export settings grayed out in Media Encoder

[bartonlew]

I need to get rid of pillar boxes in my 16mm footage using Media Encoder.  I was told to activate the crop function in the Export Settings under the Source tab.  After encoding my footage, I tried to select Edit > Export Settings, which I believe would bring up the Source and Output panels, the former of which would contain the crop tool I need.  However, Export Settings is grayed out.  What am I doing wrong here?  Thanks.

[R Neil Haugen]

Go directly to the Export dialog ... the crop controls are in the upper left corner.

Neil

[bartonlew]

Thank you.  I double clicked on the file in the queue & that brings up Export Settings.  I am clicking on the crop tool and dragging the left and right sides over to the edge of the image, getting rid of the pillar boxes.  Then I am clicking on OK which closes the Export Settings dialog.  Then I am clicking on the green arrow in the queue.  The file that is generated, however, still has the pillar boxes.  What am I doing wrong?  Thank you.

[R Neil Haugen]

That puzzles me, I'll check out when I get to my studio.

If you do this on s direct export from PrPro does this happen?

Neil

[bartonlew]

sorry but I am not sure of your question (I am new to this).  You ask if I do a direct export from PrPro does this happen - since I can only crop in Media Encoder, how would I do a direct export of my cropped file from ProPro?

[R Neil Haugen]

The box shown in my example was the Export dialog that comes up from PrPro ... at the bottom right, you have two options ... queue to Media Encoder or Export, which is direct from PrPro.

Neil

[bartonlew]

OK.  I cropped in Export Settings and then clicked on Export, as opposed to Queue, and I still have the boxes. 

I'm a little confused because in a prior post entitled "remove pillar boxes from footage shot in 16mm" dated Nov. 2 a poster told me I have to do this in Media Encoder.  I was under the impression that meant I could only crop in Media Encoder.  Otherwise why would I need it?  But the crop tool is available in Export Settings in PP.

Whether I put the footage in the Queue or simply Export, I still have the pillars.  I wonder what I would see if they were removed - just white space in their place - or would the image then fill the frame?  In any case, if you know what I'm doing wrong I'd appreciate hearing from you.  Thank you.

[R Neil Haugen]

Post a screen-grab of the entire export dialog box, with your crop showing and also the export setting on the right side. That might help.

Neil

[bartonlew]

Thank you.  Does this do it?

[R Neil Haugen · Accepted solution]

Now you'd need to go into the Video tab of the export, and set the pixel width/height boxes to the aspect ratio of your crop.

Neil

[bartonlew]

That worked.  Thanks a million!

[R Neil Haugen]

Happy we got this sorted. It's always nicer when work's going out than chatting about it here, you know?