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DVCAM miniDV confussion
I have always shot and edited in a miniDV work stream (720×480). I just received footage provided to me by a client which was shot as DVCAM. I borrowed a deck for capture (no problem there). My captured footage fits my sequence window perfectly along the width (720); but comes up short top and bottom, leaving me with black strips.I am sure that my inexperience is either causing me to miss something in my capture settings or sequence settings. Everything that I have read says that the two mediums are very similar spec wise. Can somebody be kind enough to tell me what I am missing?
Thanks so much,
-AlAl Davis
Visual Velocity
Brookline, MA -
6 Replies
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DV and DVCAM are both 720X480 in NTSC or 720X576 in PAL. The only difference is how the dv signal is recorded to tape and how it resides on the tape. 10 micron track pitch as oppossed to 15 micron track pitch for DVCAM which creates more overlap between helical scans of the head making it more stable. Check your sequence settings. Sounds like this footage is 16:9 or possibly pal. Try creating a new sequence using dv-ntsc-anamorphic and see how the clip looks there.
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Thank you Rennie –
I tried the anamorphic setting already. Not it. Another colleague has suggested that it was shot as letterbox; in which case I think somebody will be executed come Monday!-Al
Al Davis
Visual Velocity
Brookline, MA -
You are obviously experienced enough to check the sequence setting, and you have most probably checked the capture settings too – and I assume the two match in terms of physical size and anamorphic setting?
Does the footage look letterboxed when played back on tape (ie. when you look at the monitoring output of the deck)? It’s very unusual that anything is shot letterboxed – I don’t even know of a camera that will do it – especially 16:9.
That leaves us with a settings problem. Double check that when you open the captured footage that it opens in a 16:9 window. Apple+9 on the captured clip, and check the anamorphic box is ticked on the properties. When it’s dropped into the timeline, click on it and check under the motion tab to make sure the aspect ratio is set to 0 under the distort settings.
Don’t panic. It’s most probably an unchecked box somewhere or other…
Ben
Editec Broadcast Editing Ltd
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If the camera was set to an anamorphic setting in 4:3 to “simulate” a widescreen look, then there is no way for you to recover those lost pixels at the top and bottom of the screen. The picture was not recorded to the areas that appear letterboxed.
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Well guys,
Thank you again for your suggestions. I did forget about checking format in the items properties section. In the few anamorphic projects that I have handled; it is the easiest mistake not to check that off. However adjusting that as well as the sequence settings still gave me my two black bars; so wide screen was not the answer. I also shot this straight out to a video monitor directly from the deck; only to see the same problem.-Al
Al Davis
Visual Velocity
Brookline, MA -
If it’s coming that qway straight out of the deck you’re obviously doing nothing wrong. it’s possible someone shot with the “fake widescreen” setting on the camera that just crops the image at top and bottom.
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