How to Use Quicktime to Crop Video with Letterbox/Pillarbox

[GameStation3]

Is there any way for me to add pillarboxes? I have a widescreen video I want to attach to a full screen video, and keep the aspect ratio of the latter in the process.

[mrtnt1717]

hey! how do you zoom in parts of your video?!

[junkyturd]

I hat quicktime though

[parfumfashion]

oh wow thank you so much!

[AvEnGeDSHaDoW21]

what if this isn't in the morning

[Teambr00klyn]

This worked for me thanks man

[iGhulamMustafa]

I tried this method and failed. I have a video of size 640x480 and i want to crop it to be 320x480. I apply the mask and it seems to be reflecting in the Quick TIme properly, but when i export it, it gives me a 352x288 video. Any idea what's going on? I appreciate any help. Note that i'm using Quick Time 7.

[FCCmediaarts]

Thank you so much! Really helpful and clear - this unleashes a whole new potential of QT Pro.

[DarkAngelAlhena]

Wow, it worked! And the result was very good. Thank you.

[RussianDancing]

i dont have this kind of money just for editing one video.

[Rodderz123456789]

Just a tip; if anayone is cropping ripped dvd's it is quicker to re-rip with correct cropping than to export a whole film from quicktime :(

[DizBoyVin]

THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!! This helped a whole lot. a bunch of the other tutorials are way too confusing and require too much downloading.

[SEDomination]

You.Are.A.Legend! Thank you so much for putting this step by step directions out there :))

[satanhasswagger]

I've always pronounced GIF like GIF and not like JIFF..

[techrecipes]

@satanhasswagger I'm a JIFF person and so were the people who originally developed it. 

[techrecipes]

I can't post links but google for pronunciation of gif and you'll find the data

[UpGRaD3DSniping]

when i put the mask in it makes the whole video black =l

[iophalanx]

I like the method shown here better than any other I've heard so far because it allows the user to lop off the sidebars without having to re-compress the video. Do this using Photoshop, MPEG Streamclip, Compressor or practically any other software and you're compressing the video again and adding possible artifacts.

By doing it in Quicktime, you can maintain the same quality of the original. It IS the original.

[crazyboo13]

Well... if you have Photoshop CS4, you can save yourself a few steps by merely cropping it within Photoshop. It can be done... easily... and more quickly.

Here's how:

Open Photoshop and go to File > Open as Smart Object and in the drop down, select "Enable Quicktime Movie." Find your file. Take the rectangular marquee tool and draw a box around your video (leaving out the parts you want to omit, ie., the letterbox). Go to Image>Crop. Then go to File>Export>Render Video and save it. Ta da! :)

[patto2k]

leet accent

[FruitAndBerry]

THANK YOU!

but lol this vid has black bars >.<

[anthropamorphic]

or imovie

[ExpertShield]

Best help video ever! So simple, thanks!

[rtaing562]

lol... um.. or if you usewindows movie maker on PC. You can change it and get full screen

[BLVDNIGHTZ]

@rtaing562 How do you do that?

[swollenpickle09]

Just found out that MPEG stream clip does it now. But it was fun learning another way too. Thanks

[swollenpickle09]

Thanks, you save me! I couldn't find anything but this that works! Its too bad nobody has any software to do this yet. Quick time pro should have a crop feature included in the edit section.

[westwoodl]

Thank you soooooo much, am so grateful for this video :D have saved my freelancing project :D:D:D

[linkinvms]

scooby doo, where are you!

[simpucker]

This worked for me using QuckTime Pro on Windows 7. I used MS Paint to create the mask. Thanks a lot, this made my day!

[shakin2009]

hey, can i make a mask of a circle (face, to do some funny stuff) and save it? :)

[drrobertoboogie97]

Can you do this in QuickTime X?

[HVXSilverstar]

Very cool! Quicktime Pro is $29 and is the best tool no matter what editor you are using.

[abbiRobinson]

How much is QuickTime pro?

[EASTENDGLEN]

or you could just use media player classic and zoom without streching

download cccp

but I just hate quik time

[ForbiddenJake]

Fantastic!

[cyberlarry7]

Fantastic! I have a question: CAN you use the mask in reverse to 'create' a Letterbox format-aspect ratio on regular video? I shot some stuff I'd like to make look like 'widescreen' Letterboxed when played? How would one go about doing that? I hope you respond - even if you do not, again, many thanks for your terrific demo.

[lilthompy228]

yet this video has pillar and letter boxing on it, you fail.

[CoreyLiveProductions]

Everytime I get to the part where you put the .gif in the quicktime pro, it freezes and crashes...

[posadarules2]

where can i download photoshop?

