Using Avisynth to crop VHS capture ends up jerky wavy AVCHD.

[LMotlow]

Cropping to get rid of the garbage around the frames. Resizing because black bars around video don't look nice.

I have some really bad news for you. Anything that's not exactly a 16:9 aspect ratio on a 16:9 display will have bars somewhere. Anything that's not 4:3 in a 4:3 display will have bars on it somewhere.

Assuming video has no problems, there should be a one size fits all script. DV video should be AssumeBFF() right?

Wrong. There's no such thing as one size fits all. The problem with that script is that if you think your DV originals have buzzy edges and excessive interlace combing artifacts, wait until you reinterlace DV. DV originals shouldn't have garbage on the edges. You shouldn't have to crop DV.

The change in aspect ratio would be small right? Layman would not be able to notice.

An entirely accurate description, but not one I'd boast about in a tech forum where maintaining at least basic geometry is standard practice. But we'll have to make an exception in this case.

If you miss too much off the top with crop(8,8,-8,-8), try Crop(8,0,-8,-8)

[digicube]

OK Thanks a lot. Wish there was an Avisynth for Dummies book or any kind of pdf textbook, instead of googling and posting on forums for answers.

[LMotlow]

[EDIT] Never mind.

[manono]

DV video should be AssumeBFF() right?

It's initially BFF, that's correct. LMotlow is purposely switching it for the purposes of the script. At least I think so, as I do next to no interlaced encodes. It'll have to be changed slightly if keeping it BFF. Just make sure when encoding for DVD you choose to keep it Top Field First in the encoder.

Manono prefers to crop and resize too.

I do, yes, and I make an attempt to keep the aspect ratio (gotta keep those balls round). Your initial Crop(8,2,-8,-8) (followed by a resize back to 720x480?) actually does keep the aspect ratio. Must have been an accident.

[LMotlow]

It was an accident. Not right on at 4:3 considering the exact anamorphic pixel ratio, but closer than cropping tons of material away and resizing wholesale.

Yes, DV is BFF. But I don't deinterlace DV, it never goes back together again the right way. There are other ways to filter without deinterlacing. If you go thru this resize business, you must deinterlace interlaced content first. I don't see any need to resize, I just use AddBorders to replace the removed border garbage and end up with a frame the same size as the original with no resize. AddBorders replaces lost pixels with pixels that are as black as your playback device. 4:3 always has side pillars on 16:9, and on 4:3 TV the overscan will mask it anyway. Resize the image and most TV overscan will hide the edges you resized for. On a PC If you can see those new black pixels against the playback background, your unadjusted monitor is too bright. Black against black is still black.

You can restore the original frame size and center the image vertically this way:

Crop(8,0,-8,-8).AddBorders(8,4,8,4)

Like I said earlier, if any of those tapes are TV recordings or DVDs from film source, they're likely telecined. You can't deinterlace telecined video. You have to use inverse telecine, then add pulldown during encoding to restore the NTSC frame rate. Resiziing telecined or blended-field video without first making it progressive will ruin it.