iMovie suddenly screwing up aspect ratio on clips

[thesheep]

I'm using iMovie 8.0.4.

I've imported a bunch of clips from my camera, and they're all in widescreen 16:9 format. They all seem fine when I preview them.

Next I go through them and reject a bunch of bits that I really don't want. Then I do 'send rejected clips to trash'.

At this point iMovie suddenly messes up the aspect ratio of some of the clips. Clips that were in widescreen before, are now suddenly in standard format (4:3). I can't understand why.

When I then add those clips to the project, they do stretch to 16:9 but they're all bunched up in the middle and don't look right.

Definitely something to do with selecting part of a clip, rejecting the selection, then sending that bit to trash is causing problems.

Anyone else had this?

 

[Pythagoras1]

Yes

Been bugging me for years. Still looking for the answer

 

[thesheep]

Solution

I think I found out what it is.

I was re-using a tape that I'd recorded on previously using a different aspect ratio. I think this leaves some kind of code on the tape. Because the clips all start and stop in different places as you re-record layers over the tape, I guess that somehow the old 'aspect code' is left on there in the middle of a new clip.

As a solution try using a new tape and only using Widescreen settings with that tape. I suspect that will avoid the problem.

I guess Apple could also provide a better fix by allowing you to 'force' the correct aspect ratio for all clips but don't hold your breath.

Ben.