DVDRebuilder Free/Pro 16:9 crop question

[ecc]

I've used DVDRebuilder to crop to 16:9 an OOP DVD of a film only available in fullscreen (it's an open-matte transfer meant to be matted to 1.85:1 theatrically) using the crop 4:3 LBX to 16:9 AVS fuction in Rebuilder in conjunction with CCE settings (the posts I've read about this function seem to have been written when this function only worked with HCEnc in Rebuilder but it does work with CCE). Of course it is a straight crop off the top and bottom but I was wondering if there was a way to customize that in the free version or in the pro version to crop off the overscan mattes on the sides which are sometimes thicker on one side than the other and/or to crop less off the top and bottom for anamorphic 1.66:1 (or to crop off less from the top and bottom if you have cropped substantially from the sides so that you get a 16:9 image without slight stretching caused by the side cropping)?

There is a space to add to the AVS filter so you can specify crop settings or other filters so you could crop less for 1.66:1 but I'm assuming that the 16:9 crop option in the drop down menu is not only the script setting but also has a way of telling CCE that the output is 16:9. The advanced settings for CCE in the free version only include DC Precision and number of passes and the settings for HCEnc are just the quality speed settings (CCE itself has crop settings - can you access more of the standalone program's features with the pro version?).

[guns1inger]

I don't know where you read that it only works with HCEnc. It works with any encoder that Rebuilder can use. The only reason HCEnc is often mentioned is because it is free and damned good.

Theoretically you should be able to modify the script to crop and resize for 1.66. The avisynth script doesn't tell the encoder to encode 16:9. That is set by choosing the crop option, and is not something you have control over.

One way around this would be to modify the script to crop and resize for anamorphic 1.66, have Rebuilder do it's thing and produce a stretched, 4:3 encoded DVD structure, then use DVD Patcher and IFOAR2WS to modify the output to 16:9 afterward.

[manono]

Of course it is a straight crop off the top and bottom but I was wondering if there was a way to customize that in the free version or in the pro version to crop off the overscan mattes on the sides which are sometimes thicker on one side than the other and/or to crop less off the top and bottom for anamorphic 1.66:1

After having it do the 4:3 to 16:9 conversion, in the filter editor erase the crop/resize it makes and add in your own crop/resize/addborders. You had better be sure you know what you're doing, though, which from the looks of things you don't. For example, converting a 1.66:1 movie from 4:3 to 16:9 requires more than just cropping less from the top and bottom along with a resize, but also adding borders (pillar bars) to the right and left sides.

[ecc]

I am aware that you have to add pillar bars to 1.66:1 anamorphic . I have done it before with avisytnth and standalone encoders. When cropping fullscreen unmatted to 1.66:1 anamorphic in NTSC and there are no overscan mattes on the sides of a fullframe image I crop 0,48,0,-48, resize to 660x480, and addborders 30,0,30,0 and then tell the encoder that the output is 16:9 (if there are overscan mattes on the side then I crop then first visually with FittoDVD and then adjust the vertical cropping until the program says the aspect ratio is 1.66:1 or thereabouts then I plug the crop values into the avisynth script instead of using the one that is produced by the program).

What I was asking was how could you customize the crop/resize settings (I know how to addborders) - I was not aware that the crop setting appeared in the filter editor and was editable once you selected it from the dropdown menu, I thought you could just add script to it.

I figured I could add the settings in the filter editor but I thought that selecting the crop filter from the drop-down menu not only added the script to the avs file but Rebuilder (not the script itself) would then also tell the encoder that the output was 16:9. I admit it had not occurred to me to edit the DVD structure afterwards (I've used IFOEdit in the past).

[manono]

What I was asking was how could you customize the crop/resize settings (I know how to addborders) - I was not aware that the crop setting appeared in the filter editor and was editable once you selected it from the dropdown menu, I thought you could just add script to it.

I don't use the program, but if you go into the filter editor after having set it to convert from 4:3 to 16:9, I believe you'll see the crop of 60 rows of pixels from both the top and bottom and the resize to 720x480. Edit that script to do what you want.

[ecc]

Thanks, I'll give it a try.