Videos in my preview are zoomed and quality drops

[Undertoned]

Just view the photos to see what my issue is specifically, but details are as follows:

When i record my videos, they record in 1080p and when im editing the clips they show up in that quality, however when i drag clips over to the timeline, they are either zoomed in, or if i scale it to the frame size, the quality drops to about 240p. i cant figure out what is wrong for the life of me. would appreciate any help. thank you.
zoomedscale to frame size

[Averdahl · Accepted solution]

If your source footage is 1920x1080, use a timeline that is 1920x1080 as well. Either go to Sequence > Sequence Settings and set the Editing Mode to Custom and then manually change the Width and Height, or create a new timeline by using Ctrl+N, or drag the source clip (1920x1080) to the New Item icon in the Project panel.

Based on what i see on the footage you are using a 4:3 timeline instead of a 16:9, probably even a SD timeline. That´s the issue you have.

[MichaelKDavis]

Your screen shots are a little hard to see, but....  1) What are your settings for the Program monitor?  The drop-down box to the lower left and lower right of the video that's playing?  "Fit" and "Full"? 2) What are settings for your Sequence?  Did you create the sequence using the video specs or did you define it some other way.  Go to Sequence->Sequence Settings to see.