AVStoDVD / HC Enc - change 'deadzone' setting?

[Mark777]

Hi all,

when converting non-anamorphic video files (mkv, avi et al) to DVD-compliant video the original aspect is preserved by filling the 720 576/480 frame horizontally, and I assume the 'deadzone' (auto) referred to in AVStoDVD is any area left that has to filled with black, i.e. for content wider than 1.77:1 / 16/9.

Is there a way of editing the 'deadzone' value to, for example, crop 2.35:1 to 1.77:1 / 16/9?

Edit >> Eek! wrong forum - this should be in 'Authoring (DVD)' - could someone move it please?

[davexnet]

This is what the HCenc encoder PDF says about deadzone.

parameter intra inter type 2*integer
Status not required
Default-Example*DEADZONE 3 2
This command defines the dead zone values used for intra and non-intra (inter) quantization. It acts as a frequency domain low pass filter.
If this command is not given, it will run in automatic mode, source dependent. If you want to disable dead zone quantization,
use *DEADZONE 0 0. Range for the intra and inter parameters: 0 – 6

Nothing to do with cropping, but I must admit I do not understand the question, so cannot advise further.
What are you trying to do?

[DB83]

You appear to want to crop away the black bars top and bottom and then crop left and right so you fill the 16:9 frame. Of course you lose detail both left and right by doing this.

All such work in this respect is handled by the avisynth script which may be edited from the Title Menu > Edit Title >> avisynth

But if you have no experience with avisynth, and I am afraid I can not assist with the values you have to enter by on-screen prompts rather than direct editing of the text, you would be better off asking for assistance in the dedicated avstodvd support thread

[jagabo]

To get a 16:9 width for a given height use

newwidth = (height * 16) / 9

Complicating matters is that most video you'll be dealing with use 4:2:0 chroma subsampling (the chroma is half the width/height of the luma) so it needs to be cropped on even boundaries, and the size that's left must also be even. You get the

newwidth = ((height * 16) / 18) * 2

Now you know what newwidth you need. So you need to crop away a total of (width - newwidth) pixels from the width. Presumably you want to crop an even amount from each side, (width - newwidth) / 2. Again, you want to crop on even boundaries. You can calculate that with:

leftcrop = ((width - newwidth) / 4) * 2

Now you're ready to crop:

newwidth = ((height * 16) / 18) * 2
leftcrop = ((width - newwidth) / 4) * 2
Crop(leftcrop, 0, newwidth, height)

You can do it all in one line with simple substitution:

Crop(((width - (((height * 16) / 18) * 2)) / 4) * 2, 0, ((height * 16) / 18) * 2, height)