I posted this in the Canon fourm but thought I might get an answer her. I shot some hd footage, but when I render it to dvd, i'm getting the black bars at the top and bottom of the screen. My tcv is a high def flat screen. I used both Pinnicale and Movie manker but got the same result. I clicked on the 16.9 widesreen option but still I gor the bars. Are there other settings that I need to address? WHen I plug the camera direclty to the tv using the component cable, I get a full screen. I use my camera to record and export the footage (Canon XHA1). Any one have any thoughts?

Not sure of the options on the XHA1 but if you had down convert to SD for the iLINK output then it may have assumed a 4x3 TV in which case the output would be letterboxed. And would stay that way all through the DVD creation process. Were there bars showing on the DVD creation preview?
Second possibility is that the editing software thinks the file is 4x3 but that would make the image both squeezed( HDV is anamorphic 1.33:1) and have letterbox bars!!!!


Ron Evans

Ron: I tried many times, sometimes the bars were there and sometimes they werent. BUt heres the thing, I tried the dvd on a tc that was not high def, and there bars are still there. IS it possible that this may be a hardware problem? I just purchased a used pc that i'm using for the first time. Could an insuffcient graphic card cause this?

This has nothing to do with PC hardware. It is what the file is recognized as and nothing else. With a DVD player properly set to playback on the TV its attached to then on a flat screen HD set a 16x9 DVD should playback as 16x9. IF the TV set is CRT 4x3 and the DVD player is set up correctly it will have letterbox ( black bars top and bottom). IF the DVD player is incorrectly told the TV is a 4x3 and it is actually a 16x9 then you get all sorts of images depending on how the 16x9 set is configured and this could include black bars top and bottom on a slightly squeezed picture. Check that the DVD player is set up correctly for the TV its connected to. You say that it is sometimes correct then note when this is the case. Do commercial widescreen DVD's play properly on this DVD player? IF so then the file you created to put on the DVD was letterbox all along and will play as such on all TV's.

Ron Evans

The problem has been solved! Ron thanks for your input. The dvd/tv combo was not set up properly. Thanks again.