Characters on edited VHS downloads appear tall (skinny). Using Movie Edit Pro MX Plus

georgeclark wrote on 2/3/2015, 6:09 AM

My name is George. just trying to edit some VHS tape downloads but I am finding that the characters in the movie appear very tall (skinny). I have tried adjusting between 4:3 and 16:9 but that's about the limit of my knowledge on the matter. Is there some part of the programme I should (or can) adjust?

I have been using Magix products for about 12 years now without having experienced this type of problem.

Thanks for any help.

Comments

emmrecs wrote on 2/3/2015, 9:47 AM

Hello georgeclark. Before we can attempt to answer your question I think we need a little more detail about exactly how you have "downloaded" this VHS footage.

So, have you transferred some footage from a VHS tape and player to your computer? If so, using what technology to convert the analogue VHS to digital video file(s)?

If you did not carry out the conversion from VHS yourself, how was it done?

If these files were, literally, "downloaded" (i.e. from a web site or remote storage of some kind) what is the source of the download?

georgeclark wrote on 2/3/2015, 10:53 AM

Hi,

I had the VHS tape and linked it into my computer, through the video player. This was a few years ago and I used either Movie Edit Pro 10, or Pro 11 as the software. At the time I did no editing and saved the video to an external harddrive. The "files" on the hard drive have titles - .mxv, mxv.AVD and mxv.HO.

I used my Movie Edit Pro MX Plus programme and imported the movie from the hard drive. The first screen up said the "resolution" was different and could be changed, and I accepted this change.

As mentioned in my first enquiry, in the little screen it looks as if the screen is compressed in horizontally and figures are tall and skinny.

I hope all that makes sense, if not, please ask some more questions and I will try to help.

Thank you for your attention to this matter.

emmrecs wrote on 2/3/2015, 1:27 PM

OK. Many thanks for the additional information!

You say you used MEP10 or 11 to transfer this footage to your computer. These are both "old" versions and I cannot remember whether there was some part of them that was able to take an analogue video input and digitise it. Can you remember whether you had any "technology" (for want of a better term) in between the output of your video player and the input to your computer?

The various file extensions you list (.mxv etc.) suggest the files are stored in a "Magix" format, which I would expect MEP MX to read without problem. However, it would be interesting to see exactly what format etc. these files are.

If you have the free MediaInfo utility can you point it to one of the mxv files (not the mxv .AVD or mxv.HO ones) and copy and paste what it says to any future reply? If you don't have MediaInfo, it's available at https://mediaarea.net/en/MediaInfo What it shows MAY give us more of a clue about why these files are obviously showing as distorted.

Jeff

georgeclark wrote on 2/3/2015, 1:57 PM

Hi Jeff

Thinking back I used a piece of hardware by Pinnacle called "Dazzle DVD Recorder" This provided the cable links between my Video player and my computer. How I got the video from there to my external harddrive, I must admit I'm not too sure?

Re MediaInfo I will try to work that out and come back to you as soon as possible.

best regards

George

Scenestealer wrote on 2/3/2015, 4:29 PM

Media Info does not recognize MXV files Jeff!

George, maybe right click the video track in the MEP timeline, choose Properties, and tell us what the resolution and aspect ratio it says. Then open the Movie Settings with the E key and tell us what the Video Setting say.

georgeclark wrote on 2/3/2015, 5:30 PM

From Properties - Resolution is 720 x 576 and Aspect Ratio is 4:3

For the second part tried Ctrl E and got the same results.

Hope this helps.

George

georgeclark wrote on 2/4/2015, 3:18 AM

Following suggestions by Ss and Jeff, I explored the properties area again and noticed there is an adjustment facility for the Aspect ratio. I changed this to 16:9 (kept the resolution at 720 x 576). The prgramme adjusted the movie to suit those figures and I now have the movie showing normal "shapes"

I would like to thank Ss and Jeff for their efforts, I have learnt a lot trying to resolve this problem.

Best regards

George Clark

emmrecs wrote on 2/4/2015, 6:45 AM

George, good to hear you resolved your problem!

Can you remember whether the original VHS tapes played direct from your VHS as "Widescreen", 16:9? Certainly 720x576 Widescreen is a "standard" format but I wonder whether the Dazzle conversion process somehow made a change to the original, e.g. somehow changing 4:3 to 16:9.

@SS, thanks for the info re MediaInfo and .mxv files. I've never needed to use it for such files so just assumed it would work!

georgeclark wrote on 2/4/2015, 10:04 AM

Hi Jeff

One thing I learned from the data was that I did the "conversion" in 2009 and to be honest just to get it transferred was a major result for me. For the finer details of the set up I suspect it would have been more by luck, so unfortunately can't give you any help there.

Thanks again for your help?

George