Hi!
I had to change the audio encoding (from mpg to AAC) in my video files AFTER my team has done extensive transcription work 
the reason being that Mac OS does not play back non-AAC encoded mp4 videos, so far my knowledge…
I now would like to exchange the video files in ELAN, however, if I replace them, they appear in a totally unuseable distortion of aspect ratio. It seems ELAN retained some of the metadata of the mp4/mpg videos that now cause the distortion. Is it possible to access/refresh those metadata to match the newly encoded videos? Of course I tested the new videos in a new ELAN file and they play back perfectly there, but not in the ELAN file that has already so much work in it…
Any help appreciated
:-J
Hi,
Possibly the aspect ratio of the “old” videos have been manually changed. You can try, with the new video loaded, to right-click the video and select the “Reset” option in the “Force Aspect Ratio” sub-menu.
If that doesn’t help you can locate the .eaf file in the Finder and open the .pfsx file of the same name (except for the extension) in a text or xml editor. Search for “AspectRatio”, if there is a <pref> XML element with a key= containing “AspectRatio” and the path of the file, removed the entire element (from <pref>...</pref>).
-Han
Dear Han, thank you so much for your quick response. Unfortunately, both tricks did not change the behaviour. For the first one, there is no “Reset” in the “Force Apekt Ratio”, only “Standard” (which had been marked) and a list of aspect ratios. I tried several, but there is not any change when playing back (or do I have to save, close and reopen for making the change happen?).
The videos are originally miniDVs, transferred to .avi, 768x576. I do not remember what I used to write the .avis back then. Perhaps it was the Microsoft default software Windows Movie Maker that came with Win XP back then…
They play fine on my Ubuntu Studio system, but not on Mac But I do not see where a change of aspect ration can have taken place. Here is a download link (no need to protect it, it is published on YouTube anyway) in case you have time to look at one (of two simultanous cameras):
https://my.hidrive.com/lnk/Y9gjAMUl
.best regards
:-J
Normally the aspect ratio is updated immediately after changing it. I don’t know if there are issues if the media has just been updated via Linked Files. You can try if saving first and reopening the file again fixes the problem and makes the file behave like in a new ELAN file.
You could try if (re)moving the mentioned .pfsx file altogether fixes the problem; if anything is stored from the previous session, it is in there.
I attach a screenshot of how the file looks on my macOS system, including the context menu. I assume the aspect ratio is the same as in your case in a new file. I’m not sure why you don’t see the Reset label in the menu. What version of ELAN is this and what media framework is reported when you choose Player Info?
Thank you so much, Han!
My system is German, so instead of “Reset” it says “Standard” as I wrote above in my earlier post.
But your last advice works: removing the .psfx file did the trick, the files now play smoothly.
Thanks again for resolving this so quickly!
:-J
Ah! Sorry, not resolved. It seems the psfx files are the ones containing all the transcriptions. So removing this file also kills the many hours of work of our team…I do not want to choose between videos that can be played or trnascriptions…I’ll play around with the aspect ratio feature again. Any other ideas what entries to kill in the psfx file?
best regards
:-J
Would it help if I send you the .eaf file?
We are actually dealing with a two camera setup, time adjusted because their recordings are not of the same length. But that shouldn’t have anything to do with their aspect ratio (both are wrong).
:-J
Hi,
The transcriptions are not in the .pfsx file, they are in the .eaf file. So, I would guess that the tiers and annotations should be there if only the .pfsx is moved (but maybe they are hidden because of a global preference setting, although I would immediately know which setting, maybe concerning Tier Sets?).
If removing the pfsx file fixes the video scaling problem, I would expect that resizing the top media area (by means of the divider below the “Auswahl Modus”) would force the video to fit the blue “host” panel. But you probably tried that already.
Yes, you can send me the .eaf file, with the pfsx file and maybe the other video can be made available too (if it wasn’t via the earlier link, didn’t check yet) (han.sloetjes AT mpi.nl).
Thanks Han! Resizing the media area solves the problem. So simple. I hadn’t thought of this blush
all the best
:-J
Well, great that this solves it! We’re still looking for a reliable way to ensure that this manual resizing is never necessary.
-Han