@Simply_Simon

Hi,

You're using version 2022, I presume, and from recollection there were problems with Section that have been mostly sorted out in 2023. I'll try it out in 2023 tomorrow to make sure that it now works...at least better than it did previously.

John CB

@Simply_Simon @Former user

Section is not difficult to use. It is far simpler than setting up Size/Position/Rotation for a simple crop.

Unfortunately, MEP 2022 (version 21) had a fatal Section bug where, as you have found, the section settings aren't saved. It has been fixed in Movie Studio 2023 (Movie Edit Pro was renamed to Movie Studio for the 2022 and later versions).

If you can't upgrade to the latest version, you can use Size/Posn/Rotation to achieve what you want by zooming the Preview Monitor out to 75% then increasing the size of your video, using the handles, to exclude the black bars.

Alternatively, you could try Camera/Zoomshot (with no movement, just a once-off setting of the crop box). I can't recall if it was afflicted with the bug or not.

I'll second Gid's suggestion regarding the movie settings: in general, it's better to set the movie settings to the desired export setting. Then the monitor will reflect the final export ratio and it will be easier to visualise your Section/crop (or SPR) because it will set the crop box to the export aspect ratio (when you choose "like movie" in the Section dropdown.

When you set the sizes in Movie settings, put the size 2160:1440 in the Aspect Ratio box, click OK, then when you open Movie settings next time it will auto create the ratio for you 3:2.

If you know the aspect ratio, your can just type it in eg 3:2.

Greetings,

If my memory is working properly, with MEP 2022 after you've set the section, clicked on another tab and the section then resets itself, if you click on UNDO (can be up to 3 clicks) the section returns to what you set it at.

@Former user

I create a lot of slideshows from my archive of photos and most of them are in 3:2 forma, that's why I use it.

In MS2023 using this is ration is irritating because exporting with my Nvidia 2060 uses no hardware encoding but using my Intel GPU hardware encoding works.

I seem to recall this was a problem with MEP2022 on intial launch was was patched late to enable HW with the Nvidia. I raised a ticket with Magix about this with MS2023 and their response was, as you say, why use that ratio?

AndyW

@Former user @me_again @Simply_Simon @browj2 @AAProds

Hi Gid.

Most Mirrorless and DSLR digital cameras have sensors with a 3:2 ratio which was not far off the aspect ration of 35m film. The first Nikon and Fujifilm DSLRs used their film camera bodies for their first models and it matched most monitors and TVs at the time and the ratios have stuck for stills cameras. This may change with mirrorless over time as more cameras get designed to shoot video first and stills second, except for possibly the Pro models that would still want to have their images printed for posters, newspapers, magazines and wedding albums, digital photo frames etc.

Personally I edit images for their intended end use depending on whether I want to print at a traditional postcard ratio or A4 or for web page headers or video as well as for phone screen savers, so my ratios and associated crops change accordingly. I may save many versions of the same image.

I never used to bother but I've had so many images butchered by third part users over the years I now include my preferred version.

My supplied version.

As it currently appears on the event website. Why? On my phone screen I get the central man with his head and feet. So it would seem everyone gets a different experience.The original though is 3:4.

With anything to do with the web though there is no winning as there are just too many variations of aspect ratio monitors out there so for that I would stick to 16:9 for YouTube.

Ray.

@Simply_Simon

To add to @johnebaker suggestion. You could also untick the Combine input fields box once set up and adjust the image from left to right if needed. The results can be recorded in the key frame editor.

Ray.

The Section tool obviates all of this fiddling with the width and height. That is what it is for. Simon obviously knows what he is doing; the only issue is that program (2022 at least) is bugged, which prompted the OP.

@CubeAce

Hi Ray

. . . . . You could also untick the Combine input fields box once set up and adjust the image from left to right if needed. . . . .

It is not necessary to uncheck the Combine input fields option - this maintains the AR of the image when checked and automatically adjusts the height when the width is adjusted or vice versa to maintain the AR.

Unchecked you can squash/stretch the image - in this case I do not think @Simply_Simon wants to do this.