[jasonh1234]

I just did this on a video. The exported video ignored my mask. wtf.

[jasonh1234]

What a round-about way of accomplishing this. C'mon Apple.

[naboojedi5]

Someone else mentioned this, but does anyone know how to make this KEEP working when you try to upload to youtube or export the video? I can apply the mask which makes playback fine but from the looks of the file preview in finder and then what happens when I export or upload, it hasn't actually changed the video. Help please?

[iSwayzak]

T H A N K  Y O U

[deezknots1]

Thank you. Very handy, I'll use this at work often.

[MazterCezar]

Thank you!!!!!!!!!!! It also works with Paint istead of Photoshop:]

[CUrquhart90]

Thanks, really helpful.

[rckmck]

GREAT help - thanks a million!

[MyVampireHeart94]

when i open the file the letterboxes when I put it into imovie, in quicktime pro, it doesnt show the black lines, it just shows the actual clip that's in the middle of the letterbox. I don't know what do do about this then?

[ReallyHarryFilms]

when i tried to crop it left a big white box on the vid (im a total noob) wat do i do?

[arthousefilms]

This is fantastic!!! THANKS!! The only thing is, QT pro should just be able to crop it with the settings instead of a matte. But it won't. So this video is SUPER helpful. Cheers.

[bluesdance]

QUICKER METHOD: Import the picture into Preview (free!), save as GIF, import GIF as mask, click "INVERT" BUTTON below Mask area... presto! Much quicker and easier, no image editing needed!

[IndivisiblePrinciple]

wow! you are a genius man. THanks a million. I think you just saved me hours of potentially unsuccessful toil and headache.

And youve made this video so clear and simple. Good job man

[naomiduckworth]

Thanks man!

[sdtgonzalez]

You are the best!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[BlackMagiKGaming]

this doesn't solve it when you upload to youtube

[theRealMcKs]

@BlackMagiKGaming

this is indeed non-destructive, but if you choose Export (for Web)... from QuickTime Player's file menu after you've cropped the clip , you will get a cropped copy.

[substereo]

Great tip. Super nice!

[remixerone]

AWESOME! THANKS!

[Prime1153]

Just what I wanted to do, except I was cropping a video instead of removing the bars. Thanks for the tutorial!

[bradlauster]

Just the advice I was looking for. Thanks!

[ggzzbb]

Yes inexpensive way...

And Photoshop is like what, one grand?

[wpstuurman]

Wow, thanks very much!

[cineprep]

Thanks. Works like a charm :-)

[GettinDemDollaz]

Any one know how 2 edit quicktime videos, to cut seconds? And how to put quicktime videos on disc??????

[cwiertny2]

Excellent!

[mgarv002]

Thanks

[shats84]

awesome, thanks so much!

[dpzeee]

thanks for this. clear, concise and correct.

[failtolawl]

teaching dumb mac people

"HOEW TOO YOUS PRAGROM?"

[bigairred]

Superb! Thanks very much. Super useful.

[raph713]

thanks a lot!

[kodakoca]

OMG. Thanks so much! :D

[btom3]

This is good shit. Thank you.

[CheetahProduction]

Thank you for your time and help. Worked perfectly.

[HomosapienBC]

thaks this worked on my pc tooo

[aytball76]

Thanks alot man, just made my day alot easier, i figured there would be a way but you saved me alot of time

[1pxsolid]

Man this helped me out heaps! Thanks.

[penlix]

Very very helpful. Thank you!

[PsychoBlack]

Is this only with the MAC?

[skaterzaner92]

i tried doing this, but everytime i have to add the mask to the video clip, the quicktime pro freezes up and is canceled due to some unknown error... can someone help me on what im doing wrong?

oh and i am saving the pic file as PNG as well just to let you know

[paulaftanas]

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!

[malindabalinda]

thanks!! that was so helpful.

[PinoyMusicChoice]

thanks. and i will sub though :D

[generickernpops]

omg amazing, i've been freaking out with final cut express to try and crop the letterboxing for a hour, thank you!!!!

[iskanderbenamor]

this was so helpful! thank you so much. I never would have figured this out on my own

[FrenzyBanana]

i try it but when i play it on ipod, it backs to normal

[osofine23]

If you specify what version iPod you have, maybe someone could help you. If you have a classic iPod (with a square screen), your iPod is putting back some bars so that the sides don't get cut off. You should only bother doing this vid if you want to watch the vid on a widescreen (such as iPhone/iTouch). Make sense?

[TheBadcop]

very helpful. Thanks!

[YTGarbage]

hey thanks..but might i ask if there is a way to add WHITE bars instead black ones to a widescreen video? Thanks again for the tutorial.