I have a few video backgrounds that will not change no matter what aspect ratio I put them on. They have black bars down the right and left side and no matter which setting (tried all four), nothing changes.

Other backgrounds with this issue have changed just fine. What is up with that?

Hi!

What type of video files are they? MP4, MOV, FLV, WMV?

What are the dimensions of the videos?

Frame width, height, data rate, total bit rate, frame rate etc?

General
Complete name : BGSS01-13.mpg
Format : MPEG Video
Format version : Version 2
File size : 4.06 MiB
Duration : 13s 514ms
Overall bit rate mode : Variable
Overall bit rate : 2 519 Kbps

Video
Format : MPEG Video
Format version : Version 2
Format profile : Main@Main
Format settings, BVOP : Yes
Format settings, Matrix : Default
Format settings, GOP : M=3, N=15
Format settings, picture st : Frame
Duration : 13s 514ms
Bit rate mode : Variable
Bit rate : 2 519 Kbps
Maximum bit rate : 7 200 Kbps
Width : 640 pixels
Height : 480 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 4:3
Frame rate : 29.970 fps
Standard : NTSC
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Interlaced
Scan order : Bottom Field First
Compression mode : Lossy
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.274
Time code of first frame : 00:00:00:00
GOP, Open/Closed : Open
GOP, Open/Closed of first f : Closed
Stream size : 4.06 MiB (100%)
Color primaries : BT.470 System M
Transfer characteristics : BT.470 System M
Matrix coefficients : BT.601

Hi!

So it looks like the video has a
Width : 640 pixels
Height : 480 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 4:3

If your output is a wide screen format (16x9 ratio) then it will display with the black bars. Normally you should be able to choose the stretch option on the aspect ratio in EW.

We are using a 4:3 aspect. Almost all videos allow EW to stretch them to fill the screen but for some reason a few videos are not at all affected by the different settings in EW.

Right click one of the videos that is having the issue, then click on edit video properties.
Under media properties make sure everything is set to auto, or the background button is selected next to Media Usage.

Media Usage changes how the media item behaves.
Selecting the Picture icon stretches the image to fill the screen and loops.
Selecting the Movie icon does not stretch the video or image and does not loop if the background is a video.
Setting it to Auto will make it act like a background if you drag it onto a song in the schedule, but if you drag it into the schedule without attaching it to a song, it will behave as a foreground element (No stretching, no looping).

If that doesn't help, try doing a zoom and see if the bars go way or get smaller. Is it possible that the video has the bars baked in?

First off, it does appear this particular video has very small black lines down the left and right. However, using zoom does not change anything on this file. They do not get any smaller. Weird.

Is it possible that the black bars are actually part of the video? (I'm leaving this reply for others who might have this problem)



Open your standard video player (e.g. Windows Media Player), ensure that it's in windowed mode (not maximized), then open the video. The window will resize to the video's aspect ratio and you'll see whether the black areas are part of the video.



If they are, you'll need to crop the video and save. I use http://avidemux.sourceforge.net/]AVIDemux for many editing jobs like cropping, brightening, etc. It's free and available for all platforms.

Having been around two years ago, I do not even remember what video it was!



But I do know it did not have any black bars in the video. I do lots of video editing and would have known that.