Wrong aspect ratio and cropped video

[Stein99]

I have a project that I created in Adobe Premier Pro 13. It consists of many family videos from different sources e.g. mobile phones, cameras etc. Videos are mainly low resolution.

When I open this project in Premiere 14 or 15, many of the videos now have wrong aspect ratio and are somehow cropped.

The properties of this issue are:

* Sequence always shows wrong aspect/cropped on these clips

* When I double click clip from timeline, source editor shows wrong aspect and cropped video

* When I double click clip in library, source editor shows correct format

* When I drag clip from library to timeline, the format is wrong again

* If I use "New sequence from clip", the clip in the sequence is correct and is also displayed correct when I nest sequence in main sequence

* If I create a new sequence with high resolution - e.g. ProRes 4K, then the clips are ok when I drag them from the library

* The same issue is also happens on new projects in Premiere 14 - not just this old project

This below screenshot below shows the issue in a HDV 1080p sequence. Source editor (left) shows clip from library, while right side is from the sequence.

So somehow Premiere 14/15 has issues when placing some movies in a sequence. It might seem to be related to when Premiere Pro needs to scale them. Premiere 13 worked fine.

A workaround is of course to create separate sequences for all the clips that has these issues ("New sequence from clip"), but this will be a lot of work. I have a lot of cross dissolves as well, and this is a nightmare on sequences. 

These are the properties from the example video shown in the screenshot:

File Path: /Volumes/ExtPhotoLib/Mobilvideoer/2014-01-19 13.45.37.mp4
Type: MPEG Movie 
File Size: 37,47 MB
Image Size: 1920 x 1080
Frame Rate: 30,02
Source Audio Format: 48000 Hz - Compressed - Stereo
Project Audio Format: 48000 Hz - 32 bit floating point - Stereo
Total Duration: 00:00:18:09
Pixel Aspect Ratio: 1,0
Alpha: None
Video Codec Type: MP4/MOV H.264 4:2:0 
Variable Frame Rate Detected

Here is a screenshot that shows the error. Please observe that both aspect is wrong and also cropping has happened.

 

[Jeff Bugbee]

First: Can you finish this edit in the original Premiere version you started it in? I have never heard of anyone saying "upgrading Premiere mid-project resulted in no issues whatsoever"

If you insist: check the effect controls of an effected clip, see if a setting was changed. Another option is try is reimport one of those clips. As in, import the same clip using the Import dialogue. Does that clip import correctly? If so, you might be able to get away with off-lining everything, then on-lining them, that may resolve the issue. If that doesn't work, re-linking might work (offlining/relinking are two DIFFERENT processes which may result in different outcomes, I would suggest trying both)

[Stein99]

The project was created in Premiere Pro 2019 (version 13), which is no longer available for download.

The project was finished last year, but I wanted to find out what was wrong, so I do not do the same errors once more. And it is always nice to have "working projects".

[Ann Bens · Accepted solution]

The footage is variable framerate convert to constant framerate with Handbrake or Shutter Encoder before bringing into Premiere.

[Stein99]

Yes, I've been online with Adobe support now and they say the same. I tested transcoding to constant framerate with Handbrake and replacing footage. That worked fine.

But it's a pity that something that worked a year ago is broken in newer versions of Premiere Pro... I created the original project in September 2019, and I think it must have been PP13. There it worked perfectly.

[Stein99]

Sorry - September 2020 it worked. I then used Premiere Pro 2019.