Indeed, it can happen quite frequently that one uses a variety of image and video formats within a 16:9 widescreen video project which do not cover the full width of your video. This way you will see those ugly black bars left and right of your video image.
If you import source clips into a 16:9 Nero Video project that do not have an aspect ratio of 16:9 â like images from your DSC or smartphone in 4:3, 3:2, 1:1, or 9:16 aspect ratio â and you drag & drop these clips to the timeline of Nero Video, now all black bars will be automatically replaced with a mask image taken from the content of your source clip. This great effect is introduced with Nero 2018.
This way, all of the clips in your project will have a consistent and nice look and feel. Within the context menu options of each clip (right mouse click), you can decide if you want to have black bars removed from any clip in your project or only for the given one. You can also âundo remove black barsâ for each clip individually via button or context menu.
In advanced editing mode you also have the option to modify shape and color of the mask per clip. Just select a clip and place the timeline cursor over it. Then check the properties windows and open the listed effect âRemove black barsâ via the arrow. This window will let you set advanced options.
Nero Video is one of the most popular applications within Nero Suite. This is equally true for the included âMovieThemesâ, enabling the creation of automated movies and slideshows. Nero keeps getting user inquiries asking for new templates, also including new topics for MovieThemes.
With introducing new Nero Platinum 2018 and Nero Video 2018 Nero have taken the wish lists of users seriously in multiple aspects.
There is a whole range of new features for widescreen video and disc projects, and a complete new vertical video editing mode, only to mention a few. Within this blog, we want to give you some insight into the new MovieThemes for widescreen videos. Stay tuned for coming Nero KnowHow FAQ blogs with more details on new features in Nero Platinum 2018.
As you may know Nero Video MovieThemes contain all the ingredients for a final movie: intro, outro, main part of the movie or slideshow, pan & zoom, transitions, as well as matching music.
All of that is still the base of the new movie themes, but intro/outro as well as the main part of the movie have seen quite some upgrades in design. The main movie part now has integrated dedicated video effects per template like focus/out of focus (Tilt Shift), nostalgic effects, slow-motion, etc., and each template comes with an individually composed music track that automatically adapts to the duration of your project. The new âeffect drop zoneâ is unique: via intro and outro, you now can better personalize your movie by simply dragging photos or videos into the preview window or timeline. The dropped asset will automatically be integrated into the animation pattern of the template.
Via these improvements, the newly designed MovieTheme templates in Nero Video gain a stronger individual appeal matched to the respective theme. Â Now, you will achieve small and larger master pieces of your videos and photos in less time with more individualized and creative results.
The new MovieTheme templates are available within two categories. âMy Dayâ includes a variety of templates with themes associated to family, travel, events, and pets. The second category âActionâ includes different outdoor themes.
When making use of Nero MovieThemes there is no need to know a lot about video editing, except that you need to decide which source videos or photos you want to use for your movie and where you might want to trim them. The rest is all done automatically via the pre-designed movie themes.
By the way: the music tracks integrated into the new MovieThemes are also available as individual drag & drop music tracks for your other projects. You will find them under âMy Mediaâ > âAudioâ, > ââMy Dayâ, or âActionâ.
Since Nero 11 Suite, Nero Video has an integrated very easy yet powerful âExpress Editingâ mode. Since then, âAdvanced Editingâ with a multi-track timeline has been co-existing side by side with ‘Express Editing’ in Nero Video. Both are switchable within one project.
In the case asked for here, advanced editing was used. The advanced editing mode with a multi-track timeline is the versatile manual editing mode in Nero Video and gives you the full range of editing options. When shortening the duration of a clip  that exists in the first position of a sequence of clips in your timeline – say trim it down from 7 to 4 seconds – a gap will show on the right side, i.e. between the new end of your trimmed clip and the next clip in sequence you will have a gap of 3 seconds.
A simple way of getting rid of that gap is to just move the standard arrow tool over the white space and right click on it, then select ‘Remove from Track and close Gap’. Â When executed this tool will align all associated clips located right of the gap to the end of your trimmed clip (your new mark-out), or if there is no other clip left of the gap, it will put the project to the timeline start position. I recommend using this tool with care as this action will delete anything on all associated tracks within the existing timeline gap.
There are also standard ways of closing a gap via multi-selection and dragging your project content to the wanted position.
In advanced editing you can also modify the duration of an image clip within an existing arrangement of clips in your timeline via the context menu. Select a clip and right click on it. In the context menu select ‘Set Duration’. A window will open. If you want to change the duration – e.g. extend it from 7 to 9 seconds – just type in the new value or use the up and down arrows. When ‘Shift’ is selected (default selection) it assures that none of your clips are touched but just the duration of this one clip is going to be extended and the other clips will all line up in sequence in your track as before. The project will just be the amount of seconds longer that you added (in this case 2 seconds). If you select ‘Overwrite’ instead, the beginning of the clip right next to your prolonged clip will be overwritten (in this case by 2 seconds) while your project will not change its duration.
