AE exports are a different aspect ratio

Question

I was doing some troubleshooting with Adobe on AE recently and I'm not sure what setting we adjusted, but now all of my exports are coming out with an altered aspect ratio from the original source.

Both the original and the exported versions say they're 720x480 when I look at the properties, but the exported files appear to be wider/extended. This is currently happening with all of my AE exports of various files, so it must be some sort of setting.

I did at one point, after we made some changes, get this error message when I added things to the Render Queue. It hasn't popped up again recently, but this issue may still be in effect: "One of the output modules could not be imported. It has been reset to use the default settings for the selected file format." Not sure if this is still a problem or is related, but it could be, so making note of it here.

Rick Gerard · Answer

720 X 480 is a non-square pixel frame size. The footage can be 4:3 or 16:9. Unless you have pixel aspect ratio correction turned on in AE's comp panel the footage will appear to be distorted. If the PAR is for 16:9 but the footage is 4:3 the image will be distorted. You have to know or be able to guess what the original pixel aspect ratio was and make sure that After Effects is properly interpreting the footage by checking file interpretation.

Media players do not make pixel aspect ratio corrections so Quicktime and Windows Media Players will always distort nonsquare pixel footage. Always. There is no easy way to fix this except to work in the square pixel equivalent frame size, let AE fit the footage to the frame automatically, and render square pixel equivalent footage for distribution on the web or smart devices.

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