How can I edit out black bars from iPad mirrored video?

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Level 1

15 points

How can I edit out black bars from iPad mirrored video?

I have an iPad 2, Blackmagic Intensity Pro card and a Mac Pro. I'm able to use the Blackmagic Media Express software to capture video of me demoing various iPad apps. The resulting MOV file is 1280x720 but there is a black border on all four sides. I need to play this file in a PowerPoint presentation. I'd like to remove the black bars so that if I maximize the video image during the presentation. How can I do that? I have FCE, Flip2Mac Studio (to convert to WMV), Roxio Toast, and a few other apps lurking on my Mac.

One thing I did was change my FCE project to a 4:3 format and then zoom the image to fill the screen. This works but the image quality is terrible.

Are there any apps that make it easy to change the canvas size of an existing file and then drop the black borders?

Any help would be appreciated?

Posted on Jun 8, 2011 7:33 PM

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Answer 1

Alchroma

Level 7

23,918 points

Jun 8, 2011 11:20 PM in response to waxwing

Sounds to me like the clips being used are a small dimension!!

Right click a clip in the Browser and select Item Properties.

The Sequence properties info will also help, right click the Sequence icon.

Relay the info here please.

Al

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Answer 2

waxwing Author

Level 1

15 points

Jun 9, 2011 4:55 AM in response to Alchroma

The frame size of the clip is 1280 x 720. It is uncompressed 8-bit 4:2:2. The actual video part of it (what I saw on the iPad) appear to be about half that and takes up the middle part of the screen. The border around the video is the same width on all sides.

It appears that the iPad 2 was outputing the full HD signal (hence the clip total size) but the image was at half that. This was mirroring. It is interesting to note that apps that didn't mirror (like Star Walk) but showed a different image on the computer and used the iPad as a controller, actually filled the entire clip.

I need to know how to crop those black bars. I tried zooming in on the image which got rid of the black bars but then I ended up with a fuzzy image.

Thanks for the help.

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Answer 3

Tom Wolsky

Level 10

152,819 points

Jun 9, 2011 5:02 AM in response to waxwing

Sounds like the media wasn't captured properly with the BlackMagic. Are you using Final Cut Express or Final Cut Pro? You really should not be using FCE with the BlackMagic card? What sequence size are you using? If it's 1920x1080, scale up the clips to fill the frame. there will be some degradation in the image because of the pixel scaling.

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Answer 4

waxwing Author

Level 1

15 points

Jun 9, 2011 9:19 AM in response to Tom Wolsky

I didn't use FCe to capture the video. As you say, that's only possible with the Pro version. I used the software that came with the card to capture the video. From what I read on other forums, you have to set the software to capture at 720p60 to capture the video coming out of the IPad using the HDMI connector. Any other settings render a completely black screen. So it appears the entire file is 1280 but the actual image that I want is 720 inside ihat 1280 window.

I was hoping to FCE or some other app to crop the extra border.

I don't recall the current sequence size but I know I changed the project to be smaller than my typical defaults. I think it is a 4:3 format which seems to match the video proportions. I have zoomed in to fill the canvas but that takes a currently very sharp image and degrades it significantly. This will be projected on a big wall in a PowerPoint presentation so I need to start with the sharpest original possible.

Is there some way in FCE or another app to just crop out the edges?

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Answer 5

Tom Wolsky

Level 10

152,819 points

Jun 9, 2011 11:17 AM in response to waxwing

First you must tell us the exact specification of the sequence in which you edited your program. Select the sequence in the browser and press Cmd-9. What's a say? Screenshots are welcome.

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Answer 6

waxwing Author

Level 1

15 points

Jun 9, 2011 6:08 PM in response to Tom Wolsky

First screen shot is the sequence. The second is the particular clip.

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Answer 7

Tom Wolsky

Level 10

152,819 points

Jun 9, 2011 6:16 PM in response to waxwing

This is a mess. Your sequence is completely wrong. It's the application default, which is standard definition 4:3. The frame rate of the media is not supported in FCE. You really need to edit this in FCP.

You could make a 1280x720p30 sequence in FCE and edit your material into that. It should fit properly, but will need to be rendered and the frame rate crunched down to 29.97. The video will also be recompressed to the Apple Intermediate Codec.

The other option is to convert the media to 29.97 with the Apple Intermediate Codec before you edit.

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