Summary: This post will provide an easy guide on how to change aspect ratio in iMovie on iPhone/iPad/Mac. You will also be presented with many useful tips, like create a vertical/square video with iMovie.
How could it be possible for you to ignore the video aspect ratio? Since it decides how the video looks like on your video players, you're supposed to ensure a suitable video aspect ratio for your device if you want a pleasant user viewing experience.
Chances are that your iPhone videos (recorded by iPhone or saved from online sites) vary a lot in aspect ratio. Some video clips may be recorded horizontally in 16:9 resolutions. Some may be at the vertical direction with 9:16. Others probably feature with a 1:1 square. Mostly, they're required to be changed in aspect ratio to best suit your gadget or video sharing platforms.
In such cases, iMovie is seemingly indispensable for you to easily set aspect ratio on your iPhone. Although there are no such aspect ratio settings in iMovie, you can change it in other ways. The article below will show you the tutorial of how to change aspect ratio in iMovie on iPhone/iPad/Mac.
The biggest change I’d like to see is the ability to use Split View multitasking with apps that aren’t on the dock. But in most cases you’re stuck using the iPad’s native aspect ratio. May 26, 2020 Section 2. Change aspect ratio in iMovie on Mac. Apple has canceled the Aspect Ratio option in iMovie Project Properties these days. Even though you can find the answer to changing aspect ratio with iMovie, which says go to File Project Properties Aspect Ratio, and change the aspect ratio to 16:9 or 4:3, it is invalid on your Mac. Jan 27, 2020 Chromecast Aspect Ratio: Offline Casting apps. You can only change the resolution in your smartphone or any other casting device that too if the app has the capability to it. Media playing apps like VLC, MX Player and other similar apps allow you to change the aspect ratio. Modify the aspect ratio in the app that suits your TV.
Strapped for time? Click one of the links below to jump straight to your most interested part.
- Part 1: How to Change Aspect Ratio in iMovie on iPhone/iPad/Mac?
- Part 2: How to Make a Vertical/Square Video in iMovie on iPhone?
- Part 3: [Better Solution] How to Change iPhone video Aspect Ratio without Quality Loss?
- Tips:Take 3-min to optimize your slow & storage-strapped iPhone (Optimize Now↓)
Part 1: How to Change iPhone Video Aspect Ratio in iMovie on iPhone/iPad/Mac?
Honestly speaking, the video aspect ratio conversion is as easy as ABC. The tricky thing is that you might fail to find the feature therein, for it's somewhere veiled. You (especailly for the rookie) can't find the entry unless you have read iMovie tutorial or have certain experience on it. Anyway, follow the below guide to adjust the video aspect ratio via cropping and zooming on iPhone.
Section 1. Change aspect ratio in iMovie on iPhone/iPad
Step 1: Load iPhone Video Source.
Fire up iMovie on your iPhone > click Project icon and tap '+ Create Project' button > choose Movie on the pop-up New Project window. Import video from iPhone to iMovie. Then tap Create Movie.
Step 2: Make the Feature Entry Pop Up.
Pitch on the video timeline section as the below picture shows after your input is successfully imported. Afterwards, the hidden video editing toolbox will show up under the timeline section, together with a magnifier icon with 'Pinch to zoom video' text at the upper right corner of the video.
Step 3: Set iPhone Video Aspect Ratio.
Mac App Change Aspect Ratio Of Monitor Computer
Click the magnifier icon and then you're allowed to pinch to zoom your iPhone video and change aspect ratio using your two fingers at your disposal. When it's completed, hit Done > switch to select the sharing button (with an upwards arrow in a box) > tap Save Video to save the outputs to your iPhone camera roll.
Section 2. Change aspect ratio in iMovie on Mac.
Apple has canceled the Aspect Ratio option in iMovie Project Properties these days. Even though you can find the answer to changing aspect ratio with iMovie, which says go to File >Project Properties >Aspect Ratio, and change the aspect ratio to 16:9 or 4:3, it is invalid on your Mac. The only workable solution is to enable the crop feature in iMovie to change the size of your video screen, but at a fixed aspect ratio of 16:9.
[Note] Have to admit that iMovie for iOS is capable of changing aspect ratio to certain degree. Yet, it's far from perfection. There are still many gripes posted by iMovie users. It's unrealistic to list them all out. We just select two most concerned problems iMovie brings to them during aspect ratio conversion.
