need help getting rid of black line on the side of some vids

[Melanie.]

hey guys!
i have some tv shows that i have put on my computer, and there is a black line on the right side of them. They are in iPod format (m4v), and 320 x 240. When i import it back into iMovie, there is a black line on the top and bottom as well as the right side, because its in the right size for an ipod. Anyways, if any of you could help me find a program to get rid of the black line, and stretch the video so it's the same size (320 x 240) thatd be great. any help is appreciated!
Melanie.

[terryj]

let me see..
black on top bottom and right side.
read up on this here on overscan/underscan.

As for resizing your video, try running it through ffmpegx
and select your presets as to what size you want it to be
( in your case it sounds like VCD, which is natively 320 x 240).

[Melanie.]

hey thanks for answering!
there's only a black line on the right side of the video...sorry if i confused you with the top and bottom line part, just ignore that then.
and im sort of confused...i read about it, but what do i do to get rid of it?

[terryj]

as far as getting rid of it, you don't.
this is how it will display oddly sized
video that should be a certain size.

think of it like this, say your monitor is
16" squared (16" all the way around for the math challeneged)
and you wanted to display a 13" x 10" picture on it dead center.
What would you see on the sides?
Monitor space? the background picture on your desktop?

yes.

Now, that space you see has been replaced with black.

that is what is going on with your video.
it should be 320 x 240, but it is off, so to
compensate, it displays black
to fill in the area that is not sized right.

You can use ffmepgx to transcode the video to the proper
size, and it will stetch it to fill the area, so it should display
with no black. Just choose the 320 x240 option, or better yet,
follow this tutorial here:
ffmepgx to ipod

[Melanie.]

thanks!! just one problem...
i downloaded it and everything, but when i click on the .dmg startup thing, it doens't do anything...i restarted my computer, deleted and downloaded it again, made sure it was for the version of my mac...and still nothing. is there any way you could help me?? thank you so much for everything!!

[terryj]

If your using Safari as your web browser,
it should have unpacked the .dmg file for you,
and you should have been given a folder with
the blue ffmpegx icon, which all you would have to
do then is drag and drop into your applications folder.

If all you have is a .dmg file on your desktop, then
make sure you can option ( or right if you
have a 2button mouse) click on the dmg icon, and choose
"open with" , and then you should be able to select
"discImageMounter" or "Disc Utility", which will then unpack it
for use.

But if you do not have "Disc Utility" installed on your machine,
then this could be a problem...it is normally in the "utilites"
folder inside your "Applications" folder.....

[AntnyMD]

It is ok not to be bothered by the minor black bar on the right. Its there to ensure the image you see is in the proper aspect ratio intended by the videographer/cinematographer.

Frankly the only kinds of oddities like this I've seen have been on porn .. and if you're concerned about overscan black bars in porn videos, you're totally missing the point of your video.

[Melanie.]

ooh i got it, stupid me....thanks! okay now i have to figure out how to use this thing...lol...thanks again!

[Melanie.]

oh one more thing...sorry..heh. do you know where i can download the mpeg2enc?? i have the mplayer and mencoder...but i need that last one. thanks again!!

[terryj]

it's a bit tricky,
first go here:
mpeg2enc home
then search for this line here,
that says the following:

"For every other user that want's to download binary stuff.
Without compiling for the own machine you can download : mpeg2enc"

right click /option click on that word( mpeg2enc)
and then save
(download) the link to your desktop.

It will put the mpeg2enc file there, and from there
you just attach it from the desktop to the
ffmpegx installer.

[Melanie.]

i think i got it... the file's name is 'mpeg2enc.txt'....
when i try to save a movie is some formats (i have only tried a couple) it finishes in less than a second, and when i look what it made, the file is zero KB is that because i did something wrong with the mpeg2enc??

[Case]

mpeg2enc.txt

Eh, no, it should download as mpeg2enc without a suffix.
Do a Get Info in the Finder, check the file size, should be 188,524 bytes. Then, in the name field, remove '.txt' part. Close the Info-window. The Finder will ask 'Are you sure?' Click 'OK'.
Next, launch ffmpegX. If you don't get the components self-installer window, then manually go there by selecting Install binaries from the ffmpegX menu. In the self-installer window, select the checkbox next to mpeg2enc, use the Locate button to browse to your downloaded copy of mpeg2enc. Enter you Mac OS (admin) login password and click Install.
Now ffmpegX is ready for conversions which use the mpeg2enc engine.

[Melanie.]

ooh, thanks!! okay, so i did that, and still it finishes in one second and is zero KB

[terryj]

ok so at this point, your existing mv4 files process rather quickly, and that means they can't convert.

Something must be up with the original files.
Can you post the information that ffmpegx
gives on the file, when you drag and drop
it into the source window?

[Melanie.]

yeah sure...okay here's one:
MOV
h264, yuv420p, 320x213
aac, 44100 Hz, stereo


i made this movie in iMovie and i put it on the iPod setting they have. is there anything else you need?

[terryj]

Need to transfer this to the ffmpegx section problem for more help at this point....contacting mod...

[major]

Send clip to major4@mac.com by using yousendit.com and I will test.

[Melanie.]

okay, its sending. i want it to be in a format that can go onto an ipod, and the best quality. it works with some settings, but the quality becomes really bad

[Melanie.]

i've never used yousendit on a mac before...it doesn't seem to be working