Why is there a black border around my video? (JVC DR-MH30)

[quarkz]

this is following on from the original thread,
-- http://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/vide...dvice-vhs.html



well, it's been more than year since i am able to re-visit this personal project of mine now.

i never got around to using the ATi Tv 600 dongle and even bought replacement DVD-RW drives from eBay.de for the faulty drive in my JVC DR-MH300 (costed a lot but the drives _never_ worked! and the seller is not very supportive in answering any questions i have had for him/her)


anyway, recently i was able to get my hands on the JVC DR-MH30 DVD-RW and i did a basic capture, just to see if everything works well, before i proceed with the 'project'.


this is how i connected everything:
__________________________________________________ __________________________________________________ _________

Samsung VCR ---[ via RCA video & audio ]---> Datavideo TBC-1000 ---[ S-Video & RCA audio]---> JVC DR-MH30
__________________________________________________ __________________________________________________ _________


i recorded 1-hr of VHS footage, which is from mid-1990s TV (so, it's 4:3 size) and choosing the "XP" mode within the JVC recorder.

the final recording looks pretty good on the 4:3 CRT TV (connected from the JVC DR-MH30, via the Y/Pb/Pr composite out).


i, then, burnt the 1-hour long footage to a Verbatim DVD-RW disc at "Just" dubbing speeds and finalized the disc.

afterwards, i extracted the *.vob files using DVD-Decrypter into a PC.


when i play the *.VOB files or even the DVD-RW, the whole 1-hour long footage has a black border all around the footage (i.e. like a bigger square all around it).


does the JVC DR-MH30 create this border around it? (i noticed before finalising the disc, the JVC unit asked me to choose a menu/title background)

if i play the recording from the internal hard-disk of the DR-MH30, the footage looks fine on the CRT TV, without any borders and it actually looks nice. i had made the same recording on the previous JVC recorder, the DR-MH300, and that also did not have a black border around the footage (i just cannot burn it to disc to test it out, because the DVD-RW drive is faulty now)


anyone have any thoughts on this?

why is there a black border all around the final footage on disc but it wasn't on the footage, recorded to the hard-disk of the JVC DR-MH30 ?

[juhok]

CRT TV doesn't show you 100% of the scan area, the borders that are there just aren't visible. VHS et al usually have "black borders" on left and right, and depending of the source, on top and bottom too.

[quarkz]

i think you are on to something, juhok.

i went back to looking at the footage stored on the hard-disk of the JVC DR-MH30.
i played that onto the CRT and yes, there are black borders all around the footage but it is not easily visible, meaning it does not the 'subtract' the viewing pleasure.

however, on the PC, the black borders are quite prominent and thick, that i think i keep focusing on them and not the actual footage contained within!


so, i guess i could leave it as-is or extract *.VOB file, to crop the actual footage and re-author the disc - would that be wise to do?

(i mean, i probably will extract the .VOB files and work on the audio because the audio is 'low' and sounds hollow, i.e. even when turning the volume up, it also turns up the hollowness)

[juhok]

You can't crop the video without re-encoding it at the same time and this means quality loss. Also you can't crop the video to any arbitrary resolution, it wouldn't be DVD compliant anymore. So in order to crop and keep the DVD resolution the video would have to be upscaled, which is not a simple task for interlaced video, and will introduce more quality loss. This in mind I would recommend to keep the video untouched and just do the audio.

[quarkz]

hmm,...i see.

i know what you mean about re-encoding and not just any resolution either.

it's just that the black borders, on the side, are not as thin as this VHS capture video sample -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQ3tS3W-5mU

the black borders for my footage are about double the thickness of the above video's and goes all around the footage (like a square).

anyway, i played the footage on TV and it looks good. just like the VHS cassette, if not better. looks like the JVC DR-MH30 knows how to enhance it.


it's just the audio sounds hollow or has that 'loud silence' in it, which does nothing to bring clarity to the audio and increasing volume, just brings that hollowness out.
it feels to me, like the there is some kind of earthing that needs to be done, within the signal chain, so i will try to use a Ground Loop isolater/filter for the RCA audio channel

[Steve(MS)]

There could be a setting in your 30 that is set on that would make borders.
Just a thought....it may be buried in the menus somewhere...check out every setting in menu.

[JMP]

Is it really getting rid of the overscan?

What you have is good equipment.

There is a chance the JVC is in the Just Fit mode, I wonder if its cropping the overscan to aide in the bit rate conversion.

The question is if the overscan is being cropped too much? We can't fully decide this without seeing a sample of this.
If you can, can you submit a screen capture of what you are seeing.

Thanks,
-JMP