vertical bars on sides of video

V_Dub1605 wrote on 3/30/2006, 12:11 PM

hi, I'm a newbie. I've just made my first movie and burned it to a dvd only to find out that it doesn't fit my television right. Aside from the bars at the top and bottom of the screen which I was expecting since I chose the widecreen format, there are also vertical bars on the sides. In other words its as though there is a fram around the entire screen while viewing the video. I thought I'd ask for help here before trying to re-render the project since that is a pretty time-consuming process. I recorded the video using the widescreen option on my sony campcorder(DCR-HC90). When editing the movie in vegas and before rendering the movie in mpg2 , I also chose the widescreen template. I now realize that the vertical bars are viewable even on the original clips that were captured from the camcorder using vegas. I think its safe to assume that the problem occured in the "capture video" process and not in vegas or dvd architect. Can someone please tell me how to fix this. Thanks in advance.

Comments

allyn wrote on 3/30/2006, 3:23 PM

are you sure your camcorder has real anamorphic widescreen mode? you might want to read the manual very closely. i'm not familiar with your model but some lower-end camcorders have "fake" widescreen mode where they just add black bars to letterbox a 4:3 image. this "fake" type of widescreen is useless.

Spot|DSE wrote on 3/30/2006, 4:59 PM

VDub, how big are the black bars? I don't know that particular Sony model, but many cameras (all Canon) put in blanking on the sides to mask pixel fringing. These are usually 6 pixels wide.

Tim L wrote on 3/30/2006, 5:37 PM

I'm pretty sure the HC90 has "real" widescreen. (It has a widescreen format LCD screen.)

Here's my guess (but its just a guess...).

Widescreen video from the camcorder is brought into a 4:3 (non-widescreen) VMS project, leaving black bars top and bottom.

Now, 4:3 VMS project sent to a widescreen DVD Arch Studio project, which leaves black bars on the left and right (like any other 4:3 video sent to a widescreen DVD format).

End result is black bars all around.

V_Dub: If my guess is correct (you have a 4:3 project), you can change the project format as follows:

First of all, open up Vegas Movie Studio and open your project. Right click in the preview window, and select "White Background" (just temporarily). This helps show you what your video project really looks like. If my guess is correct, you will see your project video in an overall 4:3 format, with black bars top and bottom. (Your widescreen video is being fit into a 4:3 screen -- like watching a letterbox DVD on a regular TV.)

Now click on File >> Properties (at the top of the VMS window). If the "Template" setting at the top of the properties window says "NTSC DV", change it to "NTSC DV Widescreen". (If it already says NTSC DV Widescreen, they my guess was wrong, and I don't know what else to suggest...)

Close the properties window, and you should see your project preview immediately change to a widescreen layout, and hopefully your video now has no black bars.

You will need to re-render and go back to DVD Architect Studio to make another DVD, but the DVDA Studio settings probably won't need to be changed.

Let us know if this does or doesn't work.

Tim L

Edit: Additional thoughts...

allyn wrote on 3/30/2006, 6:40 PM

unless vms6 is different from vms4, you also need to render video and audio separately OR use a free program called dvdpatcher. you need to render with the "DVD Architect NTSC Widescreen video stream" to get the video in widescreen format and then render the audio (under "advanced render") as wav.

alternately you can render with the "DVD NTSC" template and then use dvdpatcher to convert the resulting mpeg file to widescreen. one of the most annoying features about vms6 is the lack of a "DVD NTSC Widescreen" template.

you might also need to check "stretch video to fill output frame" on the make movie dialog box, i can't remember.

Tim L wrote on 3/31/2006, 4:28 AM

V_Dub1605,

Okay, in the clear light of a brand new day, I re-read your post above, and -- if I understand correctly -- you are saying that you already have bars on the left and right of your video when you view your captured video in VMS, and that you already have VMS set for "widescreen" format.

In this case, are you sure your camcorder is set for 16:9 record mode? Also, are you capaturing to the computer via Firewire/iLink/1394?

Tim L

V_Dub1605 wrote on 3/31/2006, 2:43 PM

Thanks for the replies.

TimL, yes that is exactly what I was saying. I am sure that my camcorder is set for 16:9 record mode and yes I am capturing via firewire. I'm very very sorry but it just appeared as f my captured video had the bars in when I saw them in windows media player though I now do not actually believe this is the case. WMP always centers the video so again, I don't believe that the raw footage has the vertical bars on the sides. In vegas, my default background is grey. When I set the template as "NTSC DV Widescreen", the preview windows is completely filled. Then when I set it to the "NTSC DV" template, bars appear at the top and bottom (same goes for the "NTSC standard" template). So I'm back to square one. The problem may occur when rendering in vegas or the settings I chose in DVD architect.

Edit: ok, I've just done some more tests, rendering a small clip using all three templates. Again I;m new to this so I do not know all the proper terms but when opening all three clips, only the one done using the "NTSC DV Widescreen" Template seems to be a proper widescreen movie (i.e. its fills up more of the screen width-wise when wmp is maximized) This time around I also made the clip in the .avi format. Furthermore, I went ahead and made a dvd of said clip in dvd architect and it looks perfect. A nice big picture with bars at the top and bottom as is expected =)
I guess I will just do my original project over again though I'll save it as an .avi file and let dvd architect recompress it.