anyone know of a dvd authoring program which can crop/resize?

[maca]

Sometimes I record a movie from TV which is letterboxed (TCM usually), and I would like to author it to dvd and give it a faux 16x9 so that I can watch the movie without using the zoom button on the TV, which has different results on different TVs. I have Tmpgenc DVD-Pro, which lets you change the display aspect ratio of a movie when you author, but you can't lose the black bars; it just squashes EVERYTHING you have on screen to another AR, which isn't the answer for this problem.

I could of course run the movie through a re-encoder and change it the way I want, but then I'd lose quality. I'm just looking for an authoring program (or method using more than one program) which can crop and resize on the fly and not actually re-encode.

I thought I had struck gold when I used VirtualDubMod to reshape the image as I want, started it frame-serving, and then loaded the "dummy" server file into TMpeg Dvd author. The file loaded perfectly, let me edit, create the menu, everything, but when I started the output I got "invalid input format". Damn. It worked with the dummy file until it was actually time to output something. Does anyone have any advice on how to do this? If I could just find a dvd authoring program which would handle VirtualDub frame server files, it'd work. There has to be a way to do this without re-encoding the entire mpg.

[MOVIEGEEK]

Anytime you crop or resize you have to re-encode, no way of getting around it. TMPGEnc can do it by using the crop function but the general consensus is to use the zoom function on your player or tv.

[guns1inger]

If you are recording to DVD then I would suggest you look at DVD rebuilder. Under it's advanced settings there is the ability to crop, resize and re-encode letterbox 4:3 to make a true 16:9 disc. I have done this on a couple of commercial discs because I find that the resize done at this level usually produces a better result than using the zoom function on the TV. It also has the advantage of working with a DVD structure so there is less work involved in the conversion if DVD is your source and target.

[maca]

Thanks for the replies from both of you. I'll try the DVD rebuilder, thanks. After thinking it through, I realize that cutting off the black bars means a resolution change, and therefore a re-encode. But if DVD Rebuilder works, at least it'll save a step of doing the re-encode separately. There are 3 different widescreen sets in our household, and they each do something different when you hit "zoom". It'd be much easier for me to just have the movie in 16x9 to start with.

[Nelson37]

Don't know how you are recording as there is no such information in your profile. Some capture devices can crop and change aspect ratio while capturing, this would be the best solution. Otherwise a re-encode is your only option.

[jman98]

If you would just learn to watch video in 4:3 when appropriate your life would be a whole lot simpler. And probably happier.

[maca]

To "jman": If you would just learn to refrain from posting when you have nothing constructive to say...

Thanks to everyone ELSE for their help.

[manono]

The DVD-Rebuilder method will work only if starting with a DVD (as guns1inger says). If you're only capping in MPG, there's no DVD. You'll still have to reencode to convert it to 16:9, but it'll be slightly more complex.