AVI black borders are too big

[sensini]

I have read several topics about this problem but unfortunately i couldn't find an answer how to solve this.
I have several avi files on my pc and all of them have very big black borders taking in almost half of the screen.
I know this is not because the movies are widescreen,because ''real'' widescreen movies have smaller black borders.
I tried Vdub but i don't really know where to begin.Is there a way to cut some of the black borders so they get a little smaller.All the avi files,no matter what the aspect ratio is,have the same very big black borders.
Thanks in advance

[Baldrick]

Sounds like a software playing problems. What do you play with? You should be able to adjust aspect ratio and zoom settings in most software. Try play with VLC, Media Player Classic and see if you get same problem.

And are you sure that they are not 2.35:1 ? they have huge borders if you play on a 4:3 monitor.

[sensini]

Thanks for your reaction.I play all my files with WMP 11.Even with WMP Classic the same problem.What i forgot to say is that the black borders stay even after i burn the files and watch them on my tv.

[poisondeathray]

You can force different aspect ratios for playback on PC with MPC ("stretch to window," or "touch window from inside")

If the "black borders" are encoded into the avi, you have to crop it or re-encode it without borders, and then burn to dvd to watch on a standalone player

[guns1inger]

I know this is not because the movies are widescreen,because ''real'' widescreen movies have smaller black borders

Some widescreen movies are very wide, and on a 4:3 monitor will have very wide black black bars to compensate. Also, many avi files are badly cropped and may be wider than the original movie. Post a g-spot screenshot of the files in question so we can see the actual resolution.

[sensini]

poisondeathray,I know i have to do some cropping and resizing,but as i have said i dont't really know where to begin and how to do things.I have played around with Vdub using the ''resize'' filter and some other filters but it doesn't work.I managed for a while to make the borders a little smaller but when i saved the avi it took in a lot of space.As Vdub was saving the file i watched that after a couple of secs it took more than 1 gb of space in.So i am doing things wrong because how can a couple of secs of movie take in so much space?
gunslinger here is the Gspot image of the movie.

1.doc

[sensini]

Sorry something went wrong.Here is the screenshot.

1.rtf

[sensini]

Lol sorry it is a Wordpad file so you're gonna have to download it first to see it.I don't know another way to add screenshots

[guns1inger]

For future reference : https://forum.videohelp.com/topic271697.html

OK. The aspect ratio is a very wide 2.45 : 1, which implies it has probably be been badly cropped from a 2.35 : 1 source (perhaps to hide something that might be incriminating ?). On a 4:3 screen almost half the vertical resolution will be black bars. On a 16:9 TV it won't be quite so bad, but it will still be a lot wider than a standard 1.85 : 1 or even 2.35 : 1 movie.

If you open it in virtualdub, does it also have black bars encoded into it ? if it does then the true aspect ratio is very, very wide indeed.

As for Virtualdub - when you make any changes to a video using filters you are switched to Full processing Mode. This means the video will be re-encoded, and the default codec is Uncompressed. You need to set a codec first through Video -> Compression, configure it, then save your new video.

[sensini]

guns1inger when i open the video in Vdub it has no black borders.I know i have to configure the movie to reduce the borders but how do i do it exactely?
I use the "Xvid Mpeg-4 Codec".But how do i adjust the movie screen with that?.I thought i had to configure it with the "resize" filter ot the "null transform" filter but i just didn't know where to begin.If it is no problem could you describe step by step how to reduce those annoying black bars so that when i watch the movie on a widescreen tv i have no black bars at all,small or big.
Thanks.

[manono]

guns1inger when i open the video in Vdub it has no black borders.I know i have to configure the movie to reduce the borders but how do i do it exactely?

Do you realize what you just said? How, pray tell, are you going to reduce the black borders when there are no black borders? You have a wide movie which may or may not be slightly wider than it's supossed to be. But all the black is being added by your player. VDub shows only what's in the AVI.

...so that when i watch the movie on a widescreen tv i have no black bars at all,small or big.

Geez, here we go again.

[sensini]

Well i have "real" widescreen movies also,that's 16:9 movies,and the black borders of those movies are smaller and those movies have no black borders when i watch them on a widescreen tv.But those movies with bigger borders keep having some black borders even when i watch them on a widescreen tv.

[manono]

But those movies with bigger borders keep having some black borders even when i watch them on a widescreen tv.

So what? They're wider than 1.78:1 (16:9). They're supposed to have black borders. If they didn't then you'd be viewing them in the wrong aspect ratio, with people stretched out tall and thin. Either that or you'd be cutting off the sides, removing picture information that's supposed to be there. Surely you don't want that. Use your zoom on one with black borders and see what happens to the sides. The exact same thing will happen if you reencode the AVI, cutting off the sides so that it fills your screen with no black bars. Except it will look worse after being reencoded and effectively zoomed in.

Well i have "real" widescreen movies also,that's 16:9 movies,and the black borders of those movies are smaller and those movies have no black borders when i watch them on a widescreen tv.

Why do you put the word "real" in quotation marks? Is a 2.35:1 movie any less "real" widescreen than a 1.78:1 movie? If anything, I'd say it's more "real" widescreen.

[guns1inger]

There are two sets of aspect ratios.

The first are the aspect ratio of your TV. Either 4:3 or 16:9. Television programs and DVDs conform to these aspect ratios. When you look at a widescreen DVD, it will say 16:9 on the packaging.

It will also have a second aspect ratio, which is the original film aspect ratio. This can be any of the following : 1.33:1, 1.66:1, 1.77:1, 1.85:1, 2.0:1, 2.20:1, 2.35:1, 2.40:1, 2.60:1 and any of several variations in between.

Any aspect ratio that is wider than 16:9 (or 1.77:1) will have black bars, even on a widescreen TV. How big the bars are depends on exactly how wide the movie is. A 1.85:1 movie (a very common format) will have almost no black bars, and on some cheaper sets you wont see that bars at all because of overscan. However a 2.35:1 movie will have bars taking up almost a third of the screen on a widescreen TV. The file you have is even wider again, and so the bars are larger.

Your choices are simple.

1. Watch the movie with the bars and see the whole frame.

2. Use the zoom facility on your player or TV to fill the screen, but cut off the edges.

3. Use Virtualdub's resize filter to crop and resize the video to fit a 1.77 aspect ratio. This means re-encoding as well, reducing the quality.

I don't know what player or TV you have, so I can't help you with option 2 other than to say that it will be in the manual somewhere.

I find the thought of needlessly butchering a film just to fill the frame an abomination, so I can't help you with option 3 either. But if you play around I'm sure you will work it out.