On the Sony DCR DVD-308 how do you get the black lines at the top of the video and at the bottom of the video?

Question

how do you get the black lines at the top of the video and at the bottom of the video to go away? They are really thick black lines that take away from what all you can capture on film. I mean, I film skateboarding, and it makes it so much harder to get in the whole body because I have to be so far back from the skater. Please help me with this.

Answer 1

Read the manual.

It sounds like you have selected 16:9 widescreen. If you playback  on a widescreen TV, then they should go away. If you playback on a normal TV, the image will fit the width of the screen without distortion - causing the wide lines to appear.

In the menu on the camcorder, There should be a "Standard set" selection. In there, look for a "DV Set" selection - this is where you can pick 4:3 or 16:9 widescreen. It sounds like you want to be 4:3. This is more "square" and will fill a normal shaped TV screen without the black bars top and bottom.