Cropping 4:3 to 16:9

[Jupiter0713]

I have several older DVDs that are 4:3 letterbox that I want to make 16:9 anamorphic. - I have had no luck with DVDRebuilder as it keeps crapping out on me in process and would rather stay away from TMPGEnc

are there any other "SIMPLE" methods where I just load the disc, have the software anaylze it, make a 16:9 crop selection, select a target folder and let it run through its paces and it spits back ready-made DVD video files (.IFO, .VOB, .BUP, etc.) ready to burn to disc?

I ask for simplicity becasue when it comes to performing measures such as these, I am totally green and dont have the patience at present for a learning curve.

You would think with the advent and widespread acceptance of 16:9 telelvisions that there would be a simple "one-click" type solution for this problem.

Thanks.

[dfgh11]

Anyway you do this, you're gonna lose quality, 'cause you have to blow it up or stretch it in some way. I can't really think of anything right now. I think even if you cropped it, perhaps using virtual dub mod, the resolution would be wrong. You could then try patching the resulting file with DVDpatcher. I've never tried cropping mpeg this way myself, but it's something try I suppose.You may have to reauthor the whole disc though.But like I said, expect a crappy picture. I'd say leave it.

[guns1inger]

The process is

1. Crop off all black broders top and bottom
2. Resize whats left to the correct resolution for 16:9 in your chosen format (correct resolution needs to take into account the shift from square to non-square pixels)
3. Add borders to fill out to full format resolution
4. Re-encode with 16:9 flag set
5. Reauthor and watch.

[junkmalle]

Try this thread:

https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=274703

or this one:

https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=275877

[Buddyboy]

i believe you can crop it with dvd architect

[freebird73717]

I have several older DVDs that are 4:3 letterbox that I want to make 16:9 anamorphic. - I have had no luck with DVDRebuilder as it keeps crapping out on me in process.

What error does dvdrebuilder give you maby someone can help with it? Did you download the full installer instead of the other version?

[dfgh11]

but as I said, doesn't doing this make the image, terrible?

[junkmalle]

but as I said, doesn't doing this make the image, terrible?

Not necessarily. If you use a good resizing filter and enough bitrate the results can be pretty good. Especially for progressive video:

Original 720x480 anamorphic frame from the Lost in Space trailer (I keep the VOB around for testing purposes):



squashed to 720x352 and padded back to 720x480 to simulate a non-anamorphic source:



Then cropped and resized back to 720x480 to simulate making that non-anamorphic video into anamorphic:



Very hard to tell the difference between the final result and even the original anamorphic video.

All resizing done with VirtualDubMPEG2's Lanczos3 resizing filter.

[dfgh11]

but if it's ever squashed to letterbox mode, will the aspect ratio be correct?

[junkmalle]

but if it's ever squashed to letterbox mode, will the aspect ratio be correct?

If you do everything correctly the final display aspect ratio will be fine.

[Jupiter0713]

I have several older DVDs that are 4:3 letterbox that I want to make 16:9 anamorphic. - I have had no luck with DVDRebuilder as it keeps crapping out on me in process.

What error does dvdrebuilder give you maby someone can help with it? Did you download the full installer instead of the other version?

I would have to go back and try doing it again - its been a long while since I gave up on it, as no matter what I did, it always failed in progress....cant remember without actually running it again - something about error 50 or something like that?

Ill try again later on and report when, and what the error is

[Jupiter0713]

i believe you can crop it with dvd architect

Ill have to give that a try - I know I got it on this machine somewhere