How to Remove Pillars from 4:3 .ts Recordings?

[BroadcastTech]

Hi all.

There are a couple of standard def. shows I record off of local ATSC channels, however many if not all of the SD shows are broadcast (thankfully) in 4:3 with pillars on both sides of the picture to fill the 16:9 aspect ratio. As I record these shows through my MyHD card as transport stream files, the pillars are present in the recording as well. That said, is there a way to remove the pillars from the 16:9 recording and end up with a 4:3 aspect ratio, keeping the 4:3 video without the black pillars? I'd like to master some of the recordings to DVD, and if at all possible, I'd really like to be able to eliminate the pillars from the recordings and just be left with the 4:3 video.

Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks!

[edDV]

Why?

- The black pillars don't absorb bit rate.
- A crop requires a generation drop unless you were going to filter anyway.
- A DVD set to PanScan will just show the center 4:3 to analog outputs.
- 16:9 is the future. Expect a lot of this.

Most editors allow for crop. If your MPeg2_TS file is 1920x1080i, crop it back to 1416x1080i before downscale. If 1280x720p, crop to 944x720p.

[guns1inger]

You have to crop, then resize back to 4:3. That's two quality hits (resize then re-encode), when what you have is future proofed.