1. iMovie doesn't provide the specific aspect ratio options for users to select from, e.g., the preset profiles for 16:9, 9:16, 4:3, 1:1, 4:5. Most of users have no idea about the exact aspect ratio of output and can't ensure if the output satisfy the playback platform requirements after they freely zoom in/out iPhone video.
2. The way iMovie offers you is to use 'Crop' to reach the aspect ratio conversion goal. However, when it comes to crop video, there must be some pictures being cut off on both sides or top/bottom borders if you wanna change 16:9 to 4:3, 4:3 to 1:1, etc. About half of the users can't tolerate this one.
Q&A: Why is iMovie cropping my video?
Sometimes, iMovie will crop the top and/or bottom of your portrait video – in this you need to change Portrait Mode to Landscape Mode before importing the video. Sometimes, iMovie will change your aspect ratio if you add more than one video at one time on your Mac. It will make the aspect ratio of your previously added video as default. To prevent the second video from being cropped, you need to uncheck the Fit option.
Part 2: How to Make a Vertical/Square Video in iMovie on iPhone?
Video dimensions supported by iMovie include 1920 x 1080, 1280 x 720, 960 x 540, 854 x 480. But now more and more videos shot by iPhone are vertical. In fact, iMovie does not have a Rotate button. To edit a vertical (portrait) video on iMovie, you need to rotate clockwise or counterclockwise (90 degrees) with your two fingers. Then the vertical video will become horizontal (landscape), but the image orientation will also be changed. You can also use your fingers to zoom in and zoom out to change your video screen size.
Step 1. Create a project and load the video to iMovie.
Step 2. Tap the timeline to select a clip.
Step 3. Use two fingers to rotate the direction of your video.
Tips: To make a square video, you can first rotate the video vertically, then Pinch to zoom it to square.
Step 4. Hit Done to export the vertical video.
Note: But iMovie still keeps the aspect ratio at 16:9 so that it auto-adds pillarbox (black bars placed on the sides) or letterbox (black bars above and below) to your vertical video.
Part 3: [Better Solution] How to Change iPhone Video Aspect Ratio without Quality Loss?
If you just happen to have the same annoyance of changing aspect ratio in iMovie, you can take best iMovie alternative VideoProc into consideration, which gives you the maximum freedom to deal with your iPhone videos. (Read indepth comparison: iMovie vs VideoProc.)
Advantage 1: It's built-in with the complete profiles for aspect ratio conversion, be it 16:9, 9:16, 1:1, 4:3, 4:5, 2:1, 2:3 to help you upload iPhone video to snapchat, instagram, YouTube, Facebook, Vimeo, etc. without improper playback issue.
Advantage 2: It lets you change iPhone video aspect ratio without 'Cropping'. That means it would bring full frame up (mostly adding black empitiness to both sides or top/bottom borders to adjust aspect ratio), no pictures being removed from your footage.
Advantage 3: This aspect ratio converter can work its magic in more aspects than iMovie, including crop, cut, split, rotate, denoise, deshake, merge, speed up/slow down video, resize video, transcode video footage, brighten iPhone video, downscale 4K to 1080p, adjust video frame rate, etc.
Before you go, please free download VideoProc on your Windows or macOS after you transfer iPhone video to your computer via Photos, cloud storage service or 3rd party iPhone managers. Afterwards, install and launch VideoProc on your desktop. Then you can get down to the business:
Step 1: Import an iPhone Video.
Tap the 'Video' icon (the first one at the following picture) > select '+Video' icon at the main menu > load your iPhone video footage from your pc.
Step 2: Click Codec Option to Set the Aspect Ratio.
Find and click 'Codec Option' at the right corner of the video info bar after the video source has been analyzed and video details have been displayed. Then you'll be directed into the video parameter settings adjustment window, where you target on 'Aspect Ratio' under Video Codec Options.
You will see the video original aspect ratio (such as 16:9 at the below picture) and feel free to change aspect ratio by unfolding the options. On top of that, you can also convert iPhone video codec, adjust video frame rate, tweak resolution, as well as bit rate (ABR/CBR), audio codec options.
Step 3: Click Done.
Now give the last hit on the 'RUN' button, and VideoProc's processing engine will go into action to change your iPhone video aspect ratio at GPU hardware accelerated speed. Only a few seconds later, you would get your desired outputs.
[Note] As we mentioned above, this iMovie alternative has more skills than you imagine. If you wanna polish your iPhone video for uploading to snapchat, Instagram, YouTube to share with friends and attract more fans, VideoProc gives you all you need. Give it a whirl to enrich your works!
