Best tool for blocking news scroll with black bar

[wetcamelfood]

Can someone tell me the best tool to use for putting a black bar across the bottom of the screen as I'd rather look at that and create a semi widescreen feel instead of the news scroll that's normally at the bottom when I record a TV show? I use Womble MPEG Video Wizard, Vido Re-do & Roxio Creator 2009. I've come across blur tools in these but would prefer the black bar, maybe I'm just overlooking it? Thanks in advance for help/replies.

[zoobie]

most of the time, the cropping tool will do this and retain the frame size
I use Border Control for VirtualDub

[jagabo]

What format is the source? What format do you want the final result? Lots of tools have cropping and masking functions.

[wetcamelfood]

What format is the source? What format do you want the final result? Lots of tools have cropping and masking functions.

Some source cips are mp4, some are vob. Trying to get them to mpg (MPEG2).

Thanks zoobie I'll try that in the meantime.

[lordsmurf]

VirtualDub.

One method I used to use, when it was just a simple scroller, was to crop the ticker and re-center the remaining footage. Basically it just pulled the image down a little, as there was enough info in the upper overscan to compensate. You couldn't even tell that the ticker had existed. I'd just correct bad scenes, too -- not the whole run of the video. Rarely did weather tickers ruin the entire recording.

These days, however, with 16:9, maps on screen, etc -- I don't think there's anything that can be done. There's just too much junk being put on screen now, waste of time to even record. (The people who try to "delogo" videos are stupid, as they just create annoying blobs worse than the original logo.)