Black strips either side of video

[bernieraffe]

Originally I created a few HD videos to view online, I used the Share / Computer / Mpeg HD 720p 25 setting. These looked great but I decided they were using too much bandwidth.

So I switched to using the PAL DVD widescreen setting, the quality is fine but i'm getting small black strips down the sides. First of all I just assumed my video hosting company wasn't sizing the videos correctly in their player, but then I realised that the strips also appeared if I just play the videos in Windows Media Player. It's not a terrific problem, just a bit of an annoyance, and i'd like to have the video sized correctly if possible to get rid of the black strips.

You can see the problem on my site, http://www.greatphotographytips.co.uk

Only 2 videos are available without subscribing, the introduction on the home page, and the one called 'Top Shade', the problem shows in both of these videos.

Thanks for any help.

Cheers,
Bernie

[Steve Grisetti]

I'm not sure the strategy of posting DVD video online, Bernie. That's probably not a good strategy, since video that's actually designed to be used online (MOVs, WMVs, FLVs) is optimized for online viewing while DVD files are not.

But in any event, black strips around the sides of a video usually mean a mismatch of settings somewhere along the line.

What type of camcorder is your video coming from and which setttings did you use when you set up your Premiere Elements project?

When you output your video, did you use one of the online presets, or did you custom-create output settings? Usually the presets are the way to go. Once you get in there and start tweaking things in the Advanced setting, the likelihood of getting strips around the sides of your output increase.

By the way, your video quality looks terrific and you look and sound great! You've got a very nice site!

[bernieraffe]

Hi Steve,

Thanks for your help and for the nice comments about the site.

It didn't occur to me to use one of the other options, I want the videos to play on iPhones and iPads too, so FLV is out but I'll try one of the others, WMV or MOV.

The camera is a Panasonic SD700, and I don't think i've ever found the right preset when bringing in the media, PRE9 always reports that i've used the wrong one, and then I just accept the next option.

For sharing, I just used the PAL DVD widescreen setting without changing any other options.

[bernieraffe]

Steve, i've just Shared, using a Windows Media WMV file, and the problem's gone away.

Thanks for your help
Bernie

[Steve Grisetti]

Great news, Bernie!