Converting home video library from PC = aspect ratio issues

[Drewski]

Hi all, relatively new to Apple, and I haven't used it for much video work. I'm learning slowly but surely, of course 30 years in non-Apple environments can make that process trying at times . Anyway, I'm trying to import a bunch of raw video data from my PC to my 2011 2.7 i5 iMac. These vids were recorded on a ~4 year old Panasonic SDR-H200, and I copied the MOD files directly to my PC HD. I simply copied these files directly to my iMac HD.

So I picked up iVl to help with the conversion from MOD, which it does fairly quickly, and dumps them into iTunes. However, I find that all of these HD vids (16:9 NTSC) are coming out in 4:3 format, resulting in that vertically stretched look. I'm not sure where the change happened, at the videocam, PC, iVl, or iTunes point in this conversion, but I'm scratching my head here trying to find a solution, and get these vids back into proper widescreen format.

FWIW, all there is also an MOI file that goes along with each MOD file, if that means anything. I know I was able to view the files in 16:9 on the PC. Any ideas?

Sorry if this has been answered before, I've been through quite a few aspect ratio threads, but still haven't hit the right answer yet. Any help is appreciated!

 

[LethalWolfe]

Long story short all NTSC footage is 4x3 and the file meta data that's supposed to tell the player "Hey, when you play me back I need to displayed as 16x9" is either missing or not being read properly on your Mac.

I'm not familiar with iVl but you could give MPEG Streamclip a shot at converting the footage and see if you get better results (it's free).


Lethal

 

[WestSt]

Are the video files still on your camera? If so, connct to your Mac with USB, and import using the "import camera archive" option in iMovie.

 

[Drewski]

The majority of these movies have already been deleted off the camera; this is a long list of home movies going back to 2007.

And I did try out MPEG Streamclip, but got the "The Apple QuickTime MPEG-2 Playback Component is not installed..." message. It says this component is an extra $20, so I'll continue to try to solve it elsewhere for now. But if it just a metadata issue, isn't there an editor of some sort to change that metadata?

 

[LethalWolfe]

Are you running SL or Lion? If you are on SL you can open the file up in QT 7 (optional install from the SL disk), hit Comman+J to bring up the Properties window then select Video Track then Visual Settings and you can manually enter the correct dimensions in the Scaled properties. 853x480 is the typical setting for displaying SD widescreen footage.

If you are on Lion you won't have access to QT 7 and QT X isn't very useful. Maybe you could use iMovie to make the adjustment?


Lethal

 

[cgbier]

Those MOD files are MPEG2, so you'd need the QT MPEG plugin to do anything meaningful with them. If you are still on SL, you won't have another choice than cough out the 20 bucks (I know, it's a shame that you still have to pay for such an antique codec). MPEG Streamclip will be able to fix it for you.

 

[WestSt]

Ok, then try this workaround (from this thread: https://forums.macrumors.com/showthre...older+imovie):

Create file structure:

CamCorderMovies/MP_ROOT/101PNV01

Copy all your files into the 101PNV01 directory

Open up iMovie11 and then select File->Import->Camera Archive

Select the top folder CamCorderMovies and select Import

iMovie will think the CamCorderMovies directory is a camera, and import directly. You won't need to degrade your video quality more then necessary, not to mention the hassle of compressing...

If this does not work out, search this forum for "importing video/camera files/folders iMovie" - there are a number of threads with workarounds.