Converting old tapes with sony HC90 - issues

[Bearded_Malc]

I have a sony DCR-HC90E which has A/V in either down to mini-DV tape or pass through to firewire. I'm trying to convert some old 8mm tapes which I have done by playing these on the old camcorder and passing through the HC90 straight to disk. The results are not as sharp as the HC90 but perhaps that is expected. They also have a black border, left, right and bottom (but NOT top). There is also a duff line, a line or two above the bottom black border (not black, just corrupt).

The other lot of tapes I have are VHS-C. I'm playing these on a vcr and using the HC90 to record them onto mini-DV. These show a left and right black border but top and bottom are mostly borderless. There is still the duff line though and sometimes the colour is wrong from the duff line to the bottom of the picture.

So what am I doing wrong? Is my HC90 duff? This is the first time I have tried this feature. Anyone else got a HC90 and used this feature successfully? Any suggestions for converting kit instead, not that expensive.

Update:
I've noticed that the picture on the HC90 LCD is smaller than the capture. I've set up the old 8mm camera and HC90 in feed through mode. The HC90 LCD shows less left, right, top, bottom, than the image on the PC.

 

[MarkE19]

PAL video has a full resolution of 576 lines, but a visible resolution of only 525 lines. I would think that the boarders you are seeing are the overscan area that should not be visible once played back on a TV. The editing software will show the full screen, but a TV will not.

Try burning some of the footage to a DVD and playing back on your TV to see if the above comments are correct.

Mark.

 

[Bearded_Malc]

That wouldn't explain the left and right borders though. I suspect that on a TV you won't see the borders because they are in the area usually lost, however, if you did have a TV set up for 100%x100% instead of 90%x90% then you would see them. I don't see the effect on HC90 footage.