Saving 'Portrait' format videos

[Colin-W]

Maybe I'm just thick but I when I import a 'Portait' format video (e.g. 320
wide x 640 high) the resulting import is distorted back to 640 x 320.
I've tried the advice elsewhere on Microsoft about making your own .prx file
but even though the new .prx existed in the correct folder it didn't appear
in the Movie maker Save 'options' list. As an experiment, I moved all the
..prx files to a temporary location expecting all the Save 'options' to
disappear... wrong... they are all still there.

Help!

 

[walter]

Maybe I'm just thick but I when I import a 'Portait' format video
(e.g. 320 wide x 640 high) the resulting import is distorted back to
640 x 320.

I don't have a portrait mode video (don't believe I've ever even seen one)
to test with, but have you tried simply adding the "rotate 90" video effect
to the clip? Not sure if that will "correct" the aspect ratio in the
process, or just give you a squashed version of the same thing rotated 90
degrees.

Virtual Dub www.virtualdub.org is free and can do some editing, but only
outputs in AVI format. It will however, let you save the finished movie at
any aspect ratio you desire. From the website:

=============
There are lots of programs that let you "edit" video. And yet, they're
frustratingly complex for some of the simplest tasks. VirtualDub isn't an
editor application; it's a pre- and post-processor that works as a valuable
companion to one:
a.. Reads and writes AVI2 (OpenDML) and multi-segment AVI clips.
b.. Integrated MPEG-1 and Motion-JPEG decoders.
c.. Remove and replace audio tracks without touching the video.
d.. Extensive video filter set, including blur, sharpen, emboss, smooth,
3x3 convolution, flip, resize rotate, brightness/contrast, levels,
deinterlace, and threshold.
e.. Bilinear and bicubic resampling -- no blocky resizes or rotates here.
f.. Decompress and recompress both audio and video.
g.. Remove segments of a video clip and save the rest, without
recompressing.
h.. Adjust frame rate, decimate frames, and 3:2 pulldown removal.
i.. Preview the results, with live audio.
You can take a captured clip, trim the ends, clean up some of the noise,
convert it to the proper frame size, and write out a better one. Don't see
a video filter you want? Write your own, with the filter SDK.

================================================

Might be worth a shot.

 

[Colin-W]

Very many thanks for the tip... I'm off to go get the software right away.
The portrait 'videos' are the result of holding a digital 'still' camera in
portrait mode whilst capturing video to avoid headless/legless relatives!
I'll let you know here how I get on.

Thanks again,
Colin

 

[Colin-W]

Well - Yes & No
MM still insists on stretching my carefully filtered 480 x 640 to the 640 x
480 format. However, thanks to your fantastic tip, VirtualDub, combined with
other tools I already have, has given me all the required tools to complete
the process outside of MM.

Sir, you are a genius

Regards

Colin-W

 

[walter]

Well - Yes & No
MM still insists on stretching my carefully filtered 480 x 640 to the
640 x 480 format. However, thanks to your fantastic tip, VirtualDub,
combined with other tools I already have, has given me all the
required tools to complete the process outside of MM.

Very cool. Glad I could help.

Sir, you are a genius

Hardly. Just a decent google-diver.

I've dowloaded a copy for myself and have begun to play around with it.
Pretty neat tool to add to one's video-editing kit if you ask me. And you
can't beat the price. (Free)