Removal of blank area aroound video

[ottersea]

So recorded a program off the TV and it came out with blank area around the video. In other words it is like the screen has been shrunk down in size. I set the recorder to 16:9 and it seems to be that ratio but just smaller in size. Is there some way to expand the video so it fills the entire TV screen? Have tried everything I could find in Video Studio X8 but nothing seems to work. If not what would I need to do in recording in order for the entire screen to be captured? Thanks. It was working before but the last few times I have recorded it has done this. I am using a DVD recorder to record and then using Video Studio to edit the program. Thanks.

[RobertOZ]

Put the video in an overlay track, now you will have the ability to resize the video to fit the screen

[Davidk]

If the blank area around the target video image is part of the recorded file, then simply inserting in an overlay track and re-sizing won't fix the issue - re-sizing re-sizes the blank area too. Try applying the cropping filter to the recorded video: drag and drop onto the clip, open the options, and choose to customise the filter. When the customise panel opens, de-select the background colour and then change the X (horizontal) and Y (vertical) percent limits until the cropping effect removes the blank areas. You may have to ensure that the same limits apply at the start and finish of the clip (select starting keyframe, rt click, choose apply to all key frames). Happy? click OK. Then either render as is, or use in a video production .

[ottersea]

Okay will try that. Now I am not a expert on Video Studio so where do I find the cropping filter? It is nowhere that I can see. Also is the overlay track the track where I do my editing? Funny thing is when I play the recorded DVD on the TV it is fine, but when I put it on the computer to do the editing it gets shrunk down with the blank area around it.

[lata]

Hi Ottersea

Can you change the background color via Preferences (F6) to green
Now add the clip to the overlay track
The video should show as a smaller clip with a green surround, are there any black borders on the actual video clip?

When you view the clip here is it in proportion or horizontally squashed, people looking a little taller than normal?

If you can provide us with a screen shot.

[ottersea]

Changed the background to green but it is still black in the preview screen. sending a snapshot of the screen.

[lata]

Please place the clip in the overlay track

[ottersea]

Okay now I have the green border. So I just expand it to fit the preview window or just the block area inside the window?

[lata]

Hi

When we add any clips to the top timeline the preview screen will fill the screen either Vertically or Horizontally, if the video is the same aspect as the preview screen then it will/should fit all sides.
Your screenshot shows a black border on all sides, clearly showing some problem.

I would suspect that your video has a black border, a screen shot before you expand would be useful, but yes expand till you fill the green screen with no black borders.
Now set Preference back to Black background.

[ottersea]

This is with the clip in the overlay before doing anything to it. Also the original video as played on the TV has a black border on the top and bottom of the video. But when I play it on the computer it comes out with a black border. Then if I minimize the screen it comes out like on the TV. This is running windows 7 pro 64 bit.

[lata]

Hi

Sorry to be a bit of a pain, but can you play the video till you see some content, then take a screen shot.
It appears that your shot was taken from the first frames which were black.

[ottersea]

No problem. I am the one being a pain with something that is probably quite simple. Tried resizing it but it just resize the black border along with it.

[lata]

Hi
Very strange to have a black border on all sides….

You can resize the clip by dragging the corners, you can drag the clip diagonally to reveal one of the corners,

Otherwise try using the Cropping tool
Either way to need get of those black borders.

Resizing the video will impact on the quality.

[ottersea]

Went to the cropping tool and using the custom filter got this. The view on the left is the view that I get on the TV. Somehow all the black has been added around the preview and cannot be removed. Also in the cropping tool the vert and horiz are grayed out and do not work. The left view is also what shows on the main preview but with the black around it. Also just dragging out the frame only drags out the black with it.

[Davidk]

I have found that it isn't unusual for modern widescreen displays nominally 16:9 aspect ratio to show widescreen imagery material with black bars, top and bottom. usually when playing a DVD. That seems to be a feature of the way the images are originally recorded (sometime widescreen is more than 16:9 so it shows the wide part completely and adjusts the vertical to maintain the image, but may also be a related to the display options of the device). In some, that's adjustable, and in others it isn't. And on your PC if you are trying to capture something from a DVD that you have in the computer player, this result is almost certainly what you will get.

So, having applied the cropping filter to the clip and opened it for customising
In that cropping filter panel image you showed, below the panes in the control section there's a box for fill colour and a colour choice, default black and default on. You could experiment a bit by changing the colour (click on the black square and review the colour options displayed) to say green, and observe the effect. But to remove, simply untick that fill box. Observe (LH pane) that the black or other fill colour around the video is removed. What may be left is part of the clip. To crop it out, using the LH pane, adjust the centre cross-hair and the percentages for X and Y to remove any black top and bottom that's left, observing the effect of any change in the RH pane. Example, to remove black top and bottom bars, you may have horizontal at 100% and vertical at 80%, centre adjusted. Paste those adjustments to every keyframe you may be using.