Black space on bottom and left/video shifted?

[divergex]

Hi, I am having an issue with video I recorded. I am using a Samsung SC-D372 MiniDV camcorder. All my video, when transferred to my PC via FireWire, looks like this:



Notice the black space on the left and bottom. I thought this was an issue with Windows Movie Maker, but I get the same in iMovie on a Mac and Adobe Premiere Elements as seen in the pic. I recorded a standard 4:3 video on a new MiniDV tape and the same thing occurs. Is there anything I can adjust in the camera to fix or prevent this, or is the camera just defective?

[jagabo]

That's probably just how your camcorder shoots. It's not unusual for digital video to have small black borders at the edges. You normally don't see this on TV because televisions overscan.

[divergex]

Thanks for your reply. I dug into Premiere Elements and found that I can apply a crop effect of 2% on those two sides then zoom the remainder to fill the frame. Seems to work great. I've never seen that happen with other cameras though. But as long as I can correct it while editing, it's ok.

[jagabo]

Resizing interlaced video isn't a great idea. I would avoid it if possible.

[divergex]

Is there any other way to correct it? If I use a video in a PowerPoint presentation for example, and the background is anything other than black, it's very noticeable. I didn't notice any drop in quality with a 2% crop and zoom, but I will try the crop without the zoom and see if that's better.