I am trying to move to Linux and found KDENLIVE which I hoped would provide the capabilities I am used to in Pinnacle Studio. The problem I have is that my current camcorder (JVC Everio GZ-MG330HEK) shoots in 16:9 ration and this is recognized in all Windows applications I use to view or edit the video without me having to force anything. What can be done in KDENLIVE to allow me to load, edit and render my video in the correct 16:9 ratio without having to force the pixel format in each clip, when you have maybe 40 or 50 clips it is not reasonable to have to modify each clip. I have experimented with one clip and the force does work but as a workaround it is not practical.

Stuart

Should have said this is on KDENLIVE 0.7.6 with Mandriva 2010.0, FFmpeg is 0.5

Bring up the clip properties in Kden, you can force aspect ratio. For my camera I need to change it to 1.19, others have used 1.42 I think. I don't have Kden in front of me at the moment or I would tell you exactly how, just right click the clip. You should be able to find it.

Woops....never mind...you already know how to do this....lol.

I have a similar problem with my Samsung hmx-h100. All the video files it creates report an incorrect pixel aspect ratio of 1.7777, so I am always having to force it to 1.0 in kdenlive. Each clip has to be forced individually, and it's time consuming and tedious.

I wish this could be automated, so that every video clip added to the project is automatically forced to a user specified aspect ratio.

If you play the clip with 'ffplay' in a terminal window, does it look correct? If not, please file a bug with FFmpeg. Otherwise, file a bug in our bug tracker and be prepared to provide a sample clip.

Will do, I am in the same boat with my Panasonic SDR-S26. Do you happen to know the syntax to use ffplay to play the clip in a terminal window? If the syntax is listed in a man ffplay don't bother replying.

I would try it now but I am not in front of a Linux system at the moment.

just 'ffplay thefile'

I had this problem with my JVC Everio, in fact I still do. It seems that Kdenlive does not pick up the ratio info if you use the JVC version of MPEG namely MOD. One workaround is to drag any mod files into WINFF and convert them to MPEG for DVD. It is an extra step, but a simple one.

I recently ripped a relatives home movie that was incorrectly rendered in 4:3. I was able to restore it to 16:9 by editing the CLIP PROPERTY / ADVANCED / Pixel ratio to "1.42"

Thanks to this forum for all the tips to get this far.

I have just tested my clip in FFPLay and it does not play correctly so will report a bug there.

However it would be good in kdenlive if I could select all clips I want and have it change the pixel ration for all selected clips rather than having to do this individually for each clip. Can this be done easily?

Stuart

Edit: I have created a bug for this with FFMpeg today.

Well I give up on FFMpeg's bug tracker. My report just got closed saying not enough information, no explanation no 'can you please provide this or that' just closed. Not a good way to treat users in my view. There was not much to say except that it plays in the wrong aspect ratio. I offered a clip for them to play with but no they just closed it.

I'd like to help get it fixed but I'm not keen unless those who are responsible are willing to assist a new user to provide the correct info.

I've had one more go at providing some info which might get it looked at.

Stuart

Well my next update on the FFMpeg bug tracker did get a useful reply and they have suggested a quick patch to the latest code which I have applied to the source - now to compile it and see what happens.

Stuart

OK so now I have compiled ffmpeg and when I do an ffmpeg -i to the .MOD file it shows correctly as 16:9 but running kdenlive it still reads the file as 4:3 and I have to set the pixel ratio.

Now the compile puts the ffmpeg files in a different place from Mandriva's own installation, can someone please tell me how to get kdenlive to use my new compiled version, and what if any other files might be needed?

Stuart

FFmpeg version SVN-r20894, Copyright (c) 2000-2009 Fabrice Bellard, et al.
built on Dec 20 2009 09:27:38 with gcc 4.4.1
configuration:
libavutil 50. 7. 0 / 50. 7. 0
libavcodec 52.43. 0 / 52.43. 0
libavformat 52.44. 0 / 52.44. 0
libavdevice 52. 2. 0 / 52. 2. 0
libswscale 0. 7. 2 / 0. 7. 2
[mpeg @ 0x97f1380]max_analyze_duration reached

Seems stream 0 codec frame rate differs from container frame rate: 50.00 (50/1) -> 25.00 (25/1)
Input #0, mpeg, from 'MOV007.MOD':
Duration: 00:00:05.72, start: 0.206089, bitrate: 7090 kb/s
Stream #0.0[0x1e0]: Video: mpeg2video, yuv420p, 720x576 [PAR 64:45 DAR 16:9], 8400 kb/s, 25 fps, 25 tbr, 90k tbn, 50 tbc
Stream #0.1[0x80]: Audio: ac3, 48000 Hz, stereo, s16, 384 kb/s
At least one output file must be specified

This is not so easy because more than likely you need to recompile MLT against your new FFmpeg version. You might consider using the builder wizard available through the Download menus here.

I have taken a look at the builder wizard but I use Mandriva 2010 which has KDE 4 and I read that the wizard needs Kommander for KDE 3. This is a huge number of hoops to jump through to compile kdenlive. Is it still true the wizard wont run with Kommander for KDE 4 which comes with my distro?

Stuart