The option has no influence on the positioning using the left/right values (old style S & P), or the horizontal position slider - new SPR effect dialog.

@AAProds

. . . . The Section tool obviates all of this fiddling with the width and height. . . . .

Agreed if you want a specific section of the video.

I would disagree when you just want to 'fill the screen' with minimal cropping, as shown in my example, the Size & Position option is, IMHO, the better choice and more so due to the MEP 2022 bugged Section effect, the settings are retained when you go back to the effect for tweaking.

John EB

@AAProds @Simply_Simon

Hi,

Further to what John EB indicated, what I do is simply adjust either the Width or the Height in SPR to be the same as the project setting. Then, depending on which way it went, I can adjust left or right, up or down.

In the image below, my photo is 3:2 of 5184x3456 px. The project is 1920x1080. What shows under Width/Height is 1620x1080. So I simply change 1620 to 1920, enter, done.

Note that the height changes to 1280 so in this case I have room to move up or down and access to the cropped parts.

When Section works properly, as it does in 2023, then you open the popdown that says Like Source and select Like Movie or one of the other options. The nice part about that is that you can see readily see the part that will be kept and make the adjustment here. Dragging the dashed rectangle is restrained to just the image, which is very convenient - when it works.

For MS2023 Platinum/Suite, I can confirm that resizing the dashed rectangle in Section, switching to SPR or another effect and then going back to Section, the previously selected section/rectangle is maintained.

John CB

Hello everybody,

thank you very much for lots of responses! I don't have time right now to address everything in detail, I just wanted to let you know that I read your posts and appreciate them.

First of all, the footage is indeed game capture - Game Boy Advance, to be precise (240x160 pixels, so indeed 3:2). I forgot to change the settings from the last game I recorded at 1440p, so this is the highest resolution GBA game ever recorded, which won't matter too much for the eventual YouTube upload, but I do want to get rid of the unnecessary black bars, hence my issue.

Anyway, main takeaway is that I should try to update my version to get rid of the Section bug, which is the first thing I'll do - I did in fact try to update before posting, but didn't get anywhere with that immediately. I don't have the update notifier installed on this computer, so that's a good first step maybe.

If that doesn't work, I'll try the workaround @johnebaker detailed, though as mentioned, it is game footage.

Actually, one thing gives me pause regarding the update: @me_again I have an NVidia 2060 and am quite happy with the hardware encoding, because that didn't work initially. Does your experience mean that updating will break that functionality for unusual aspect ratios?!

Thanks again, I'll get back to this later as said,

Simon

Hi, reg 3:2 👍

I've been playing with this to see how it all is, @browj2 yes Section seems to work as well as it should, I still prefer SPR for this,

I don't think MS2023 SPR is quite right tho, create a project 16:9, add a piece of media not 16:9, then try changing the project size to suite the media or another size...

This is a UHD 16:9 video, the sizes & what is seen on the screen don't correlate, it does refresh correctly if the preview zoom is altered or a different tool is chosen, but because it doesn't refresh immediately it could be a bit confusing/deceptive. I have it zoomed in a bit so it's easier to see what's going on & I've used this program for a long time, but to someone new with the preview @ 100% this could be hard to work out, they set it as they'd think was right but WTF that's not right, they then change it to look right, click off SPR to something else & suddenly the image changes 😡🥴🤣👍 ,

PS here's another, I tried setting the movie back to UHD 3840x2160 that the media is, zooming in & out didn't refresh the preview, it didn't correct until I clicked on Section, (no section was applied to any of these, I was just fiddling with SPR & Movie size)

@Former user

Hi

. . . .  what is seen on the screen don't correlate, it does refresh correctly if the preview zoom is altered or a different tool is chosen . . . .

I mentioned this 6 days ago in this comment - choosing a different tool or zoom out/in on the preview monitor forces the cache to reload and display correctly, as does the Empty undo and cache memory option for which I have a custom keyboard shortcut (A) to do quick refreshes.

