Unwanted cropping of Final Cut Express Video

[Macster12]

I've been using Final Cut Express on my new Mac here for a couple of months now, but I just recently noticed that after I edit video with it, and burn the final to dvd, I noticed that part of the picture is missing! Evidently, the final video after I edit it and record it back onto my camcorder has been "zoomed in" a little bit.
In other words, it's like the video has been cropped around the edges in the final version. Is there any way to prevent this? One solution I thought about is to use the animation feature of the FCE software to "shrink" the picture a little bit in order to compensate for what it does when I print to video. But I shouldn't
have to do this, right?
If anyone has any suggestions, I'd be more than thankful.

Macster12.

 

[yamadataro]

By "picture" you mean still photo? Or video? I assume it's still, right?

Does video gets zoomed in as well?

 

[robbieduncan]

What you see in FCE (and in say the iDVD preview) is not the same as you will see on most TVs (and perhaps playback on camcorders). Try turning on the TV safe area guides. This show you what you will actually see on a TV.

If you burn the video to a DVD and watch it on a computer you see the whole thing as expected but if you watch it on a TV you can sometimes see less.

 

[yamadataro]

Oh, yeah, if you are talking about the image cropping on TVs, it's unavoidable, like robbieduncan says.

The amount of cropping differs from TV to TV. Older TVs have more cropping and new ones have about 90% viewing area.

 

[patrick0brien]

-Macster12

If this is your issue, this is why FCE has Title Safe and Image Safe frames - to account for overscan (that's what the above-discussed property of televisions is called.)

 

[Macster12]

I'm talking about the fact that the video, and I am talking about video, not stills, looks one way before I edit it on my camcorder, or in other words if I were to hook my camcorder up to my tv before I edit it, I can see the entire video picture from edge to edge in it's raw form. After I edit it on my Mac, that's when the video gets zoomed in a little bit, and I basically lose part of my video around the edges. This is kind of frustrating. I still say that my solution of using the animation feature can squeeze in the picture a little bit to compensate. It's unfortunate that I have to do that but I hate losing part of my picture.

Macster12.

 

[LethalWolfe]

Originally posted by Macster12
I'm talking about the fact that the video, and I am talking about video, not stills, looks one way before I edit it on my camcorder, or in other words if I were to hook my camcorder up to my tv before I edit it, I can see the entire video picture from edge to edge in it's raw form. After I edit it on my Mac, that's when the video gets zoomed in a little bit, and I basically lose part of my video around the edges. This is kind of frustrating. I still say that my solution of using the animation feature can squeeze in the picture a little bit to compensate. It's unfortunate that I have to do that but I hate losing part of my picture.

Macster12.

The guys above you are right. There is nothing wrong going on here. TVs do NOT display 100% of the image. The outer edge of your TV screen is covered up by the TV's casing. The video you are "missing" is hidden behind that casing. What you see in your cameras viewfinder and what you see when you are editing video is different than what you will see when the video is played back on a TV. That is what the "action safe" and "title safe" guides are for.

I'm sure action and title safe are covered in the FCE manual but here is a quick like explaining it.Link


Lethal

 

[Macster12]

I appreciate all the helpful replies. It's unfortunate that part of my video is being lost. The next time I edit one of my videos on my Mac, I'm going to try my solution of using the animation feature to squeeze the picture in and see if it works. At least FCE allows you to manipulate your video to some degree. I'll post an update to let everyone know if it worked or not.

Macster12.

 

[LethalWolfe]

I have FCP not FCE but I'm assuming this function will still work in FCE. Go to the your Viewer window and select the "motion" tab and adjust the "scaling" to about 88% or so (you might have to have some trial and error to find the best size). This will shrink your video image size by 12% and make it fit inside the action safe area (more or less). This would probably much easier and faster than messing w/animation setttings. But on the down side your video image will be smaller than it's supposed to be. Since you know about overscan now you can avoid future "problems." When you are shooting video just make sure not to put anything important in the extreme top, bottom, or sides of the view finder. Also, many cameras have built in "action safe" guides that can be turned on and off.


Lethal

 

[patrick0brien]

-Macster12

LethalWolfe is correct, you could try shrinking the image, but be aware, the very need for overscan in the Camera is to compensate for all Television types. Some have larger overscan areas, and some (especially more recent TVs like LCDs) have very small overscan margins. If you shrink your image to fit one TV, you might create and underscan and catch a black bar (slug) or two.

You could also try a pan-and-scan to recover your footage.

But the best solution is still to be mindful of this when shooting in the first place.