Maintain a letterbox in 1280x720? - Vegas Pro 9.0c

[Rapid99]

I've been finishing up a movie, which I edited in 320x240 without realizing it. It was in letterbox, and for the purposes of the video I added subtitles to it, which appeared in the black letterbox below.

When finalizing, I switched to HD format. 1280x720. But now there is no letterbox, and my subtitles are all covered up...
Is there anything I can do to get that letterbox back without having to sacrifice my HD? o.o

[johns0]

What type of subs are you using and how are they covered up?

[Rapid99]

I used regular text, placed towards the bottom of the screen, centered.
I wasn't aware subtitles could be made in any other way to be honest. I just typed them out, placed them, and made the timeframes match the length of what was being spoken at the time.

Here I took some screenies for example.

The clip in "Multimedia (320x240, 29.970fps)"


The clip in "HDV 720-30p (1280x720, 29.970 fps)"

[johns0]

So your making permanent text added to the project,subs are usually text or graphics that are separate from the encoded video,you can write your own subs that can be added later to the video in a srt txt format,that way then can be switchable and display properly on the screen.

[Rapid99]

I need them to be visible on youtube, though. I'm the media editor for my entire airsoft team, so I edit all of our footage. Recently I began using my new HD helmet cam, so there is a lot of footage of radio chatter. But I wear an earpiece, so you can only hear what I reply on the audio. So, to make conversations understandable, I added subtitles, showing what is spoken on screen, and then what is being spoken in reply over the radio (which is unheard)

But yeah, they watch the movies via YouTube.

[edDV]

sheesh what has happened?

320 by 240 is the new HD?

[aedipuss]

you not only switched size but format. you went from 4:3 aspect ratio to 16/9 ar. the black bars are added because i assume the source is 16/9 and to fit it to 4:3 you get the letterboxing black bars. you would need to switch the output from 1280x720 to 1280x960 to maintain the 4:3 a.r. and get the subs back where they were.

or redo them in the new project settings at the bottom of the main part of the video.

[Rapid99]

you not only switched size but format. you went from 4:3 aspect ratio to 16/9 ar. the black bars are added because i assume the source is 16/9 and to fit it to 4:3 you get the letterboxing black bars. you would need to switch the output from 1280x720 to 1280x960 to maintain the 4:3 a.r. and get the subs back where they were.

or redo them in the new project settings at the bottom of the main part of the video.

This worked, thanks :]

And when I said 320x240, it is because in the properties, the way Vegas exports the video, by default it is in that resolution. I didn't change the "Rendering" properties until I finished editing the video, right before I rendered it.

Anyway, thanks :]

[aedipuss]

a hint for next time. before you begin a project, start vegas, click file/properties and set the project properties to the size you want before starting work. that way the preview will more accurately reflect what you want.