Video Capture - not THAT skinny (underscanning)

[Guest]

I have a couple of methods of getting my old home video into digital format,
both
suffer from the same problem during video capture - best illustrated with
this picture:

http://ca.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/[email protected]/detail?.dir=/7d90&.dnm=1764.jpg&.src=ph

This picture is actually from Intervideo, but Windows Movie maker has
exactly the same problem.

When playing an old video tape and outputting it to the TV it looks
fine, but when outputting to a video capture device everyone appears
slightly tall & skinny because there is "black-space" on either side of
the main picture. I gather these lines are "in" the video signal, but a TV
automatically adjusts (overscans) to eliminate them, while both my video
capture
devices (happauge capture card and an ADS UBS DVD wizard) do not (underscan).

The problem is worst on my older VHS video tapes, not as bad on the
VHS-C tapes that are more recent, and better yet (but still noticable)
when I capture from my newish Sony mini-DV video camera.

If it were possible to change the signal coming out of the VCR &
eliminate the black space that would be great, unfortuanatly my VCR
does not have this capability, in fact in none of the VCR's I've owned
over the years do I remember a feature like this.

If I could "crop" the video using software (I can't!) that might help, but
the resultant video would have to be the correct dimensions.

So - I'm open on suggestions - and would be truely thankful if someone has a
solution. If there is a better group in which to post this please let me know.

So thanks in advance for any responses. I've been told that I should "not
worry about it" because when the video is rendered to DVD the black bars will
be eliminated, but this hasn't been my experience.

I've also been told to try some new codecs - although I'm a programmer I
don't actually know what these are really used for (is it the analog ->
digital conversion?), where to save them (which directory) & how to get
Movie Maker to use them. Not sure if that is good advise or not!

 

[eeyore]

Will your sony minidv record from the TV (or perhaps do pass thru) -
giving you a third alternative?
This is the metod I have used quite successfully with my Canon....most
mini DV seem to do a passthru conversion of analogue input to digital out.


Rob

 

[Guest]

No, unfortunatley not. I've read others have had success with this, but mine
does not have the "in" jack.

 

[eeyore]

Hi Paul,
I'm sure you know your camera, but your response leads me to ask this
question....just in case

My camera does not have an 'in' jack.....it has a single jack.
Depending on what you're doing at the time the same jack is used for
in, out or for headphones.
What model is your minidv cam?

Rob

 

[PapaJohn \(MVP\)]

You could crop and resize in one pass using VirtualDub
--
PapaJohn

Movie Maker 2 and Photo Story 3 website - http://www.papajohn.org
tips and tricks: http://www.simplydv.co.uk/simplyBB/viewtopic.php?t=4693
Online Newsletters: http://www.windowsmoviemakers.net/PapaJohn/Index.aspx

 

[Guest]

It's a Sony DCR-HC20 Mini DV. After an 80 minute wait (yes I'm a sucker but
the phone just sat in my pocket) Sony told me that, althought the manaul
claims that you can dub from a VCR to the Camcorder, actually you need a VCR
with a firewire port - I've NEVER SEEN THIS ANYWHERE. Thank you Sony.

 

[Guest]

Thanks Papa. I had downloaded VirtualDub - I'm going to search to see if
these is any spyware associated with it before I try it out. On my way to
your website now....

 

[Rehan]

Hi Paul

Although you can never be too cautious but note that VirtualDub is a well
reputed and opensource software so as long as you downloaded from the
authentic mirror then you should be ok.

I would like to mention that using PIP+ you can make a custom effect to
correct the aspect ratio easily. The same effect can be achieved by a custom
title. This solution is more suitable if you want to keep everything in
Movie Maker and avoid multiple passes.

The details for PIP+ and Custom titles are found my website:

http://www.rehanfx.org/pipplus.htm
http://www.rehanfx.org/customtc.htm

Ask if you need further help.