Express Editing
In âExpress Editingâ mode – in favor of ease of use  – the editing handling is mostly automated. Although you have less editing options and only one video track at hand you can do all the regular editing, and can even utilize some advanced automated options.
In express editing you do not have to bother about empty spaces as Nero Video takes care of that, deletes gaps when you delete clips automatically, automatically aligns your clips when trimming, and automatically shifts your project when you extend or shorten the duration of clips within your project.
Just select the clip in the storyboard that you want to extend or shorten. Put the mouse over the clip and two icons will appear. Select the trim icon most right.
A window will open that lets you easily modify the clip duration by typing it into the fields or by using up and down arrows.
You can even type in a duration for single frame editing and this way create a stop frame animation project.
If you have several image photo clips in your project and plan to do a stop frame animation project, just select any single clip in your project and set the duration to 1 frame or 2 frames using the above method.
Then simply change the duration for all photos by using the context menu as below.
Your project will then show single frames in sequence. Below we have 5 photos with a total project duration of of 5 frames.
Note that switching from advanced editing to express editing is no option if you already have done a project in advanced editing. By design advanced editing has much more editing options that do not match to express editing.
The regular and conceptually implemented way of using express and advanced editing is starting in Express (1) and switching to (2) Advanced Editing. When switching from express to advanced editing your complete arrangement including all trim marks and effects will automatically be taken over to advanced editing mode. Â If you switch from advanced editing to express editing or vice versa, your given project is auto-saved and this way ready for continuing work on that any time later.
You have the choice of selecting âMake Express Movie’ or âMake Advanced Movieâ within âNero Videoâ âHome Screenâ as well as in the project itself.
âExpress Editingâ is optimized for quick results. âNero Videoâ express mode is very easy to use, still you will realize that probably 90% of your jobs can already be done here. Compared to ‘Advanced Editing’ you have some limitations: no multi-track editing, no aditional trimming options, no keyframing, no advanced video and audio filters.
Also for users with higher ambitions Nero Video âExpress Editingâ is the perfect choice for rough cuts and quick trimming. You also have dedicated preset âNero Express Video Effectsâ templates that you just drag and drop to your clip.
Starting with Nero 2017 you also have a great function called âMulti Exportâ in âExpress Editingâ. This allows you to export individual clips within one project in only one export process. This way you save a lot of time.
Nero Video âAdvanced Editingâ comes into place when you want to create video projects with all the bells and whistles of a pro movie. ‘Advanced Editing’ gives you timeline based multi-track editing with numerous layers, a higher varitety of trimming tools, more video and audio filters. A key differentiator is the availability of keyframe editing that you can utilize for moving path animations, picture in picture overlays, and also for almost all of the advanced video effects. In here you also have the option of customizing video effects and save them as your personal drag & drop effect template for frequent re-use. Such newly created personal drag & drop effect templates will also work in your âExpress Editingâ projects.
Once started a project you also have the option of hot switching from ‘Express Editing’Â to ‘Advanced Editing’ so that you can further fine tune your project started in âExpress Editingâ.
There is a fundamental difference between a ‘Nero Video’ project file (nvc) and a media file (video, photo, audio).
Any time you open and save a project ‘Nero Video’ will create an nvc project file. Media files imported into your ‘Nero Video’ project will be saved as links to the source files on your PC’s hard drive, only. Now, when you edit media files inside of your project your source files remain untouched. ‘Nero Video’ just memorizes set edit points in the timeline and links the respective play points to your source file.
Accordingly a ‘Nero Video’ nvc file contains data links to video, photo, and music clips as well as references to any used effect, etc. Such data will be saved as pure meta data in a data base file.
As a matter of fact a ‘Nero Video’ nvc project file is not a media file but a data base file and cannot be played with a media player.  In order to play the results of your project as an independant media file you first need to export (encode) your Nero Video project to  a video file format such as AVC or MP4.
Tip: Make sure to have all drives connected to your PC that have been used in a ‘Nero Video’ project that you are going to open (e.g. you may have used footage on external hard drives before). Also  make sure never to delete or re-locate the source files used in your ‘Nero Video’ projects. Otherwise the source file linking  in your ‘Nero Video’ project gets broken. ‘Nero Video’ will ask at project start if media files are missing in your project.
If you forgot to attach the external hard drive attach it again and browse to the name displayed in ‘Nero Video’ message box. If you moved a folder with source footage to a different location on your PC browse to the location where your footage is located now. When clicking ok all files will be re-linked and your project is fine again.
If you deleted source files by accident your project will be destroyed. In such a case ‘Nero RescueAgent’ might help to recover your source files.
