Crop/resize mpeg-2 to remove pop-up ad

[CaZeek]

Hello, can someone reccomend the best/fastest way to crop this part of the video and then stretch it back out to 352x480 for the portion while the pop-up is present? Would rather not re-encode as it is already in the mpeg-2 format I want, but open to all suggestions. Also, if we can get even more advanced, the ad "slides in".. it doesn't just pop up at that side, so if there was a way to completely remove it without the final video showing signs of it, that would be fantastic. Thanks!

[FulciLives]

There is no way of doing it sans re-encoding and even then it would be VERY tricky to do while leaving it interlaced and you really do NOT want to deinterlace ... I suppose you could do an IVTC but animation is often a BITCH to do that to and get it correct.

I'd just deal with it.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[jagabo]

Just drop a black mask over it if you don't want to see it. You'll still have to reencode though.

[CaZeek]

Thing is, it actually squishes the picture when the ad comes up, so I would rather stretch it back out if possible... again I am open to re-encoding if necessary. This is occurring on all of the episodes, so I wouldn't mind giving it a try on one to see how it turns out. If it's not worth it, I will just leave them in there.

Thanks again

[gadgetguy]

I think it could be done in AviSynth, but the results may be disappointing. And if this is one of those that "pushes it's way up", then for the duration of the "push" it becomes a frame by frame exercise. And unless the popup is exactly the same in each episode (height, duration, speed of "pop", speed of "retreat") then you'll have to edit the script for each episode.

[jagabo]

I've done it by simply cropping and resizing (not dynamically) for the duration of the ad. You get a weird resizing thing but it's better than seeing the ad.

[vhelp]

Is this for viewing on a computer display or, viewing on a tv set ?

1. you note and record every ad popup start/end points
2. you write a trim() function that uses those start/end values to crop-out/resize
3. using the start/end values, you insert the trim()/crop-out/resize clips as replacement vids

If you want a definitive solution, post a small 10mb/20mb size sample and I'm sure one of the guys here can show you how

-vhelp 4887

[gadgetguy]

I did this using your image as the source for this script:

imagesource("popup ad.jpg", end = 300, fps = 29.97)
separatefields()
crop(0,0,-0,-61)
lanczos4resize(352,240)
weave()

You'll need more info to get the field order correct and to apply it to the correct sequence of frames, but that's the gist of it.

[jagabo]

Here's an example where I just masked the bottom of the frame during the pop-op:

ex.avi

You can see, about 2 seconds in, where the picture squishes up and the mask suddenly appears to cover the ad.

[AlanHK]

Here's an Avisynth script to do something similar.

AVISource("whatever.avi")
EnsureVBRMP3sync()

Trim(0,10663) ++\
Trim(10685,11002).Crop(362,222,-122,-40).LanczosResize(688,384).Amplify(0) ++\ 
Trim(11024,0)

LanczosResize(720,576,0,0,688,384)

The action is in the second Trim, when the credits are shrunk down to show a promo in the rest of the screen.
The Crop is to the shrunk screen. I also used Amplify(0) to kill the voiceover.

Note I dropped a few frames between the Trims, (about 0.8 seconds each time) as the credits are zooming in/out in those; it leaves a little jump but better than the zoom.

I used AvsP's crop editor to work out the crops, you can also do it interactively in VirtualDub.

The result is far from perfect, but still much better than an annoying promo.

An alternate method, without resizing the credits:

AVISource("whatever.avi")
EnsureVBRMP3sync()

Trim(0,38120) ++\
Trim(38121,0).Crop(0,0,-150,-0).AddBorders(150,0,0,0).FillMargins(160,0,160,0).Amplify(0)

LanczosResize(720,576,0,0,704,400)

Here the credits roll on the left and an promo on the right, so this crops the right side off, moves the remaining credit screen to the middle by adding margins, then uses FillMargins to colour the background the same as that of the credits, wiping out the remainder of the promo as well. No resizing, so this does not degrade quality at all.

In all cases I use EnsureVBRMP3sync() as any Trims are likely to desync the sound otherwise, when I use wavi to extract audio from the AVS files.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Another thought: if this is during the epsiode itself, and doesn't last long, just freezeframe it. Cartoons often have static scenes anyway, or with minimal lip movement. You could use the frame before the ad or after, or both and split the duration.

Again in Avisynth:

AVISource("whatever.avi")
EnsureVBRMP3sync()
FreezeFrame(10000,10075,9999)