resizing or cropping MPEG-2 without encoding to MPEG-4?

[SynTex]

I made a DVD archive with a set-top DVD recorder of a football game that was originally broadcast in HD (obviously 16:9). I actually had it saved on my HD-TiVo (DirecTV), and using an S-cable that fed from the HDTiVo to the DVD recorder, downconverted it into standard def recordable onto DVD.

During this process, the HD-TiVo took the entire 16:9 video and forced it into a 4:3 aspect, so basically everything is very "scrunched up" horizontally when you look at it. For me, this isn't a problem, because my high def TV can stretch the scrunched up image (using a zoom function) to fill the entire screen. So when I watch the DVD after I adjust my TV, I have a decent quality (though not HD) 16:9 video.

Here's the problem. Several friends wanted me to make a DVD copy of this game for them. Unfortunately, they all have standard def TVs that would be incapable of adjusting this horizontally scrunched up video.

Is there any way I can take the MPEG-2 files off my DVD (already done) and crop/resize it to be a "full screen" 4:3 aspect (cropping off the left and right to adjust it), while keeping it as MPEG-2?

The reason I want to keep it MPEG-2 is to keep as much quality as possible, as the end result is going to be putting it right back onto DVD.

I've seen some say that cropping MPEG-2 requires encoding, so there will be degradation... as long as it were minimal, that'd be fine.

I'm afraid of needlessly compressing this MPEG-2 source to DivX/Xvid simply to do the crop/resize, when file size is not an issue at all for me (I intend to take 1 DVD of input and make it 1 DVD of output). And I'd worry about the needless quality loss of going MPEG-2 to AVI and back to MPEG-2 for this crop/resize adjustment.

Sorry for the length of the post, but I wanted to be clear in why I want to keep it MPEG-2.

And this site/forum is awesome! I've already discovered some good tools in doing other projects!

Thanks!

[Baldrick]

Use https://www.videohelp.com/tools?tool=IfoAR2WS and make the dvd a real 16:9 and all dvd players will be able to resize correct for 4:3 tvs.

[SynTex]

Baldrick,

that app is perfect for what I am doing!!

I just tested it out (changed the ifo files very quickly), and popped a DVD in on my old 32 inch 4:3 tv.... looked excellent!!

Thanks so much for the suggestion!