Black Bars with AVC Export

L_Town wrote on 4/6/2009, 11:42 AM
I have brought in some HDV footage into my 720 X 480 SD project. I have cropped the HDV footage to fit perfectly within the 720 X 480 (4:3) vegas timeline using a script I got from here (Thanks John!).

I did a test file of the AVC/MPEG-4 using the Main Concept encoder built within Vegas. The export settings I used were this: 30 fps using square pixels and a frame size of 640 X 480. I think I did VBR 2-pass and set the bitate around 1Mbps. Now, when I play this file (.mp4) within VLC player and QuickTime they seem to show a small black bar on top and bottom of the video.

Did I not export this right? Am I doing something wrong? Why are there black bars on top and bottom of the video?

Comments

musicvid10 wrote on 4/6/2009, 11:54 AM
When you render the file, check the box that says "Render to fill output (do not letterbox)."
Tim L wrote on 4/6/2009, 12:07 PM
640x480 is too small for a "4:3" aspect screen, which isn't exactly 4:3. Try 656x480 (I think) for the output render.
musicvid10 wrote on 4/6/2009, 1:02 PM
640 X 480, square pixels, is exactly 4:3.

The slight letterbox is the result of the imprecise PAR of NTSC DV 720 X 480 "4:3" IOW,

720 X .9091 = 654.55

So, 656 X 480 will accomodate the difference.

Checking the checkbox will fill a 4:3 frame by stretching the image 2% vertically.
L_Town wrote on 4/6/2009, 3:49 PM
It seems to work just fine when I export using Adobe Premiere Pro at home (instead of at work). Within Adobe, my source files were SD 720 X 480 (4:3). I exported using Main Concept's H.264 640 X 480 using Main profile and it looks perfect. Is it because my Vegas project uses the converted HDV files and messing up for some reason?

This is weird...