7/1/2005 7:41:34 AM

I have asked this one before, on the old forum's but never really got the answer I was looking for or a solution, now its bugging me again..

I would like to know how to get a video file to fill the whole screen during playback.

I create alot of short video jump backs to introduce parts of the service and like to do things like video testamonies etc. the BIG problem I have is getting the clip to fill the screen. ( not talking 16 :9, standard 4:3) every clip I make has space at the top and bottom and sometimes sides when played back through SSP, no problem with playback through other software. I have tried all the different formats (avi, mpeg 1 mpeg 2 etc) I even thought it might be a PAL / NTSC issue but cannot get the video to fill the screen.

This gets really annoying if you have a background behind because you can see the border etc, at present I turn off the Background and set it to black to hide it, but then that limits me in other ways, ie. to fade from an intro clip to Title using the same background loop, has to go through black instead of being seemless, and the overall quality of the playback is not good.

If I set the videos as backgrounds SSP stretches them to fit the screen but I cannot play the audio with it.

Most of the Commercial videos I have tried seem to work fine,

Can anybody tell me the Exact size and format I should be creating the video clips in to fill the screen. I know I am not the only user to experience this problem, so some advice would be great.

Thanks
Rod

( I can supply screen shots, if you would like to see the Problem)

7/1/2005 4:36:22 PM

I would love to see that feature in SSP also!  I would also love to see images fill the whole screen too instead of showing the annoying backgrounds. 

Karen

7/1/2005 5:42:22 PM

I can offer a brief explanation about why videos and images don't currently fill the screen:

When movies are brought from theaters to home video, the fullscreen edition gets its edges chopped off to fill the screen.  This process is very deliberate, and takes editors a great deal of time to make sure they don't chop important things.  If the movie were simply stretched so that all of its edges touched the sides, then people would appear tall and skinny.  If it were arbitrarily chopped, we could lose important visual information.

By the same token, images and videos in SongShow are stretched so that they preserve the ratio of height to width.  This way babies aren't super fat, and the soccer team isn't unnaturally skinny and tall.

It would be programatically possible to stretch the video to the sides anyway, but visually it wouldn't always look appealing.  If enough people would like to see a "stretch to screen edges" feature anyway, they can raise their voices on this forum - and be heard by the developers. 

Thanks everyone for their feedback.

Note for Rod: I'm not certain what width and height should be used exactly, but 4:3 videos should fill the screen fine (assuming your screen resolution is 4:3).  If this isn't the case, calling tech support might produce the information you need.

7/1/2005 10:54:45 PM

Here's another argument for different default setting for different items. I'd really like to set no color, no image, no motion background, for video and images.

But I certianly don't want that for my Songs or Bible verses. But I would like a different default background image for Bible vs. songs.

7/2/2005 8:16:39 AM

How are these short videos created?

7/2/2005 6:09:47 PM

I can understand that when I use images that are not the correct size, there does need to be a border around them.  For instance, our resolution is 1024 x 768.  However, even when I use an image that is that size, there is still a background or color around the edges.  It is the same way with videos.  I used to work around this by formatting a blank slide with an image.  That way it would fill the whole screen.  It just seems like that would be a neat feature to add.  I guess I can understand now why videos don't fit the whole screen, but then why do they when I play a DVD through the mixer?  If I play the same DVD through the computer, it doesn't fit the screen.

 

Karen

7/3/2005 10:08:24 AM

I'm betting this has something to do with margin settings.

But that's just a guess.

7/3/2005 1:09:33 PM

No, I have the margins set to full screen.  Trust me, I've tried everything.

 

Karen

7/3/2005 6:14:08 PM

I don't remember all the details, but I vaguely remember that while DV uses the standard 4:3 picture ratio, the pixels are not symmetrical - they're not quite as high as they are wide.

I've also noticed that Adobe Premiere has a option to create 4:3 video using 1.0 pixel height, as compared with the 'standard' or default 0.9.  Wonder if that would make a difference?

7/3/2005 7:07:37 PM

I wonder if a few more details are in order. Normally I don't have that problem and therefore can't relate to it; however, this morning I was playing some videos and had a border, but all I did was go to the Videos tab, and changed the dropdown list to Stretch-to-Screen, and checked the check box (which wasn't checked). Then the  border vanished. Normally I am not concerned with the dimensions of the files; everything simply seems to work by default.

It would be nice to know whether the problem is with settings on the machine, or within a file. Perhaps there is a particular file that does not work properly that you could find a way to send to us, as an experiment.

7/5/2005 12:14:34 PM

Karen,

Have you tried creating a slide show and setting the image you want as the background to a slide.  It should fill the screen then.

7/5/2005 12:25:13 PM

I do know that when I create a blank slide and use the image as its background, it does fill the screen.  That adds several extra steps though.  I wish I could select the image, hit the + key to add it to the program and it would still fill the whole screen.

Karen

7/5/2005 3:09:19 PM

This isn't as many steps, but you can now set an image in the blackout option in display properties. That gives you the ability to right-click in the program list, select blank slide, and then set the properties of the blank side to an image (on the blackout option).

Again, not a seamless as + and done, but easier than SSB.

gap

7/6/2005 11:45:26 PM

You'll be glad to know that one of the changes planned for V7 will address the video background issue!

7/7/2005 5:48:18 AM

Kewl!!!

And Picture Show also, right?

Thank You!!!

gap

7/11/2005 11:00:14 AM

8/8/2005 8:25:54 AM

Just passing on my latest findings..

I edit a video clip in adobe premiere and export it as a DV - AVI. When I would play it in SSP it would squeeze in and have interlacing problems, resulting in a bad loss of quality.

I then take the exported DV AVI put it into Windows movie maker, then export it as "DV AVI". I then take that new DV AVI file and play it in SSP and no squeezing and the quality is back..

dont know why.. Yet.. but theres a work around for any one else having the same problem..
Both AVI's are set at 720 x 576 resolution..

Rod