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Activity Forums Apple Final Cut Pro Legacy Correct Capture settings for video transfered from Beta to DVCam

  • Correct Capture settings for video transfered from Beta to DVCam

    Posted by Jack Pitzer on March 7, 2006 at 1:02 am

    Greetings,
    I have a quick question about the correct settings to capture material that was shot on Beta, rough editted on an Avid and then transfered to DVCam tape.
    When I capture it using the NTSC DV preset, I get a black area around the left and right edges of the frame.
    Am I doing something wrong, and if so, how do I correct this problem?
    Should I make the adjustment in the sequence setting, or recapture with a different setting?
    Sincerely, Jack

    Jeff Carpenter replied 20 years, 2 months ago 2 Members · 1 Reply
  • 1 Reply
  • Jeff Carpenter

    March 7, 2006 at 4:08 am

    That’s normal. Digitized Beta is 720×486 while DVCAM is 720×480. Some programs chop off the extra 6 pixels. It looks like the Avid shrunk the frame so that it all got in, but that leaves you with a little extra space on the edges.

    There are only 2 solutions at this point. 1) Blow the footage up slightly and perhaps sharpen it a little to make up for the softening you’ll get or 2) accept that the black part is outside the action-safe area and most people won’t see it on their TVs.

    Of course, now that people watch DVDs on computers, option #2 is less popular. But I’ve never been a big fan of #1. But those are your choices.

    (Unless you have some way to re-dig the Beta footage in such a way that it just crops the extra 6 pixels off and doesn’t shrink the image in the first place. I can’t even BEGIN to explain how you would go about that but it is a possibility.)

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