Black Bars on each side of video

[kevinreddog]

My video clips have a black bar on each side, I assume this is because I shoot at 4:3. When I move them to the video track in version 9 the black bars are still there but when I burn a DVD and play them on my TV they disappear and look great. Now the problem.
When I move the video clips to the overlay track they DO NOT disappear. I have an image and want the video clip to fade in and then fade out. I am using the overlay track but the video plays over the image and has the two black bars on each side. How do I get rid of the two black bars??

[Ken Berry]

Depending on the width of the black bars, there are a couple of things I can think of. First, when video is placed in the overlay track, it will normally first appear as a rather small image in the centre of the screen, surrounded by broken white lines and a yellow 'pull' cube on each side. You resize the image by dragging on these cubes with the mouse. On the overlay screen, there is also a much larger solid white rectangle about a half inch (1 cm) in from the edge of the preview screen. This indicates the 'view safe' area, which you should not go outside of if you want to be sure your overlays or titles will show properly and fully on a TV screen. Hopefully, when you resize your overlay video, the black bars may be outside the right and left lines of this view-safe rectangle.

If not, then in Video Filters, there is a Cropping filter which will allow you to actually snip off the black bars on the entire overlay video...

One question, though. Why are you putting the still image in the main track and the video in the overlay? If you reverse that order, then you can have the overlay still image fade in and out as you appear to require. And the video in the main track won't need to be cropped or re-sized.

[kevinreddog]

Thanks Ken, I will try those idea's. How would I avoid the situation of black bars on the side of the video clips in the first place? I shoot at 4:3, should I be setting my camera differently?

What will happen if I use Chroma Key? I can't have the black bars for a Chroma Key.

[sjj1805]

kevinreddog

Please read the following 2 posts

http://phpbb.ulead.com.tw/EN/viewtopic.php?t=8959
and
http://phpbb.ulead.com.tw/EN/viewtopic.php?t=27

Could you also please complete your system specifications on your profile page.
I am sure we can then offer some help.

Regards
Steve J

[kevinreddog]

Black bars on side of video appearing. These do not show when using Pinnacle Studio 10 or other products, just with Ulead Video Studio 9 (with latest patch).

Video input
Mpeg2
24 bits 720 x 480 4:3
29.970 frames
Variable bit rate (max 6000)

Device = Panasonic cam corder

Output format = DVD

NTSC

System info = Pentium IV 2.7Ghz, 200MB hard drive, 1GB memory

[Trevor Andrew]

Hi Kevin

Make sure your project properties are set to 4:3

It should be this by default, but worth checking.

File / Project Properties / Edit / General / Display Aspect Ratio

Trevor