John EB

@johnebaker I have now had the time to try your suggestion, using Size & Position and the Project Settings as a workaround - and work it did! You explained the steps to follow very well, thanks a lot. I wouldn't have been able to develop that sequence of steps on my own.

It's unfortunate that the Section command doesn't seem to work on its own in my version (I checked, I don't have the possibility to upgrade to 2023 unless I missed something, but on the other hand, if that would break the hardware encoding, maybe I don't want to), but hopefully I won't have to cut off black borders too often anyway. As this is obviously an interesting topic for many, feel free to continue talking, but from my end, I consider it solved - thanks again for everybody else's input too!

@johnebaker Hi, I remember that, I set the empty cache key shortcut to A because of that conversation, that was about editing in an external editor tho & doesn't seem to affect this situation, I've tried several times but there's no rhyme or reason to this, , In this video I have a 3840x2160 project that I change to 2160x1440 because that's the size used in this post, check the size no's in SPR, they're all over the place. clicking Movie size should make it read 2160 but it doesn't, typing in 2160 doesn't make it go that size, Clicking A does nothing, In the end it was Section that sorted it out.

@Simply_Simon

Actually, one thing gives me pause regarding the update: @me_again I have an NVidia 2060 and am quite happy with the hardware encoding, because that didn't work initially. Does your experience mean that updating will break that functionality for unusual aspect ratios?!

I suspect so yes, I can't see why it's specific to my system. I have another three encoders on my computer (Avidemux, Vidcoder & Xmedia Recode - they all have plus points) and they can encode in a 3:2 format at any resolution.

I did mention this on the forum at the backe-end of 2022 but I can't find it now. Maybe someone with a Nvidia 2060 or higher nvidia card can try it out??

While not admitting there was a bug in Nvidia encoding and suggesting using a "standard" format, they eventually offered this rather strange workaround:

In the mean time Simon, have you tried the UNDO fix I mentioned? I found it to really work on my previous version.

AndyW

@Simply_Simon

Hi

I have and RTX 2060 in both my PC and laptop and they can import/export video at all the 'standard resolutions' and some custom resolutions* and Aspect ratios - for custom 'oddball' AR ratios it is a case of 'try it and see'

There are some 'oddball' resolutions that are known to cause issues - eg 5.3K and 5.7K formats. From what I can find, they appear to be 'designed' for vloggers so they can get usable 16:9 (landscape) and 9:16 AR (portrait) video from one recording.

* When specifying a custom resolution and AR for a project and export the resolution width and height must be even numbers, and specifying the Ratio, if it is not one of the accepted 'standards', must be entered as the width:height values as shown below:

Once confirmed MMS will recalculate the Ratio to a decimal number as shown below or a x:y AR value if possible.

The export dialog will use the project settings by default

Result:

The MediaInfo data stating the video is 3213 px wide is odd - I have seen this before with other odd AR video clips - the file properties and VLC state it is 3210.

HTH

John EB

@johnebaker

Greetings John, when you have a spare couple of minutes can you please try this for me, just to put my mind at rest that it's not just me.

Create a short slideshow project (with or without audio) at 1800x1200 (3:2) or indeed any multiple of 3x2 then export it to either H.264 or HEVC using your 2060. Does it use Hardware encoding?

Then export it again using your Intel GPU as the exporter. Does that use Hardware encoding?

All of the Magix inbuilt exporting codecs work at 3:2 aspect with the Nvidia 2060, without HW encoding obviously.

AndyW

@me_again

Hi Andy

The RTX 2060 does not use Hardware encoding for 3:2 AR video export - tested multiple times for both h.264 and HEVC export and different 3:2 AR resolutions.

The Intel UHD 630 iGPU does hardware accelerate 3:2 AR video export.

In the RTX test I set all 3 options to RTX, in the UHD 630 test - Import set to RTX , Processing and Export to UHD630.

I rechecked the example I gave above - 3210 x 1500 and the RTX does hardware accelerate the export at resolution/ AR. 🙃

The Intel iGPUs appear to support many 'oddball' resolutions that are mainly multiples of 4, and some by 2, horizontally and vertically.

John EB