adding bars to a 4x3 TV-Screen

arafin wrote on 10/19/2002, 4:18 PM

I have added bars to my video material by using the rectangle available under "text and colors" (this is not the exact name, but something like it). I formatted the rectangle in a way that it doesn´t show left or right borders, just the top and bottom to use as "filmlike" bars. I then dragged the modified rectangle to the top layer and spread it over the whole length of the project. This gave me some nice bars wich could easily be edited in with and fuzziness. But I do have one problem: At the spots where I faded to black, the image inbetween the bars fades to black and when it is almost really black the bars appear to switch to grey. This happens with every fade to black and is very annoying. Did I use a wrong way to format the rectangle? (I set the bars to 100% black, which is even more black than the normal video-black, so it shouldn´t turn into grey...) Is there a better way to introduce bars to my project? (Please don´t come along, telling me that I don´t need bars, I assure you, I do.)I tried several different settings for teh alpa-channel of the layer, but it didn´t solve the problem.

Comments

Tyler.Durden wrote on 10/20/2002, 5:36 AM

Hi Christian,

Where are you viewing the images, on the PC or on a TV?

It may be the way your monitor, TV or analog>DV conversion handles blacks.

(I do not see the problem on my laptop.)

HTH, MPH

arafin wrote on 10/20/2002, 12:09 PM

I haven´t looked a the images on my PC-monitor. I use a dv-preview on a good TV. The TV shows the changes from black to grey in both cases, when I view material in preview-mode or the already printed to tape video. I assume that the problem might lie with the colour vegas uses as the background colour that all fades to black go to. Where can that be adjusted?

Any suggestion is appreciated.

Tyler.Durden wrote on 10/20/2002, 1:29 PM

Hi Christian,

This is most likely the way your DV>analog convertor (camcorder) or TV operates. Many have auto-gain that compress the signal or boost it, depending on the level of video coming in.

I very recently finished a project that used letterboxes the same as yours... many revisions have been screened on production-monitors and projectors (in performance) without any changes in the levels of black. (This was critical, as performers were taking the stage while the video rolled in black.)

One way to confirm is to watch your fades in the Vegas Preview window, using the luminance histogram... it will indicate if any levels are rising during your fades.

You might also make certain that you are in the standard (source-alpha) compositing mode in your letterbox track.

HTH, MPH

BillyBoy wrote on 10/20/2002, 4:49 PM

You can adjust how black your blacks are using the levels fither. Begin with adjusting gamma. Use the other four level adjustments if necessary. You may want to also adjust HSL.

arafin wrote on 10/21/2002, 6:54 AM

Hello!

Thanks for the input!
Here is what I did. First I switched all layers to the normal alpha mode. The akward grey persisted. Second I checked the effects in the master section. I used a HSL adjustment and the boradcast color filter in the clamp preset. As sonn as I turned off the boradcast filter the grey bars were gone. I then adjusted the black of the bars to R 18, G 18, B 18, A 18 and set the lower border of the broadcast filter to 0,5. The grey bars were gone. Akward though that the broadcast filter seems to be treating the out of range blacks produced by grafics different from the out of range video blacks. Since I work in Germany, I use the Vegas PAL DV Codec.