# Movie Squashed/Cut Off in iMovie/iDvd



## bowjest (May 2, 2010)

Hello to all,

I've attempted to reconstruct an old black and white film from parts off YouTube in iMovie, which has worked fine. The scenes fit together seamlessly and the subtitles are easily legible.

The problem, however, is that once I burn this via iDVD and play it on my TV, the heads of the actors are cut off at the top of the screen and the subtitles are cut off/cut in half at the bottom of the screen.

I've tried everything I can think of to correct this so that everything fits as you would expect on the screen, but so far to no avail.

Can some advise how I might get around this problem?

According to the info for each app I'm using the following:

iMovie 7.1.4
iDVD 7.0.4

Thanks


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## ex2bot (May 2, 2010)

Did you select a widescreen theme in iDVD? Some are 4:3, some are 16:9.


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## bowjest (May 2, 2010)

Hi, ex2bot,

Regardless of which choice (4:3 or 16:9) I get the same result.

Imagine watching a film on your computer and them zooming in so that the picture no longer fits on the screen (heads partially cut off and subtitles cut in half) and you get the idea of the problem I'm having.

If I watch the preview in iDVD before trying to burn the film or if I watch it in iMovie, it plays exactly as it should; nothing is cut off or obscured.

Any other ideas? I'd really like to get this sorted if I can.

Thanks


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## ex2bot (May 3, 2010)

The only thing I can think of is to use Handbrake (free) to change the format of the video or use Toast Titanium (commercial) to burn the movie(s).


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## bowjest (May 3, 2010)

I finally found a way to get around it, but it's not ideal.

I changed each segment so that it was set to "fit" rather than "crop" to frame (click on each segment and select the little icon for editing).

It has produced a clearer quality with all persons and subtitles clearly visible, it's just all now in a much smaller square in the middle of the screen (kinda like watching an old 16mm movie on a wall).

That's fine - I just wanted to finally see the movie and make some language comparisons, so no problem.

Thanks to everyone for their input.


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## ex2bot (May 3, 2010)

Handbrake has the ability to crop a specified number of pixels from the top and bottom of a movie, so as to eliminate the letterboxing (black bars).


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## bowjest (May 3, 2010)

Thanks for that. Good tip!

I'm actually wanting to get a standard size letterbox effect. Might help if I post a screenshot of what I've got (and don't want) and what I've settled for. Will try to get that done in the next couple of days.


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## nolesrock (Nov 14, 2010)

i'm having a similar problem, where the right side of my movie is cut-off on the newly burnt dvd-r

someone suggested a fix on another thread that adjusts the height and width of the 16:9 resolution to "true" widescreen...do you think that would work?

here's what they suggested...
I went to the Apple Store today b/c I couldn't figure out why iDVD wasn't making a 16:9 standard DVD from my 16:9 exported qt movie. This should help anyone who has experienced the same frustrating problem. It turns out that iDVD does not recognize the export setting of 720*480 16:9. You have to manually type in 854* 480 in the dimensions box in export settings. See below for correct export settings...

To burn a standard 16:9 DVD using iDVD: export - qt movie - options - marks -  enable trax - custom - format - settings - DV/DVC Pro-NTSC - frame rate current - scan interlaced - aspect ratio 16:9 - size dimensions custom - type in 854 * 480 - ok - ok - video format - width * height type in 854 * 480 - size to fit - 601 - even - native (854 * 480). * I named this export setting as iDVD 16:9 Movie and created a new template.


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## bowjest (Nov 15, 2010)

Thanks, Nolesrock! That's great! I'll give that a try. I hope it sorts things out.


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## nolesrock (Nov 15, 2010)

i tried it, myself...and it makes a great QT movie (in .MOV format), but that's not something i can play on a DVD player...still looking for a fix...


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