How do I use both 4:3 and 16:9 footage in Windows Movie Maker?

Question by Bryn: How do I use both 4:3 and 16:9 footage in Windows Movie Maker?
I’m making a video with Windows Movie Maker, and I’ve imported both fullscreen and widescreen clips to use in the vid. I have Tools>Options set to 4:3, because I want the final vid fullscreen, but when I save the project as an avi the widscreen clips get stretched to fill the top and bottom. How do I make sure the widescreen clips keep the bars at the top and bottom? (I tried changing the Tools>Options to 16:9, but that just distorted my fullscreen clips).

Thanks for your time and assistance!

Best answer:

Answer by Socrates Poole II
I’m not sure how to do this in Movie Maker (or if you even can) but here’s one thing you can try. Superimpose your 16:9 footage over a 4:3 black layer, and shrink it down so the left and right edges line up, thereby adding “letterboxing”, and export the whole thing as 4:3 video. You will lose a little bit of resolution but the result should be close to what you’re looking for.

You may have to ‘pre-render’ the 16:9 clips to achieve this (basically export all your 16:9 as 4:3 letterboxed, and then re-import it into your final project and work with it as if it were 4:3).

Hope that helps.

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