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BeeVeePee

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 29, 2007
10
0
after downloading video onto my mac via imovie HD....sometimes I will "click" on one of the clips that were downloaded...the mac starts "thinking" and a popup says "Letter Boxing".....I let it do it's work..for up to about 40minutes..and it still will be processing...eventually I'll just "Force Quit" and start over again...but refrain from clicking on the clip until I've saved it..

any idea whats going on...?
thanks everyone
 

bigbossbmb

macrumors 68000
Jul 1, 2004
1,759
0
Pasadena/Hollywood
What kind of video are you working with?


Letterboxing is the process of masking the top and bottom of 4x3 video to make it look like 16x9 (or any other widescreen aspect). Letterboxing doesn't actually change the size/shape of the video, it just determines what part you will see.
 

wordmunger

macrumors 603
Sep 3, 2003
5,124
3
North Carolina
What kind of video are you working with?


Letterboxing is the process of masking the top and bottom of 4x3 video to make it look like 16x9 (or any other widescreen aspect). Letterboxing doesn't actually change the size/shape of the video, it just determines what part you will see.

I thought it was the other way around -- taking a 16 x 9 and making it fit on a 4x3 screen by adding black strips to the bottom and top.

As opposed to just cropping off the sides of a 16X9 video and displaying that at 4x3.
 

BeeVeePee

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 29, 2007
10
0
What kind of video are you working with?


Letterboxing is the process of masking the top and bottom of 4x3 video to make it look like 16x9 (or any other widescreen aspect). Letterboxing doesn't actually change the size/shape of the video, it just determines what part you will see.

what do you mean by "what kind"? not sure ..
 

bigbossbmb

macrumors 68000
Jul 1, 2004
1,759
0
Pasadena/Hollywood
Yes, letterboxing is also a way to view 16x9 material in a 4x3 frame. Both definitions are indeed correct. One is more a recording definition and the other is more of a viewing definition.

By "what kind" I mean are you using MPEG4, DV, or HDV?
 

BeeVeePee

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 29, 2007
10
0
Yes, letterboxing is also a way to view 16x9 material in a 4x3 frame. Both definitions are indeed correct. One is more a recording definition and the other is more of a viewing definition.

By "what kind" I mean are you using MPEG4, DV, or HDV?

digital video...panasonic cam...GS83 ....
I just don't know why it does it and why my computer keeps "not responding" once i click it.....
 

Mlobo01

macrumors 6502
Jan 23, 2003
318
0
Weehawken New Jersey
Settings...

These new camcorders have letter-boxing built in, you can select to tape in letter-box format or straight 4x3, also check your iMovie preferences about importing video....
 

bigbossbmb

macrumors 68000
Jul 1, 2004
1,759
0
Pasadena/Hollywood
Yes, both are correct definitions of "letterboxing". What I originally posted was "letterboxing" in terms of a 4x3 camera recording faux 16x9 material by masking out the top and bottom of a 4x3 source. The other definition of "letterboxing" is shrinking a 16x9 video to fit a 4x3 window. The black bars are still there, but they are not part of the source.

No "horse hockey" there.
 

decksnap

macrumors 68040
Apr 11, 2003
3,075
84
There is a preference in the preferences pane to disable this feature. It probably means you've got a 4:3 workspace in iMovie and are importing widescreen content. This will squeeze or clip the content, unless you let it 'letterbox' it.

If all of your content is 16:9, you want to make sure you use a widescreen iMovie project and not a standard one, and you won't have to deal with that.
 
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