how do you stretch a video on iMovie

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Level 1

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how do you stretch a video on iMovie

So I'm working on this project with a friend that requires some random clips, pictures, etc... The thing is that my friend just passed me some 720p clips but they look awful, they are indeed on HD but they are stretched in a horizontal way and basically the circles look more like ovals and stuff like that. I tried using iMovie's crop and fit tools but it's no use, the video still looks stretched. I'm not sure if there's a special tool in iMovie that could somehow help me fix this issue but if there's not, please suggest programs for mac that could allow me to stretch the video so that this cricles are actually real circles.

Help please!

iMovie 10.0.1

MacBook Air, OS X Mavericks (10.9.1)

Posted on Jan 16, 2014 1:15 PM

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Answer 1

GeeD

Level 6

9,199 points

Jan 16, 2014 1:28 PM in response to subatenome

It looks as if this may be 'anaphorphic video' which actually needs to be displayed in 4:3 aspect ratio. I don't think iMovie 10 supports this. I made a suggestion for possible pre-import conversion here:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5529507?answerId=24270002022#24270002022

but I don't know whether it worked.

Geoff.

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Answer 2

GeeD

Level 6

9,199 points

Jan 16, 2014 2:17 PM in response to subatenome

I think its being stretched because iMovie is not recognising a flag that it is anamorphic. So it needs to be converted so that it is no longer 720p but in the correct aspect ratio.

However there may be others who can help who are more familiar than I on this.

Geoff.

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Answer 3

subatenome Author

Level 1

5 points

Jan 16, 2014 2:53 PM in response to GeeD

Ok here's what im understanding from the term anamorphobic. I you're talking about one of those videos that are not meant to be HD and they were adapted to a higher resolution then you're getting it wrong. The videos that I have are HD, they look HD and you can tell the difference between 480p and 720p specially in fullscreen. Whenever I play the video no matter which player program or device I'm using it looks stretched because it is stretched.

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Answer 4

Jan 16, 2014 9:52 PM in response to subatenome

you need a 'transformation' tool, which changes the aspect-ratio of your clip.

iMovie doesn't offer that. (FCPX has …)

free Mpeg Streamclipallows to change that.

As we don't know the factor, how much it is 'squashed', you have to find out yourself.

keep the resolution, e.g. 1280x720, but change x/y% proportion...

as a start, I'd recommend 133% for the x-axis ....

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Answer 5

subatenome Author

Level 1

5 points

Jan 20, 2014 3:20 PM in response to Karsten Schlüter

Ok bad news i got Mpeg Streamclip but i cant seem to find where to costumize ratio or proportion, not even resolution. Good news is that i just discovered the aspect ratio that my video needs to be changed to which is 2.20 : 1.00 can you help me out with some instructions of how to change ratio, proportion, resolution or whatever it is because im just not finding it and its driving me mad

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Answer 6

subatenome Author

Level 1

5 points

Jan 20, 2014 5:36 PM in response to Karsten Schlüter

Nvm I figured it out by myself. Karsten you are a complete genious. i managed to change my video's resolution to the way they were meant to be, now circles look like cirlces. All thanks to you, im keeping Mpeg Streamclip, great app!!!

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Answer 7

subatenome Author

Level 1

5 points

Jan 16, 2014 2:04 PM in response to GeeD

the problem is that the original video is already stretched, iMovie is only displaying the video the way it is

which program could I use to fix the video?

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