Black bars at top of screen when authoring 16:9 footage

[abyss616]

I use a Hauppauge PVR to transfer HD recordings to my hard drive, use VDub to edit the material and AVStoDVD to author the resulting AVIs to DVD.

I capture in 1280x720 resolution and resize to 720x480 in VDub but when I encode to DVD and play on my widescreen TV, there are bars at the top and bottom of the screen.

Am I doing something wrong and is there a way to fix this? (The Avisynth script I use in VDub is below.)

LoadPlugin("DGAVCDecode.dll")
LoadPlugin("MPEG2Dec3.dll")
Loadplugin("FDecimate.dll")
LoadPlugin("BT709ToBT601.dll")
LoadPlugin("UnDot.dll")
DirectShowSource("sample.TS")
FDecimate(rate=23.976,threshold=1.0)
Lanczos4Resize(720,480)
BT709ToBT601()
UnDot()

BTW, I've also kept the resolution in its native format (1280x720) and not resized to 720x480 and I get the same bars. TIA.

[Atak_Snajpera]

does your sample.ts contain bars? Some movies have wider aspect ratio 1.85:1, 2.35:1 or 2.40:1

[abyss616]

The source material is from broadcast TV and does not have bars on the screen.

[Atak_Snajpera]

show me screen shot or even send me sample.ts to www.mediafire.com

[abyss616]

Screenshot attached

[abyss616]

http://www.mediafire.com/?zjnwtjodhmm - sample.

For some reason I think my TS files are corrupted in a way b/c they do not open in several programs. VLC will play them and I can open them using an avs script in VDub, but that's about it.

[Atak_Snajpera]

Source is corrupted for sure. I have artefacts with DXVA and ffdshow.

[abyss616]

Yeah. I have no idea if its the Hauppauge box or something else in the chain. I have no problems in VDub and get no artifacts.

[abyss616]

Back to the original question, does anyone have an idea as to why I get the bars?

[smok3]

BTW, I've also kept the resolution in its native format (1280x720) and not resized to 720x480 and I get the same bars. TIA.

you can't author dvd with 1280x720, so whats that about?,
My guess is that there is something funny at the authoring stage, did you try any alternatives to avs2dvd?

[abyss616]

I have tried AVStoDVD and The Film Machine.

The programs resize the video anyway, but I tried to feed them a file that was sized at 1280x720 just to see if that made a difference. It did not.

[MrC]

Hi abyss616,

could you post here the project log file generated by AVStoDVD? It contains useful info to understand what's going on with your footage.

;)

Bye

[abyss616]

I think I may have found the source of the problem. As you can see from the attached pic, there are black bars at the top and bottom from the capture program. However, when I play the resulting TS file in VLC, the bars are not there, nor are they there when editing in VirtualDub.

Does this shed any light on the problem for anyone?

[abyss616]

Log file is attached. Any help is appreciated. Thanks.

<12/28/2009 8:00:07 PM>
START PROCESS
<>

<12/28/2009 8:00:07 PM>
PROJECT SETTINGS

DVD Video Standard: NTSC
DVD Titles number: 1
DVD Size: 277/4450 MB (6%)
DVD Output Setup: ISO UDF Image
DVD Label: DVD
DVD Menu: No Menu
Output Folder: E:\AVS2DVD
Delete Temp Process Files: Yes
Delete Working Files: Yes
Edit Command Parameters: No
Post Process Task: Show Progress Status window

PREFERENCES

AVS Source Filter: A2DSource
AVS Resize Filter: Lanczos4Resize
Video Resolution: 0
Video BitRate Min: 2500
Video BitRate Level 1: 8500
Video Profile Level 2: 8500
Video BitRate Max: 8500
Keep DVD Compliant Video: 1
AC3 Audio Encoder: 2
DVD Audio Format: 1
DVD Audio BitRate: 192
Keep DVD Compliat Audio: 1
Normalize Audio: 0
DVD Audio Language: EN - English
DVD Subs Language: EN - English
Chapthers Interval: 5
Use Source Chapters: 1
DVD Burning Drive: H: ATAPI iHAS222 8 4L05
DVD Burning Speed: 4x
Auto Erase DVD RW: 1
Save Log file: 1
Unload ActiveMovie library: 0
Adjust ffdshow mixer: 1
<>

<12/28/2009 8:00:07 PM>
TITLE 1 SOURCE FILES
Video: G:\Megadeth720p.TS
Info: AVC - 9586 kbps - 1280x720 - DAR 1.778 - 59.94 fps (CFR) - Progressive - 4:26 minutes - 15956 frames
Audio: G:\Megadeth720p.TS
Info: AAC LC - 128 kbps - CBR - 48000Hz - 2ch - 4:26 minutes
Subs:
[MediaInfoLib - v0.7.25]
<>

<12/28/2009 8:00:07 PM>
AVISYNTH SCRIPT
Import("C:\Program Files (x86)\AVStoDVD\Lib\A2DSource.avsi")

