Export not full screen. Issue with multiple resolution clips / Scale frame to size

[Gimbal_St]

I have a project that has clips of 5760x3240, 3840x2160 & 1920x1080. 

The sequence settings are 1920 x 1080.

There is something strange going on as in Editor I have to scale the first clip (which is 1080) to 47% to get it to fill the Editor preview screen correctly (at 100% it is zoomed in so you don't see the whole frame - the preview window is set to 100% zoom and full resolution) . In the Export preview it is half the size of the preview screen with a big black board around it. The export Output shows the resolution is H.264 1920x1080.  Toggling "Scale frame to size" on the clip in Editor makes no difference to the previews in Editor or in Export (which implies that the project resolution is 1080, the same as clip 1). So why is the export preview half size?

The second clip is 5760x3240 and is set to 48% scale in Editor. "Scale frame to size" (SFtS) is selected. In the export preview it is also half size with a big black border. If I unselect SFtS in Editor, the second clip fills the Export preview screen however it is slightly zoomed in compared to the Editor preview with SFtS checked. 

In other clips that I set keyframes for position, the export preview is half size and the frame moves around in the preview window (so the size of the black border changes around the video as it moves around the window)

Changing the Export Preset quality makes no difference to the amount that the videos fill the Export preview window, even when Match Source is selected - they're always half the size with a big black border

Are there some more resolution settings that I have missed in order to get all the frames to be scaled correctly and fill the export window? 

This has only started happening since updating to version 23.0.0 (build 63). 

Thanks

[Gimbal_St]

Regarding my question "So why is the export preview half size?" - I suppose I should actually ask "why is the Editor preview showing it full screen? It would appear the export preview is correct (48% scale) but it is full screen in the editor preview. 

[Kevin-Monahan · Accepted solution]

Hi, Gimbal_St,

Sorry for the frustration. Have you tried setting the Program Monitor in a lower magnification than 100%? It helps to see the "offstage" area around the Program Monitor when working with footage of different frame sizes. Try 25%. A good setting depends on your system and the clips. If your sequence still doesn't make sense visually, create screenshots and post them here. I hope we can assist.

Thanks,
Kevin

[Gimbal_St]

Thanks Kevin,

That was exactly it. Changing the preview window to 25% from 100% meant I was seeing exactly what would be exported. It must have defaulted to 100% when the new version installed (I usually just have it on 'Fit').

Many thanks for your reply, that is so helpful, I was getting very frustrated with it!!

[Kevin-Monahan]

Great! In my book, I call this the "offstage" area. Here you can stage clips offscreen to have more control over animating them. I hope you have fun and good luck.

Thanks,
Kevin

[Peru Bob]

It likely won't solve your problem, but it would be better to use Set to frame size rather than Scale to frame size.

[Gimbal_St]

Thanks Bob,

I should have mentioned I had already tried that but to no avail. See the solution above. 

Thanks for your reply though, appreciated

[R Neil Haugen]

"Scale to framesize" actually scales the clip to whatever makes it fit on that sequence, AND then recomutes the image to that pixel dimension. It was designed to be useful for system that couldn't handle large image sizes fluidly on a timeline.

But ... because of that, now if you've resized it to 50%, then change that to 75%, you're not running from the original image size. You're UPSCALING the 50% pixel image.

"Set to framsize" is very different, and what you nearly always want. It keeps the original pixels, just gives a scaled down image on the timeline. Any changes are from the original pixels.

Neil

[Gimbal_St]

Thanks for the detailed explanation Neil. I had tried switching between Scale & Set (which didn't fix it - see above, now solved) but I didn't understand the difference so your explanation is very useful. 

Thanks for your help