Video cropped upon importing

[garretn81300992]

I have some gameplay footage I recorded for a video game review, but the right side is getting cut off when I import it into Premiere. It looks fine in any media player I play it on, but when I import it, it is clearly cropped. I have tried interpreting the footage, creating a new sequence and manual adjusting an existing sequence's aspect ratio. All that does is stretch or squeeze the seemingly improperly imported footage. There is one recorded clip that imports correctly, though I cannot tell exactly what is different about it. Premiere seems to think it has the same properties as the other clips, but it is clearly taller and thinner than the others. Not sure how that happened. Anyway, I would like to find a way to get these clips to import fully into Premiere so I don't have to rerecord everything. And yes, I'm pretty new with Premiere, so while I have tried a lot of suggestions I found online, I may have missed something obvious.

Video playing in VLC Media Player:

Video imported in Premiere Pro:

That one weird file that recorded differently somehow (The fourth from the left):

[David Arbor]

Your sequence settings need to match your footage settings, or you need to scale your footage down from the Effects Controls Panel.

The first thing you should do is figure out what you want your comp settings to be. Presumably this is going to the web, so do you want this to be HD? Is the gameplay footage HD? If so, is it 720p or 1080p?

The next question is what's the resolution of the footage you're capturing? (Alternatively, you can ask this question first and decide your sequence settings after). Can you post screenshots of the Codec tab of VLC's "Current Media Information" window showing the pixel dimensions (Ctrl+I)? Also, what are the settings of your screen recording software?

Your video isn't matching the sequence settings from Premiere, so again, you either want to shrink it down to fit or alter the sequence settings to match. How did you create the current sequence? Please post a screenshot of that too from the Sequence>Sequence Settings menu.

[Richard M Knight]

Should the Source monitor not just show the imported file? the sequence settings should have no effect on the source monitor. I think there is more going on here than a straight mis-match

[garretn81300992]

The Source monitor is showing the imported file. That is why I'm confused. The video gets cropped when it gets imported, not just when I put it in the timeline. Since I have that one recording of the game that imports without getting cropped, I feel like it is still some sort of aspect ratio problem or something.

[garretn81300992]

I appreciate the help! Although, unless I missed something, I'm pretty sure I've tried this before to no avail. The gameplay footage is not HD. I'm not positive on the exact resolution, but since it is a movie tie in game from 2005, I'm assuming it's not great.

Here is the VLC Codec info:

I created the sequence by dragging the imported video to the New Item button. In this example, I opened a brand new project just to insure everything was default settings to start. Here are the Sequence Settings:

I recorded the footage using NVIDIA Shadowplay. Not sure on the settings, but I'll let you know when I can. I have to go to work so I won't be able to respond for 6-7 hours. Thanks so much for trying to help!

[Jeff Bugbee]

In your sequence settings, change the frame size to 1920 x 1080

[garretn81300992]

Unfortunately, this just squishes the video. The cropped part is still missing.

[Jeff Bugbee]

Looking at this screenshot, the file appears cropped even before it ever gets to your timeline. If you double click it and open in the Source window, does it appear cut off?

[garretn81300992]

Yes, it is getting cropped before placement on the timeline. I apologize that I wasn't able to communicate that clearly.

[Jeff Bugbee]

Unfortunately there is no way to change how Premiere imports the file. You can interpret like Richard stated below, but that won't help you in this case.

If you have the application Handbrake, you could transcode the file into a different format and try to re-import, there's something wrong with that particular file that Premiere is not reading correctly.

You could also try dragging directly into Media Encoder and see if it's read there correctly (most likely not but worth a try).

I assume you are recording with OBS, you might want to play with settings in there for future recordings, specifically regarding recording in CBR, not VBR. Here's a site that appears to have some good settings: Best OBS Settings for Recording Videos

[garretn81300992]

Handbrake worked! I'll take that over having to play through the game again. Surprise! 14-year-old movie tie-in game was not good.

I usually would use OBS, but it didn't recognize this game for some reason. I ended up using NVIDIA Shadowplay. It has worked with a different game I recorded and even one of the Incredible's files imports correctly. I'm not sure what is different about that one as I never changed any settings. Going forward I will be careful with the settings I use to insure I won't have to go through this again.

Thanks so much for the help!

[Richard M Knight]

I would double check the video dimensions, it looks like Premiere is interpreting it wrong. Before adding to a timeline, right click the clip in the project panel, go to Modify Clip- Interpret Footage and select 1920x1080 60fps.

[Ann Bens · Accepted solution]

I agree on what Richard says: Premiere is interpreting the file wrong.

Might be able to correct the Project window: modify or

Run the file through Handbrake set it to 1920x1080 and also set it to constant framerate.

[Bed30321077z973]

Why isn't this fixed yet? I got the same problem as @garretn81300992 

[garretn81300992]

Unfortunately this just stretches or squishes the video. I did use Handbrake and it allowed Premiere to read the file properly.

[excited_Genie16B8]

How you record makes a difference.  I recommend a hardware recorder like the Hyperdeck Studio Mini from Blackmagic, or the Ninja from Atomos.

[garretn81300992]

I've tried other games I recorded with the same software and they imported fine. One video from this game worked as well. I'm sure this is not the best way to record gameplay, but a hardware recorded is just not feasible for me.