Video doesnt extend to the edges....

Question

Hi,
I'm working on a film made up of lots of different source materials: PAL DigiBeta, PAL DVCAM, Super16mm telecined to PAL DigiBeta, and NTSC DVCAM converted to PAL DigiBeta. Everything is Anamorphic 16x9.
The native PAL DigiBeta footage fills up the entire 720x576 image area. However the Super16mm that was telecined to PAL DigiBeta doesnt extend all the way to the left or right. There is a very small (maybe 3-7 pixel) band of black on either side.
The footage converted from NTSC (via an Alchemist Platinum PH) is worse, with approx 10 pixels of black on each side, and about 5 at the top and bottom. And the PAL DVCAM footage (shot on a DSR-500, not only has the smaller bands on the sides, but also a line of time code garbage at the top and a thin black area at the bottom.
Of course the bands on the sides wont show up on a standard overscanned Television. But the garbage at the top and bottom does. And when I make a DVD that is viewed on a computer monitor (which is more and more common) depending on how the player is set up, the bands are visable. If it was consistant across the whole show, then it wouldnt be a problem, but the main footage (native PAL DigiBeta) is fine, so the bands are there sometimes and not other times, often within one scene.
The easy way is to blow the offending clips up 102 or 103% so they fill up the entire frame. But this adds to render time, and softens the image ever so slightly. The other option is to apply a crop to the entire show. A setting of 1% all the way around in the motion tab is enough. But then I am getting a solid black line around everything, and the image doesnt extend out to the edges.
I'm curious if any of you have had to deal with this problem and what kind of solutions you have come up with.
thanks...
G5 Dual2.0 (PCI-X), 4.5GB RAM, 23" Cinema Display, PB G4   Mac OS X (10.4.6)  

Answer 1

It's quite common. Video 'Blanking' as it's known doesn't always work perfectly, particularly if the tape has been dubbed down many generations or has at one stage been in an analogue format, and one very often gets small 'blanking errors' on footage, even on fully professional tapes. Don't worry about it - it's WAY outside 'Safe Picture' area as you say. Depending on the shot or circumstance, it's probably best to do as you suggest and create a simple crop around your entire picture that covers up garbage and standardises the image size. You might blow some shots up if it's particularly bad, but blowing a picture up, even a little, leads to softening and it's often better to avoid it and simply make the black edges 'neat and tidy'. Beyond these two techniques, you can also look at mirroring the content of the image out into those empty edges, that can look OK, but can also become distracting.
It's a problem, but it's a very common problem, and you oughtn't to over stress on it.