that uses about 70-75% of the frame of a 4k footage. For some weird reason, this aspect is now frozen to a setting that doesn't use the full screen of a 24" M1 iMac, and it doesn't even seem to be a 4:3 ratio,
iMac 24″, macOS 12.3
I'm running Mojave with iMovie 10.1.12. So an older version than yours.
Could you post a screen shot that shows what you are seeing? I have never noticed 4k displaying at only 70-75% of the frame unless the Ken Burns view was activated. How did you determine that?
iMovie has a preset 16:9 screen dimension that cannot be changed. It will will fully display a 4:3 aspect ratio clip with the Crop to Fit setting, but there will be black bars on each side to make it fit the 16:9 dimensions of the iMovie screen. Clips with odd aspect ratios may be cropped to fit the screen. Clips that exceed the 16:9 aspect ratio will be cropped to fit the 16:9 screen, or there may be letter boxing so that it displays fully.
TVs have their own aspect ratio settings, and may display the same clip differently to fit the screen. On your computer screen you should be able to do View/Enter Full Screen and have the clip display full screen. Likewise in iMovie if you click on the full screen symbol in the lower right corner of the preview screen it will play full screen. But, again, a 4:3 clip would have black bars on each side to make it fit the computer screen.
-- Rich
I'm running Mojave with iMovie 10.1.12. So an older version than yours.
Could you post a screen shot that shows what you are seeing? I have never noticed 4k displaying at only 70-75% of the frame unless the Ken Burns view was activated. How did you determine that?
iMovie has a preset 16:9 screen dimension that cannot be changed. It will will fully display a 4:3 aspect ratio clip with the Crop to Fit setting, but there will be black bars on each side to make it fit the 16:9 dimensions of the iMovie screen. Clips with odd aspect ratios may be cropped to fit the screen. Clips that exceed the 16:9 aspect ratio will be cropped to fit the 16:9 screen, or there may be letter boxing so that it displays fully.
TVs have their own aspect ratio settings, and may display the same clip differently to fit the screen. On your computer screen you should be able to do View/Enter Full Screen and have the clip display full screen. Likewise in iMovie if you click on the full screen symbol in the lower right corner of the preview screen it will play full screen. But, again, a 4:3 clip would have black bars on each side to make it fit the computer screen.
-- Rich
Hi Rich,
Thanks for your response!
I was running a Late 2013 27" iMac running macOS 10.15.7 till Feb 22 of this year when it crashed. Since it was so old, I decided to go with the M1 24" iMac.
My camera is a DJI Osmo Action and I usually shoot 4k video at 30 fps.
The 70-75% crop of the frame is just my approximation. I never did see this on my old iMac. The Crop to Fill and the Ken Burns effect on this new machine literally takes away a good chunk of the frame of the original footage. And I do see the black bars on either side of the frame. Is this how it is supposed to be even in full screen mode? I never did experience this on my old iMac. Here are 2 screenshots.
If you go to iMovie/Preferences in the main menu, you can set the Photo Placement to Fit, and the setting will apply to all projects commenced after you made the preference change. So, it changes the default crop setting. All clip added will be Crop to "Fit: unless overridden by your manual timeline crop settings.
-- Rich
Here's the thing ... In some 7 years of using an old GoPro 3+ and the now DJI Osmo Action with an old iMac 27" and now the iMac 24", I've never had an issue with black bars when in full screen mode. Or even inside of a window, where it filled up the entire window. I'm just wondering how is it that it is happening now.
To test it out, I made three 20-second movies using the options of Crop to Fill, Fit and Ken Burns. Then, I took a screenshot in full screen mode. Both Crop to Fill and Ken Burns have black bars on the sides, as you've said. Fit however has the bars not only on the sides but also on the top and bottom of the frame. This is all in full screen mode.
Here's the screenshots ...
You are using the Crop to Fill settings, that will result in some material being cropped off. It looks like you started with a 16:9 clip and then cropped it. If you use the "Fit" crop setting instead that should display the entire clip without material being cropped off and no black bars.
-- Rich.
The Crop to Fill selection now comes on by default. Personally, I never use it even though it was used for the screenshot here. Yes, I noticed that the Fit setting will use the whole frame! I usually use the Ken Burns effect, which I could use before on a much larger section of the frame.
I'll make a short 20-second movie to see what that looks like and revert. But I'll do that tomorrow. It's 02:15 here.
I'm not understanding. There will always be a crop unless you use Fit mode -- except if the clip already is 16:9, in which case it will fill the screen with no crop. That's how it's always been. Now that you have the default set to Fit, all should be good. No cropping. But . . . black bars for 4:3 aspect ratio clips. I would just leave it at Fit.
-- Rich
The iMovie software version is 10.3.2. No idea whether this is old or new.
Yes, that is fine! My point however is that the software now does not use a chunk of the original footage if not in Fit mode. And this wasn't an issue before.
Aspect ratio
