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When using premiere elements with any footage, no matter where it came from, there are two black bars that I can never get rid of without cropping footage. Does anybody know how to get rid off these black bars that appear above and below footage, without having to crop anything? Thanks.
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You took a 1920x1080 FLV video (16:9) and you converted it to a 640x480 MP4 (4:3), so you got a letterboxed video. The conversion to 4:3 is why the bars were added above and below the video.
Try converting the FLV to a 1920x1080 or even an 855x480 video and the problem will go away.
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Where is the video from and how was it recorded? The video appears to be recorded at one aspect ratio and saved at another -- or perhaps converted to an MP4 from another recording.
Open up a sample of your original video in the free download MediaInfo. In MediaInfo, set the View menu to Text and then cut and paste the report it generates to this forum so we can see the specs of your raw footage.
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The footage I use is in an MP4 format, In this case, it was converted from FLV, however, I tested this on my PlayStation that records at MP4 natively, and it appeared with the same issue, and after double checking, yes, its set to a 1;1 aspect ratio.
First string is footage before its converted (.FLV)
General
Complete name : C:\Users\User\Desktop\2018-06-19 16-09-01.flv
Format : Flash Video
File size : 212 MiB
Duration : 11 min 21 s
Overall bit rate : 2 612 kb/s
Writing application : Lavf57.84.100
Video
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : High@L4.2
Format settings : CABAC / 4 Ref Frames
Format settings, CABAC : Yes
Format settings, RefFrames : 4 frames
Codec ID : 7
Duration : 11 min 21 s
Bit rate : 2 500 kb/s
Width : 1 920 pixels
Height : 1 080 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate mode : Constant
Frame rate : 60.000 FPS
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.020
Stream size : 203 MiB (96%)
Writing library : x264 core 148 r2762 90a61ec
Encoding settings : cabac=1 / ref=1 / deblock=1:0:0 / analyse=0x3:0x113 / me=hex / subme=2 / psy=1 / psy_rd=1.00:0.00 / mixed_ref=0 / me_range=16 / chroma_me=1 / trellis=0 / 8x8dct=1 / cqm=0 / deadzone=21,11 / fast_pskip=1 / chroma_qp_offset=0 / threads=9 / lookahead_threads=3 / sliced_threads=0 / nr=0 / decimate=1 / interlaced=0 / bluray_compat=0 / constrained_intra=0 / bframes=3 / b_pyramid=2 / b_adapt=1 / b_bias=0 / direct=1 / weightb=1 / open_gop=0 / weightp=1 / keyint=250 / keyint_min=25 / scenecut=40 / intra_refresh=0 / rc_lookahead=10 / rc=cbr / mbtree=1 / bitrate=2500 / ratetol=1.0 / qcomp=0.60 / qpmin=0 / qpmax=69 / qpstep=4 / vbv_maxrate=2500 / vbv_bufsize=2500 / nal_hrd=none / filler=1 / ip_ratio=1.40 / aq=1:1.00
Audio
Format : AAC
Format/Info : Advanced Audio Codec
Format profile : LC
Codec ID : 10-2
Duration : 11 min 21 s
Bit rate : 156 kb/s
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Channel positions : Front: L R
Sampling rate : 44.1 kHz
Frame rate : 43.066 FPS (1024 SPF)
Compression mode : Lossy
Delay relative to video : 33 ms
Stream size : 12.7 MiB (6%)
After conversion (.MP4)
General
Complete name : C:\Users\User\Desktop\2018-06-19 16-09-01.mp4
Format : MPEG-4
Codec ID : M4V (isom/iso2)
File size : 163 MiB
Duration : 11 min 21 s
Overall bit rate mode : Variable
Overall bit rate : 2 008 kb/s
Writing application : Lavf54.6.101
Video
ID : 1
Format : MPEG-4 Visual
Format profile : Simple@L1
Format settings, BVOP : No
Format settings, QPel : No
Format settings, GMC : No warppoints
Format settings, Matrix : Default (H.263)
Codec ID : mp4v-20
Duration : 11 min 21 s
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 1 995 kb/s
Width : 640 pixels
Height : 480 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 4:3
Frame rate mode : Constant
Frame rate : 30.000 FPS
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Compression mode : Lossy
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.217
Stream size : 162 MiB (99%)
Writing library : Lavc54.23.100
Audio
ID : 2
Format : AAC
Format/Info : Advanced Audio Codec
Format profile : LC
Codec ID : mp4a-40-2
Duration : 11 min 21 s
Bit rate mode : Variable
Bit rate : 3 100 b/s
Maximum bit rate : 96.0 kb/s
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Channel positions : Front: L R
Sampling rate : 44.1 kHz
Frame rate : 43.066 FPS (1024 SPF)
Compression mode : Lossy
Stream size : 258 KiB (0%)
Default : Yes
Alternate group : 1
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You took a 1920x1080 FLV video (16:9) and you converted it to a 640x480 MP4 (4:3), so you got a letterboxed video. The conversion to 4:3 is why the bars were added above and below the video.
Try converting the FLV to a 1920x1080 or even an 855x480 video and the problem will go away.
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I'll try it, and see if it works, thanks for the help.
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Ty, for some reason, my converter doesn't convert to 1920x1080, but 1280x720 worked. I appreciate your help.

