Strange "bar" at the top of the picture (DV)

[kb1985]

Hi,
I have this weird problem.
My Sony DV camcorder's warranty is about to expire in few days.
Once I had problem with my camcorderr (they cleaned the heads and did soething vith the mysterious "serv" mechanism to solve the problem).
Now everything seems OK, but looking at my last 4 videos I see interesting thing. On 2 of them there is weird bar pulsating at the top of the video. If I deinterlace the video this "bar' doesnt't disappear. I thought that the camcorder is broken, but if you put my last 4 videos in order it goes like this:
video number 1 there is a bar
video number 2 there is no bar
video number 3 there is no bar
video number 4 there is a bar

You may say that maybe there is something with the tape. But all 4 videos were recorded on the same tape.

Any clues?




This video was recorded just few minutes ago. Everything is OK here.





This video sucks. There is that weird bar at the top. Maybe it's hard to notice on static picture but it is noticable on video.

[MysticE]

Is it there when you watch it on a TV?

[daamon]

Hi kb1985,

If your footage is destined to be watched on TV, there's a very good chance that you won't be able to see the "weird bar" as it'll be in the overscan area (i.e. behind the black seal that holds the screen in place).

I know that this doesn't fix your problem, but if it's not gonna be an issue then why worry about it?

I have had the same thing on a DV cam of mine, and it's not viewable on the TV. And, if it's any consolation, the issue has never got any worse - i.e. the DV cam is still OK.

[Barnabas]

Likely something on the source.

[kb1985]

On the TV this bar is overscanned. But that's not the solution because I'd like to distribute my videos in xvid.

This overscan is another problem because I've just authored one of my first DVD's yesterday and part of the video is not visible on the TV. That's good because there is no bar, but i loose some important parts of the footage. Is there any way to cope with this overscanning before authoring (besides resizing the footage)?

[Snakebyte1]

Does this bar appear if you connect your camcorder directly to the TV/monitor, or does it show up only on the AVI capture? Does it show up in the camcorder's viewfinder/display?

How are you connecting the camcorder to the PC (Firewire?). Wiggle the cable while capturing and see if the bar comes and goes. Check you cables and if possible try a different one.

[junkmalle]

This overscan is another problem because I've just authored one of my first DVD's yesterday and part of the video is not visible on the TV. That's good because there is no bar, but i loose some important parts of the footage. Is there any way to cope with this overscanning before authoring (besides resizing the footage)?

No. Overscan is a property of all standard definition televisions -- except for some special studio and medical monitors.

[kb1985]

Does this bar appear if you connect your camcorder directly to the TV/monitor, or does it show up only on the AVI capture? Does it show up in the camcorder's viewfinder/display?

How are you connecting the camcorder to the PC (Firewire?). Wiggle the cable while capturing and see if the bar comes and goes. Check you cables and if possible try a different one.

I will check on this one when I return home.

[kb1985]

overscan is a property of all standard definition televisions -- except for some special studio and medical monitors.

so, i just have to be careful while making credits or title screen for my video?

[junkmalle]

overscan is a property of all standard definition televisions -- except for some special studio and medical monitors.

so, i just have to be careful while making credits or title screen for my video?

Yes. For text you should avoid ~10 percent on all four sides. Here's a good reference:

http://scanline.ca/overscan/