I recorded the scene my pet trying to protect my little baby, using a camera. The scene is so warm that I’d like to upload it to YouTube, for sharing it with all my friends. However, the aspect ratio can’t fit the YouTube player exactly. Can I change video aspect ratio, making the dimension seamlessly match the player’s window? If any advice is available, I really appreciate your help.
Answer
It’s sure that there are many approaches you can utilize to change the video’s frame size. Before that, let’s have a look the definition of aspect ratio.
What is aspect ratio?
Aspect ratio is the ratio showing width that is divided by height. It presents the proportional relationship of a video’s dimensional size, which is always displayed in the forms of two numbers separated by a colon, such as 4:3, 16:9, 3:2 and etc.
Nowadays, many people would like to make videos themselves, which generates extensively different output ratios. When the videos are transferred to other player or video-sharing websites, they are unable to match with the player seamlessly. Furthermore, if the video can’t match with player’s size, the video may be distorted or stretched that the visual image would be blurred. To solve it, using aspect ratio converter to change the frame size is a best solution to figure it out.
Popular aspect ratio
Among different standards of aspect ratios, you may be confused with which one to choose. Well, I’ll tell you the most popular ones and you can select a most suitable one depending on your consideration, so as to convert aspect ratio.
- 4:3, this proportion has been utilized since mid-50s due to the product of standard TV.
- 3:2, it is created by Oskar Barnack to rotate the movie right or left 90 degrees.
- 16:9, most HDTV applies this ratio that the TV screen is designed into rectangle shape, which is well known as widescreen. As well, it is also a standard ratio that YouTube employs.
- 16:10, most game players would like to choose this aspect ratio as they can enjoy more exquisite display.
- 21:9, this is an uncommon ratio that is applied to many movies. It is so rare that seldom media player could broadcast it in full screen.
Methods to change video aspect ratio
1
Free Online Video Converter
To change the frame size rapidly, you could use this free online application to make it. The basic function of this application is to convert video to other video or audio formats. Beyond that, this aspect ratio converter offers many other accessible advanced functions as well. You can choose a popular aspect ratio under different resolutions. You can proceed according to the following guides.
- Visit the website of Apowersoft Free Online Video Converter.
- Import a video by clicking “Select files to start” button.
- Click to download the Launcher if it is the first time you use it.
- Select an appropriate file format for outputting the video.
- Forward to “Settings” > “Resolution” under “Video” tab and choose a target aspect ratio for the device you’d like to use. BTW, if your intention of conversion is to match the video with YouTube player, you can select these options which are confirmed by YouTube officially, 1080P 4:3, 720P 16:9, 480P 4:3, 360P 4:3, and 240P 4:3.
- Personalize the video through “Edit”, such as trim, crop, rotate video and other available options.
- Press “Convert” and wait for a moment to get the video with a desired ratio.
2
Video Converter Studio
Changing aspect ratio is not difficult if you use this upscale program. It offers preview effect when you use the advanced settings. The program has an in-laid player, on which you can play and edit the video at the same time. This function enables you to generate an accurately correct video you want, because you can crop the video just on the player but not to imagine and calculate the size. It’s very convenient that you can download and install it first to have a try.
- After installation, run the Video Converter Studio.
- Click “Add files” to upload a video.
- Click “Edit” and the built-in Video Editor will come out.
- Under “Adjust” tab in the Video Editor, press “Crop” and you can manually adjust the area for crop.
- Click “OK” after you think it is okay then.
- Click “Convert” and wait for a while to get the video.
3
Apowersoft Video Converter for Mac
Mac App Change Aspect Ratio Of Monitor Windows 10
If you are a Mac user, then you could utilize this Mac converter to change video frame size. It is designed for Mac particularly that you would not worry about compatibilities. It has various kinds video frame size for your preference that you could select directly. At the same time, you are able to convert video files to other formats. It is very useful that you could install it from below.
- Run this Mac converter.
- Click “Add” to choose a video.
- Click “Profile” bar and select a format for your preference.
- At the right of the “Profile” window, choose “Frame size” and select a favorite one.
- Click “Convert” after confirm the size of video.
Mac App Change Aspect Ratio Of Monitor 2
Tips: The final intention to convert the video’s aspect ratio to a new one is to enjoy the video completely. With the above recommended tools, you can watch the video on any other players without considerate of quality loss. Also, it solves memory problem if the rest space of your storing device is not enough. You can select a most suitable one based on your needs to transform the video to a smaller one with low resolution and new geometric proportion. Then you can take the video around and enjoy it anytime as your desire.