Video = A2DVideoSource("G:\Megadeth720p.TS", CacheFolder = "E:\Temp")
Audio = A2DAudioSource("G:\Megadeth720p.TS", CacheFolder = "E:\Temp")

Video = Video.ConvertToYV12
Video = Video.ChangeFPS("ntsc_video")
Video = Video.Lanczos4Resize(720,480)

AudioDub(Video, Audio)
<>

<12/28/2009 8:00:07 PM>
START VIDEO ENCODING OPERATIONS
Encoding Profile: HCenc VBR 2-pass
Target Video FileSize: 269.5 MB
HCenc Parameters: -ini "E:\Temp\DVD_0_Megadeth720p.HCenc.ini"
HCenc ini file:
*INFILE E:\Temp\DVD_0_Megadeth720p.avs
*AVSRELOAD
*OUTFILE E:\AVS2DVD\DVD_0_Megadeth720p.m2v
*LOGFILE E:\Temp\DVD_0_Megadeth720p.HCenc.log
*MAXBITRATE 9000
*BITRATE 8500
*PROFILE BEST
*ASPECT 16:9
*PROGRESSIVE
*BIAS 80
*DC_PREC 10
*MATRIX MPEG
*AQ 1
*LUMGAIN 0
*SMP
*PRIORITY IDLE
*WAIT 2
<>

<12/28/2009 8:14:16 PM>
END VIDEO ENCODING OPERATIONS
A2DVideoSource: DirectShowSource
Created File: E:\AVS2DVD\DVD_0_Megadeth720p.m2v (262.7 MB)
OUTPUT VIDEO INFO: MPEG-2 Video - 8351 kbps - 720x480 - DAR 1.778 - 29.97 fps (CFR) - Progressive - 4:25 minutes - 7968 frames
<>

<12/28/2009 8:14:16 PM>
START AUDIO ENCODING OPERATIONS
QuEnc (MP2) Parameters: -i "E:\Temp\DVD_0_Megadeth720p.avs" -o "E:\AVS2DVD\DVD_0_Megadeth720p.mp2" -priority 5 -1 -nohq -novbr -mpeg2mux novideo -audiocodec mp2 -audiobitrate 192 -auto -close
<>

<12/28/2009 8:14:27 PM>
END AUDIO ENCODING OPERATIONS
A2DAudioSource: DirectShowSource
Created File: E:\AVS2DVD\DVD_0_Megadeth720p.mp2 (6.1 MB)
OUTPUT AUDIO INFO: MPEG-1 Audio layer 2 - 192 kbps - CBR - 48000Hz - 2ch - 4:26 minutes
<>

<12/28/2009 8:14:27 PM>
START DVD AUTHORING OPERATIONS
BatchMux Parameters: -arglist "E:\Temp\DVD_0_BatchMux.ini"
BatchMux ini file:
-d "E:\AVS2DVD\DVD_0\VIDEO_TS"
-mxp "E:\Temp\DVD_0_MuxMan.mxp"
-l "E:\Temp\DVD_0_MuxMan.log"
-muxman "C:\Program Files (x86)\AVStoDVD\MuxMan"
-prio LOW
-v "E:\AVS2DVD\DVD_0_Megadeth720p.m2v"
-vidmode LB
-a1 "E:\AVS2DVD\DVD_0_Megadeth720p.mp2"
-a1lang en

<>

<12/28/2009 8:14:30 PM>
END DVD AUTHORING OPERATIONS
Created Folder: E:\AVS2DVD\DVD_0 (273.5 MB)
<>

<12/28/2009 8:14:30 PM>
START ISO IMAGE BUILDING OPERATIONS
ImgBurn (ISO) Parameters: /mode isobuild /buildmode imagefile /src "E:\AVS2DVD\DVD_0\VIDEO_TS" /dest "E:\AVS2DVD\DVD_0.iso" /volumelabel "DVD" /overwrite yes /noimagedetails /start /close
<>

<12/28/2009 8:14:34 PM>
END ISO IMAGE BUILDING OPERATIONS
Created File: E:\AVS2DVD\DVD_0.iso (274.1 MB)
<>

<12/28/2009 8:14:35 PM>
Log file created by AVStoDVD Release 2.2.5
<>

[Lyris]

Just to make sure - the DVD player is correctly configured, right? You don't have the DVD player hooked up to a 16:9 TV but set to "4:3 Letterbox" in the system menus?

[abyss616]

Correct. All other DVDs play without a problem. And the bars aren't on the side as if it was set 4:3 - they are on top.

[Keiyakusha]

abyss616
What is the resolution of your TV?

[abyss616]

It is a Vizio 32 VO320E 720p 60Hz LCD HDTV

[Keiyakusha]

Well, I don't know how all modern TVs works, but some of them is not taking overscan into account (which is good thing IMHO) Depending on how you authored dvd, during playback the frame can be resized from 720x480 to 872x480 instead of 853x480 which will result black bars on top and bottom. if you authored it with SAR (aka PAR) 40:33, then try redo it with SAR 32:27 and see if it makes difference.