WinTV PVR2 USB2 - Annoying Black Bars on sides.

[RedPenguin]

I tried looking up this on the forum and Internet but can't find much info or any real solution.

Basically, my card, when it recorded one channel, had black bars on both sides of the screen, left and right.

Then another video just had it on the right.

Why are these black bars anywhere? The original TV signal is not like that.

How can I remove these bars if I can't fix the application?

I use WinTV2000/WinTV6 to record my shows.

I've had this issue with another machine with the WinTV PVR USB (Not USB2), so is this a Hauppuage problem?

[FulciLives]

The video image you see on your TV is "zoomed" in a bit so that you do NOT see the extreme edges. So on a TV you do not see the extreme top nor bottom nor sides.

However a computer monitor does not do this "zooming" which is called TV OVERSCAN. So on a computer monitor you will see the entire video image.

Often times there is a bit of "junk" on the extreme edges. Usually black video on the sides ... sometimes on the top and/or bottom as well. Since the industry knows that the extreme edges are never seen on a TV screen this is something that is tolerated.

Of course it is different for every TV station and sometimes even different per program on a TV station.

This is normal. This is the way it is. Nothing is wrong.

When you burn this to a DVD etc. and then watch it on your TV you will NOT see the extreme edges and all will be fine. There is no need to "adjust" for it.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[RedPenguin]

Ok, they make be normal and be small on the left and right.

Then why does VirtualDub-MPEG2, after converting them, seem to make the bars huge?

When I watch the video to begin with, the bars are hardly noticeable.

VirtualDub-MPEG2 converts them to like more then an inch or more.

Why would VD-MPG2 do that? What it previews at first, the picture looks the same. Not huge.

I thought at first maybe it was a size thing, but GSpot says both the original MPEG2 with commericals is the same size "480x480" as the Xvid AVI. So what's happening?

EDIT: I put in 720x480, just to see what it would do, and the video went back to normal.

[FulciLives]

Using the capture card that you have I would suggest that you always capture at 720x480 and then resize to the appropriate size for XviD conversion. This will give you better quality in the end and less of a chance to "screw up" the aspect ratio.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[RedPenguin]

Does this look normal?

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[FulciLives]

That picture has been altered. That is NOT the image as it was captured.

It appears to me that the problem is not the capture but your post-capture "procedure".

Post an image from an original capture without altering the image at all. Then describe what you do to it and how you do that etc.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[RedPenguin]

I can't seem to properly screenshot a video without making bigger black bars from the original.

Anyway, the original doesn't normally seem to have those big of bars.

I'm trying to use VirtualDub and VirtualDub-MPEG2 to convert.

I use the filter resize to convert from 480x480 to 720x480 and still black bars.

I'm using Xvid and Lame Mp3.

Could it be my codecs or something?

EDIT: I just noticed something. On one video, using the same process, the video looks like the original. Why would it just not look like the original on the rest?

EDIT:770x480 removes the bars on the sides. Should I just resize my videos to that?

[FulciLives]

I normally use VirtualDubMod and it has an option to capture a screen shot from the input window and save it directly as a PNG file which you can then post here. I think all of the VirutalDub versions have this feature. That is the best way to get an unaltered screen shot.

Again you should capture 720x480 as that is Full D1 resolution for the NTSC format. When you capture 480x480 you are using the SVCD resolution and that should not be used in this case (i.e., to re-encode to the MPEG-4 format).

I have no idea at this point what your problem is other than "wrong" settings in your program(s).

You might want to try autoGK as it can take a MPEG (aka MPG) file and convert it to either MPEG-4 DivX or MPEG-4 XviD however it will most likely expect an input of either 720x480 (NTSC) or 720x576 (PAL) because I have a feeling (not sure) that it will not know what to do *correctly* if the input MPEG/MPG is 480x480 etc.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[RedPenguin]

Well it looks like those bars were created by my laptop. Why would a laptop do that? My laptop uses it's whole screen normally, but during a full screen video in either Windows or Linux, it cuts off part of the screen.

I don't know why, but ever since I install Auto GK, all media players show black bars at the bottom of videos but the same videos don't do that on other PCs. Either that or VDUb is now putting black bars at the top and bottom of videos now.

[jagabo]

Widescreen laptop + 4:3 video = black bars at sides.

[RedPenguin]

Oh that makes complete sense. I just remembered that my laptop screen is widescreen.

Now I just gotta figure out why now all of the sudden, after adding AutoGK and it's codecs, VirtualDub is now adding black bars to the bottom of my videos.

When I make a 480x480 video, no black bars, yet a 720x480 makes bars at the bottom.

EDIT: Now I got my laptop adding the same bars.

I'm doing the same thing I did before, and there was no bars on the top and bottom. Why do they suddenly appear? They don't appear in either the original or the videos I've already converted.

This is the original from VirtualDub's Snapshot, so I don't see why it's making black bars at the bottom.



Here is a small copy of the output video in case you don't see what I mean:

http://adam.250free.com/blackbars-added.avi

[jagabo]

I see only two scanlines of black at the bottom edge of the image and the video. There's nothing unusual about that with captured video.

There is a problem with your AVI file though. It contains 4:3 video but is encoded with a frame size of 720x480 with no aspect ratio flag (pixel aspect ratio 1:1, or square pixel). So it displays as 3:2 (1.5:1) instead of 4:3 (1.33:1).

You can change this by leaving the pixel aspect ratio 1:1 but resizing the frame to 640x480 (or any other 4:3 ratio like 512x384 or 320x240) or you can set the Xvid PAR/DAR flag to make the video display at 4:3. You can do this before encoding in the Xvid config dialogs, or after encoding with MPEG4Modifier.

[RedPenguin]

Thank you so much.

That fixed it so nicely.

But here is my question.

What is an aspect ratio of 2,35:1? It has that and I never heard of it.

Also, you mean the bars on the left, right, and bottom of that video are completely normal then? Do they have to do with "Safe Area"?

EDIT: Thanks again, I did a little bit of cropping and my video looks amazing. It looks almost like it never came from TV.

[jagabo]

What is an aspect ratio of 2,35:1? It has that and I never heard of it.

Many movies are shot at that aspect ratio. SD TV and fullscreen DVD is 1.33 to 1 (4:3, 4/3). Widescreen TV and DVD is 1.78 to 1 (16:9, 16/9). There are many different aspect ratios used in film.

Also, you mean the bars on the left, right, and bottom of that video are completely normal then?

Yes. The actual 4:3 image captured by your capture device is contained in 704x480 pixels. It's hard for to capture exactly that width and get all of the picture. In fact, the broadcast is often slightly off center so capturing the middle 704 pixels would crop a little off one side and leave a black bar on the other. So capture devices capture 720 pixels to be sure to get all the picture.

Do they have to do with "Safe Area"?

Yes. Due to the way televisions "overscan" the image you won't see the black bars or other noise (for example VHS has a lot of head switching noise at the bottom of the frame) at the edges. You've never noticed these things before because you've never seen the whole picture on TV.

[RedPenguin]

Why does VirtualDub not like cropping sometimes? I'm trying to crop a video using null transform, and it worked for two other videos but now it's saying unknown error.

It's like sometimes it doesn't like certain numbers in X1, X2, Y1, Y2.

EDIT: I figured it out, appearntly the filter or VirtualDub doesn't like odd numbers in cropping.