Border on my DVD/RW disc when I play it on my PC?

[realamino]

Hi when I try to play a DVD/RW disc with something I have recorded on my DVD Recorder I get a black border to the right of the video. Here is an example: http://img172.imageshack.us/my.php?image=hollywoodrh1.jpg

This is on all my videos, does anyone know how I can fix it so that this border doesn't show when I play it on my PC or convert videos for YouTube?

Thank you.

[guns1inger]

Is this visible on your TV, or only when you watch it on your PC ?

[realamino]

Only when I watch it on my PC, its fine on the TV.

[guns1inger]

Broadcast TV is 704 x 576 or 480 (depending on where you are - 576 in your case), and the borders are hidden by the overscan area of your TV. Some DVD recorders fill stretch the frame to 720 when recording, others don't. Both are legal for DVD. There does seem to be an alignment problem in that yours is mostly on one side, but aside from that, I would not be concerned. Just crop it off when you re-encode (if you do) or ignore it as it isn't visible on your TV anyway.

[realamino]

Thanks guns1inger! Is there a guide on here for cropping videos?

[guns1inger]

Not without re-encoding.

If you are happy to re-encode, the simplest method is to load the file into virtualdubmpeg2, add a null transform filter, then click on Crop. From there you can shift the egdes in until you have removed the black, and then either save an avi with whatever compression you require, or frameserve to an mpeg2 encoder.

[realamino]

Hi I added the null transform filter, then clicked crop. I shifted the edge in and clicked ok. The 2nd video on the right in VirtuaDubMod, which I think is what the video should look like when saved looked fine there was no black border but when I saved it (Direct Stream Copy) and played it in Windows Media Player the same black border on the right was still there.

Anyone know what I do next?

[realamino]

Guys I really want to correct this problem, I think it is something pretty simple but I just cant find what is needed.

[guns1inger]

Direct Stream Copy just copies the video content as is. If you want to crop the image you have to save in Fast Recompress or Full Processing, and re-encode.

[realamino]

Direct Stream Copy just copies the video content as is. If you want to crop the image you have to save in Fast Recompress or Full Processing, and re-encode.

Thank you! You can tell im a noob!

According to it I will have to have 32 GB of data free?? that cant be right? its only a 300mb mpeg?

[guns1inger]

If you are using virtualdubmod then the compression settings are set on the Save As dialogue. If you are using virtualdubmpeg2 then they are found under the Video menu.

Note : you cannot save as mpeg from virtualdub, however you can use the frameserver instead so you can encode to mpeg from tmpgenc, mainconcept etc.

[realamino]

If you are using virtualdubmod then the compression settings are set on the Save As dialogue. If you are using virtualdubmpeg2 then they are found under the Video menu.

Note : you cannot save as mpeg from virtualdub, however you can use the frameserver instead so you can encode to mpeg from tmpgenc, mainconcept etc.

This doesn't make sense to me, its not your fault its just I dont understand half of this stuff.

Can you give me a step by step guide? or will it take to long?

[guns1inger]

Which bit ?

By default, virtualdub saves video uncompressed, which is why it want to create such a huge file. You have to tell it to use some form of compression - a codec (e.g. Xvid) - to get a smaller file for sending to YouTube.

Your original file came from a DVD, and so was encoded with the mpeg2 codec. While virtualdubmpeg2 can read mpeg2 encoded video, once you filter it in any way, it cannot save the results in that format. If you needed to get it back into mpeg2 - say to put back onto DVD - then you have to pass the video from virtualdubmpeg2 to an encoder. You can do this by a process known as frameserving. Virtualdubmpeg2 would create a small dummy file - called a signpost file - which you would load into your encoder. This would act as a pipeline between the encoder and virtualdubmpeg2. Virtualdubmpeg2 would pass the video through the pipe to the encoder, which would output mpeg2 video at the other end. Sounds a little complicated, but it is easy and has some great benefits. These are a)no huge intermediate files. The signpost is only a few hundred k in size. And b) no intermediate quality loss, as the video passed to the encoder is uncompressed.

In your case, look at using something like Xvid for your compression, so you get a reasonable file size for uploading.

[realamino]

Which bit ?

By default, virtualdub saves video uncompressed, which is why it want to create such a huge file. You have to tell it to use some form of compression - a codec (e.g. Xvid) - to get a smaller file for sending to YouTube.

Ok I think I've got you now, I'll get back to you if it works!

[realamino]

Thanks for all your help gunslinger! there is still a border there but its smaller and there is a slight border on the left so it looks more even.