My video was taken with a 16:9 aspect ratio, but in Elements 13 I only see the left 2/3rds or so of the picture. How do I change it to see the whole frame? I do have your guide to elements 13 and find it extremely helpful, but since I'm just starting out at this level, there are still some basics I can't seem to figure out. If the answer is in the book, can you point me to where?

Thanks!

What model of camcorder is your video being shot with and what format and resolution is it?

If you look at the Project Settings, under the Edit menu, what is listed on the General page?

Full disclosure. It is my husband who does this usually and I am trying to do some work when he is away. Sorry. Neophyte here.

Our video recorder is a JVC Everio. I don't know how to tell what the format and resolution is. If you explain I can try to check it out.

On the general page it says frame size is 1920 by 1080 but it won't let me change it.

There are many many models of Everios recording at a wide variety of formats. And we will know what the specs are of the video you're editing in order to answer your question.

Download G Spot, a program for analyzing video.
http://www.headbands.com/gspot/

Open a sample of your video in it and note the file type, resolution, frame rate and audio and video codecs it lists.

Husband home. This is what he found.
Recorded at ultrafine level.
16:9 aspect ratio
Recording playback format: MPEG-2
Recording mode:
720 x 480 pixels
8.5 Mbps (VBR)
Audio: 48 kHz 384 kbps

We are using other audio that what is from the camera though.

Can you go to Project Settings in Premiere Elements and let us know what the settings in the screen shot below are for your project?

Mine is identical to what you have posted.

It looks like things are set up correctly for your video.

Maybe we're not understanding what you mean when you say "I only see the left 2/3rds or so of the picture".

Can you post a screen capture of this to this forum so we can see what you're talking about?

I am kind of confused because GSpot shows that your video is Standard Definition 720 x 480 but your project is High Definition 1920 x 1080.

Here are two screenshots - one from the Windows Media Player and one from Elements. The subject was centered in the video as I took it and that is how media player shows it. Elements cuts off the right hand side.

To do this, I started a new project and just inserted some video into it. This is how all we have been working on so far has been done and how it looks.

Thanks for the screen shots, a huge help. It is very strange how this looks considering the video size and the project size. Normally if you drop a 720 x 480 clip on the timeline Premiere Elements will change the project settings to Standard Definition. I am wondering if the program has interpreted the clip incorrectly in this case. Please right click on the clip in the Project Assets panel and select Interpret Footage, what does that show (a screen shot would be helpful)?

Here's interpret footage and properties. Not sure which one you wanted.

Under Interpret Footage, change the Pixel Aspect Ratio to: Conform To: Square Pixels. Try that and see if it properly changes the video size. You may have to try other options in the drop down to get the program to size the clip properly. Not sure why it is having issues with this clip.

Tried them all. It changed the ratio and how the picture looked, but it didn't give me the rest of the picture.

In properties it says it is 540 x 480 but it is supposed to be 720 x 480 - or am I reading this wrong?

(Sorry about the super compressed pictures. I live rural and right now I am getting about .3 MB upload speed, so we compress everything just to be able to work on the net.)

Changing to "DV NTSC Widescreen 16:9" did not make a difference? That should have fixed the problem I would have thought. Yes, it should be interpreting the footage as 720 x 480 with an aspect ratio of 16:9 (Widescreen) but it is not. Maybe try starting a new project and add only that clip, then see if it works.