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Ulead MediaStudio Pro Tutorial
Pixel aspect ratio management

A pixel (picture element) is one point in an image, composed of three dots: red, blue, and green. Monitors display an image by dividing it into thousands/ millions of pixels arranged in rows or columns. They are so close together, they seem to form a single shape. The image's display quality is then dependent on its resolution and the maximum number of pixels it can display.

The aspect ratio is the relative horizontal and vertical sizes of an object. If an object has an aspect ratio of 2:1 then it is wider than it is tall. This term also refers to an image's display resolution. For instance, an image with a 800x600 resolution has an aspect ratio of 4:3. The standard aspect ratio for traditional television sets and computer monitors is 4:3 while the aspect ratio for high-definition, wide-screen digital systems is 16:9.

To convert 16:9 aspect ratio videos/images to 4:3 aspect ratio:
It is recommended that you first set your project settings and preferences to the aspect ratio (4:3 or 16:9) you want to use for your project before importing any video/image file into the Production Library. By doing this, the aspect ratio of video/image files that you import will be converted to be the same as your project settings and preferences.

For video and image thumbnails already existing in the Production Library, they will be not be converted to the new aspect ratio that you set. It is recommended that you delete the thumbnails first from the Production Library then import them again.
  1. Click File: Project Settings: Edit to open the Project Options dialog box.
  1. In the Video Editor tab, select Perform non-square rendering.
  1. In the General tab, select 4:3 from the Display aspect ratio drop-down list then click OK.

 

 

 

 

   NOTE: MediaStudio Pro automatically detects the aspect ratio information of your video file if it is     available

  1. Click OK to close the Project Settings dialog box.
  1. Select File: Preferences.
  1. In the Edit tab, select Source frame size for Default display aspect ratio and Keep aspect ratio for Default stretch mode then click OK.
  1. Open the file with the display aspect ratio of 16:9 in the Production Library then place it in the Timeline.
    NOTE: When importing image files, make sure the Keep original size with moving path automatically option is cleared in the Import Image File dialog box.
  1. Preview your file in the Preview window to see how the converted video/image looks like then select File: Create - Video to create the video file.