LCD not showing whole view?

[John Watson]

Apologies if this has been mentioned before, or is well known.. but I didn't realise!

Last week I was filming some birds out of my window and just now I am capturing the film with Vegas 7. I noticed that I kept getting the window frame in the view and was cursing myself for not paying attention when I was filming. Then I noticed that the window frame is not showing in the camera LCD, but is showing in the capture window!

This makes me wonder if the LCD isn't widescreen enough to show everything the camera is recording? I don't know if the viewfinder is the same?

Is this a known thing with this camera or others? I don't mind.. it's neat, in a way, that more is being filmed than the LCD shows (less reason to buy a wide angle lense! :hv20-smilie84:)

Just wondered if I am the only person who didn't realise this?

[Erik Bien]

That "extra" area is known as overscan. Your LCD, like most TV sets, is slightly "cropped," whereas a pro broadcast monitor (or NLE window) will usually show the overscan area.

[John Watson]

Ah, thanks Erik. I feel like an idiot for not noticing this before, heh :hv20-smilie50:

[SenorKaffee]

The picture on the camera screen is slightly cropped.
To get the whole view you need to attach an monitor without overscan via HDMI.


It´s hard to see because of the focus, but I also noticed it when I tested my HDMI-DVI adapter cable here (http://flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=741418896&size=l).

[Worley]

My Rainbow footage revealed the same - window frame in view which was a bit of a surprise.

I would prefer the HV20 to underscan. Never mind.

[Erik Bien]

John,

No need to feel sheepish about asking the question!

(Now, if you do as I once did, and offer to take digital stills with your camcorder and wide-angle adapter of a friend's extremely tiny house for a real estate listing, and don't check beforehand that the digital still feature ALSO includes the overscan area, you might feel a wee bit sheepish when your carefully-framed shots need to have grotesquely distorted door and window frames cropped from the sides before they can be used ...) :hv20-smilie21:

[John Watson]

Erik, sorry to hear it caused you problems too.. although it does make me feel a bit better about not realising! :hv20-smilie70:

If it's not shown on the LCD or a normal Television.. does that mean I don't need to crop it out of the video.. as a TV will automatically cut the overscan area?

So far I mostly watch my video's on a computer monitor.. I imagine that will show the overscan area?

[Murrelet]

If you've seen my footage "Paragliding Test" you'll see the corners of a 37mm WA mounted to the 43mm HV20. It didn't show up in my normal viewing replay, so I was equally surprised when the rendered vid showed so much. I could crop it in Vegas but decided since it was a test to leave as is.

It does throw one for a bit when first discovered, so don't feel sheepish, hell I would have loved sheepish! Me? I tried to see if I could get the viewer to open up more in 'settings', what a waste of time that was....lol

[sean90291]

I noticed the LCD is slightly cropped too. You're not getting the full view in the LCD of what the camera is recording to tape.

[SenorKaffee]

If it's not shown on the LCD or a normal Television.. does that mean I don't need to crop it out of the video.. as a TV will automatically cut the overscan area?

No - PC monitors and some of the newer LCD TVs don´t overscan or only by a few pixels. Overscan is something you can never predict - just avoid to put important scene elements in the area.

You could add a black mask to remove the unwanted elements or digitally zoom in, although this would soften everything.

[dcchurchill]

Does this cropping happen on other makes as well or just the Canons? I think it is very important to be able to see exactly what you are shooting from side to side. I don't like guess work. I am about to buy a camera at this level and would like the hv20 except for this problem. I have a feeling the Sonys don't suffer in this way. I would prefer to sacrifice a bit of clarity to get a full frame LCD. Is the viewfinder any better?

[Deep G]

This happened to me also framing green screen shots for post production. I wanted to frame out as much rigging as possible and maximise pixel use on the talent. Never thought to check before hand. I guess the loss in this case was perhaps under 5% unused resolution.

A cheaper solution in framing precisely might be to capture a still to card and then use the zoom in and pan functions on the still to inspect the edges of the frame. Instead of capturing to a PC or using HDMI equipment.

[SenorKaffee]

Or just connect a cheap LCD monitor via a DVI adapter. Of course this needs another energy source.

[gatti]

Does anyone know if the Lilliput monitors show the full-frame? I've recently experienced this problem when filming through my 35mm adapter. It looked great on the small lcd, but then I see some black when I capture it into my computer.

[2Bdecided]

My previous Sony DV camcorder did exactly the same thing - there was more area captured on tape than shown on the LCD.

5% is typical.

Without this, the opposite would happen: millions of consumers would see the top of people's head perfectly within frame on the LCD, but cut off on most normal TVs!

Professionals need a view of the full frame with action safe (5%) markers. The HV20 is not a professional camcorder.

Cheers,
David.