still images don't fill screen, spaces show on sides

foredogg wrote on 3/26/2003, 1:15 AM

Hello, I'm a newbie to VV and using it to make family videos. My project size is 720x480 and when I bring in a still image on a track above a video, the still image leaves a small blank space on both ends which you can see the video below or black space if no track below.

My images are high resolution jpgs at 2272x1704. It seems the images are large enough for the project. Can anyone tell me why or how to get your still images to fill the entire project window/preview screen?

Thanks,
Travis

Comments

TorS wrote on 3/26/2003, 1:28 AM

In Event pan/crop or Track motion you may rightclick the image and choose "Match output aspect". Your image will fill the screen trimming off height or width (not sqeezing).
Tor

Sab wrote on 3/26/2003, 8:26 AM

Hi Travis,

You also might try 655x480 for your photo size with the PNG extension instead of jpeg or bitmap. I know it doesn't necessarily seem right but truly it is and you'll get spectacular results.

Mike

foredogg wrote on 3/26/2003, 9:46 AM

Thanks Tor and Mike. I suspected I may have to resize the photos. Is there a preference option that will do that for all photos so you don't have to resize or adjust for each photo's Event Pan/FX?
Thanks,
Travis

haywire wrote on 3/26/2003, 1:42 PM

One other thing to consider is that once your project is copied to DVD or VHS, the blank spaces will not show when the project is viewed on a TV. You're seeing the full screen output on your computer, but your TV will cut off those blank spaces. Your preview window allows you to show gridlines and safelines so that you don't place text or details too close to the edge of the preview.

Michael

foredogg wrote on 3/26/2003, 6:21 PM

Thanks Michael. I haven't tried to burn it on DVD yet. I'll give it a test run to see if the blanks do go away.

Travis

riredale wrote on 3/26/2003, 7:46 PM

foredogg:
You're getting the black bars because you're importing pictures with a 4:3 aspect ratio, and DV is NOT 4:3! It's actually slightly wider. You can stretch the pictures, as mentioned, but then things will be very slightly distorted.

Also, you don't need high resolution. 480x640 is good enough (480x655 if you want to fill the entire DV image space).

rmack350 wrote on 3/26/2003, 11:11 PM

The truth is that the only thing in a TV picture that's 4:3 is the actual bezel of the TV. The NTSC signal provides for a wider picture than that because:

A-You can't always know when analog devices will start and stop a raster (line)
B-You can't always know where a consumer TV will place the picture from side to side.

Soooo...You're only expected to see the center 704 pixels of a DV signal when you view it on a home TV. The other 16 pixels are the "Horseshoes and Hand-grenades" part of the image. A 704x480 DV frame would give you a 4:3 image on a TV tube.

If you capture from an analog device you may notice black at the side edges of frame. This is the slop where analog devices are fireing up or closing down the signal.

Rob Mack

foredogg wrote on 3/28/2003, 5:35 PM

Hi again, sorry I forgot to ask this when my topic was fresh two days ago. I wanted to ask what is the best technique to bring in still photos into a 720x480 DV project size so you don't have to resize them or rightclick the image and choose "Match output aspect" for each photo if you have a lot them in the project with DV video?

The above suggestions were great but I was wondering what do others do since most or all? digital camera shots will be narrower than the DV video in a 720x480 project and have the blank spaces on the side of the image.

Do most have two sets of images - one for printing and one resized for DV? Since my still Canon G3 camera default is set at 2272x1704 pixels (so I can print them out too) I'd like to be able to use the same source for video projects. Too bad VV3 doesn't have an option to have all still images "Match output aspect" in the preferences. Does V4 have it?

Thanks again,
Travis

Frenchy wrote on 3/28/2003, 5:46 PM

I've wondered this too. I believe a script would be the only way to accomplish this. I'm not a programmer, and have not yet posed the question to the scripting forum. I'm sure there's a way. Post here if you find anything out.

Frenchy

foredogg wrote on 3/28/2003, 8:17 PM

Will do, if I hear or read it somewhere else. Hopefully one of those saavy VV3 or V4 users reading this thread will know the answer! :)

jetdv wrote on 3/28/2003, 8:23 PM

Do a search in the scripting forum for Match Output Aspect. There is a script there that will set the option for all pictures after they have been added to the project.

foredogg wrote on 3/28/2003, 10:56 PM

Hey thanks jetdv!
Frenchy, here's the link if you already didn't find it:
http://www.sonicfoundry.com/forums/ShowMessage.asp?MessageID=158858&Page=0

One thing I noticed is I could not find an easy way to run the script in VV3 but in the V4 demo I have it is very easy to implement.
Thanks!
Travis

Chienworks wrote on 3/29/2003, 6:33 AM

foredogg: V3 doesn't support scripting. That's a new feature that was introduced in V4.

riredale wrote on 3/29/2003, 7:59 PM

foredogg:
You can just use your photos as they are, in the 2272x1704 (4:3) format. Vegas will downconvert to fit, but it will be working a bit harder than if you had just imported 640x480 images to begin with.

If you want to stretch your pictures to remove the black bars, that's fine, but keep in mind that you are slightly distorting your pictures in doing so. On a regular TV, you'll never see the bars, anyway, so for my money I'd keep the original aspect ratio.

rmack350:
Forgive me if I seem to be nitpicking, but the NTSC standard IS based on a 4:3 aspect ratio. There is both vertical and horizontal overscan because settings drift (drift was terrible back in the early days of TV).

One of the things I think a set maker could do these days to set himself apart from the others would be to offer a "no-overscan" mode where the edges could be either automatically or manually adjusted to exactly match the bezel. Just look at your monitor right now--there's no overscan there, so why should TV tubes be any different? The big benefit by eliminating the overscan would be a 5-10% boost in image sharpness, plus the claim that the set delivers "everything the camera saw." I'm amazed that no one is doing this yet.