Why is my captured analog video stretching outside the safe areas?

[alain]

I am preparing video footage in Vegas. The clip was captured with an old camcorder and was transferred via an analog connection. Aspect ratio is 4:3.

In Vegas, I see that the safe and title areas will cut off important parts of the clip. How can I avoid this? Should one resize the clip so that it doesnt bleed past the areas?

Where I am really confused is that if I was to play this footage directly from my camcorder, I would see the whole thing. Why is Vegas trying to chop off the contour?

Thanks in advance,
Alain

[guns1inger]

It's not Vegas. All cameras shoot to the edge of the frame, and if you plugged it into your TV to watch it directly, you would find that some of the edges were masked by the overscan region of your TV.

Remember that the safe areas marked in Vegas (or any editor, for that matter) are usually conservative. How much you will actually lose depends on the TV you watch it on. A PC or most projectors would show all the frame, most TVs will hide at least some of it.

Your choices are simple

1. Always shoot with the frame in mind (this is why you often see the frames marked on preview monitors at film shoots).

2. If the horse has already bolted, you can either resize the image down to fit within the action safe area, understanding that on some TVs you will still lose some image, and on others you will see the black border, or you can simply live with it.

Also, you need to realise that Vegas doesn't cut anything off. All the image will be in the finished output, even if it is outside the safe areas. These are just a guide for framing and for titles etc.

[edDV]

Safe areas are where you are to put your primary action and title-graphics so that they won't be masked by worst case TV set overscan. This is only a guide, the video will not be cropped.

[jtoolman2000]

You can always use the Pan and Scan Function in Vegas but the problem is, as was already mentioned, it is only an estimate and it depends what tv you are watching it in. 16x9 HD TVs, at least mine, introduces hardly any overscan and so in that case, that is not a problem. Regular TVs ( CRT 4:3 ) do. Some more than others. You would literally have to run tests or you might end up with a nice black border aroung your footage which might actually not be too bad.

[alain]

Thanks so much for your quick replies, especially the one from guns1inger. I will print and keep for reference!