Centering the captured video on screen . . .

[antonsvideo]

I use Premiere Pro 2.0. Any idea how to crop and center the image? Are there any downsides to doing this in terms of quality, etc.?

It would also be nice to get rid of the jaggy edges and have instead a nice clean edge to the video like you get with digital source material.

a TBC will actually remove the jaggies at the edges

I am not a Premier user, but I am sure that it will have something similar to the Edius layout tool to allow a slight zoom in order to crop analogue blanking rubbish, a small zoom like that should not reduce quality (as seen by ordinary viewers)

Thanks Anton. I not ready to spend 2 grand on outboard TBC for this kind of stuff since it's just a hobby for me.

I use Premiere Pro 2.0. Any idea how to crop and center the image? Are there any downsides to doing this in terms of quality, etc.?

It would also be nice to get rid of the jaggy edges and have instead a nice clean edge to the video like you get with digital source material.

[antonsvideo]

see if you can find a used TBC from For-A, I seen them for sale under 2k, most models have H-phase adjustment, you need to adjust this for each tape, because the black bars vary from tape to tape, you may even find variations on the same tape, especially if it was a multicam show that was not h-phased properly

the simplest solution is to crop after capture in Edius or whatever you use for editing

[GrassValley_KH]

Thanks BH. Why not make them available for folks who are considering the product but have yet purchased it yet?

It's on my to-do list, which is unfortunately very, very long..

[GrassValley_BH]

Many video signals and recording devices will add varying amounts of black bars on the left/right of the video frame.

It really depends on the source. Different tapes will have different amounts if they were recorded on a different deck.

Likewise, different analog cameras will exhibit different amounts as well.

As for manuals, not my decision on that one...

Thanks BH. Why not make them available for folks who are considering the product but have yet purchased it yet?

BTW, any thoughts on the thread starter question?

[GrassValley_BH]

Most product manuals are available for download in the customer area if you've registered your product on Canopus.com

Thanks again Anton. I have a pdf of the ADVC300 manual. It's not available online (not sure why), but their customer service was kind of enough to email to me; unfortunately it's too large to attach here (about 2.6 MB).

I did a search for "horizontal phase" in this 54 page manual and nothing came up.

I have a Panasonic AG-DV1000 miniDV deck, a Panasonic AG-1980 SVHS deck and a Sony EVS-3000 Hi8 deck. Most of my analog conversion are Hi8. All of these decks have TBC.

In fact, one of the things I have been wrestling with is whether I do without the ADVC300 entirely and just use my Panny DV1000 to convert the signal (see my thread below "ADVC300 vs DV Tape Deck converter"). The conclusion there I believe is that the only advantage of using the ADVC300 is the picture controller software. In other words in the default settings (for the Picture Controller software) the ADVC300 and my Panny DV1000 should produce identical (or very similiar) results. Also noted in this thread is the advantage of using the ADVC300's Picture Controller software to correct defects (eg picture to dark or too much noise, etc.) as opposed to doing it in Adobe Premiere Pro 2.0 after the conversion/capture. The reason noted is because it is better to correct in the analog mode via the ADVC300 rather doing it after it has been digitized and compressed.

Your thoughts?

[antonsvideo]

I was unable to find a manual for download

[antonsvideo]

let me search the web for a ADVC300 manual and I will see if the horizontal phase can be adjusted

meanwhile, you mention you had a deck with TBC, what kind of deck?

Thanks Anton. I understand that black bands are normal but what I'm talking about is that the black band on the left is much bigger that the one on the right. On a 4:3 TV it is usually masked. But viewing the 4:3 image on a 16:9 TV or on a PC and it becomes obvious.

It maybe a function of the tape since this doesn't happen on all tapes. I wonder if the using both the TBC on my analog deck and the TBC on the ADVC300 makes a difference.

Any other way to have an equal amount of black (that's what I'm after) other than a pro TBC?

[antonsvideo]

the black bars are the blanking areas of analogue video, they are normal and they are not seen on a TV since the TV masks this area, however your PC capture display does not mask, that's why you see it

if you have a professional TBC, then you can adjust the video phase, allowing you to have an equal amount of black on either side, but the black will always be there, it can't be eliminated at the capture stage, maybe the ADVC also has phase adjustment?

you can eliminate the black in Edius with the layout tool by doing a 3% stretch

Anyone? Thanks.

I'm capturing Hi8 and VHS analog through the ADVC-300 and noticed that on some of the captures the video appears off center. Specifically when viewed on a PC or 4:3 on a 16:9 monitor the video is to the right; ie there is a black vertical band on the left side of the screen. This doesn't happen every time but most of the time.

Any idea what is causing this and how to correct? It has done this on several tape and two different machines. I'm using Premiere 2.0. Thank you.