Can I remove black bars (top and bottom) when backing up my dvd's?

[jammiev]

Hi, is there a (free way) of removing the top and bottom black bars when backing up dvd's without loosing any quality or detail. I am using dvd decrypter, dvd43, dvdshrink.

i have a widescreen tv

thanks

[Baldrick]

Nope, you must reconvert to crop the video. Zoom with your tv instead.

[jammiev]

hi, how can i reconvert.

i don't like zooming in on the tv.

thanks

[johns0]

Search the forums for what you are asking,it has been discussed many times and the answer is that its not worth it to remove the black bars since you will lose some picture from the sides and reduced quality,zooming is your best option.

[Hoser Rob]

I'm assuming you're talking about the bars on cinemascope (2.35 ratio) videos since you have a widescreen TV.

No, there's no way of getting rid of those without losing the sides of the video. Yes, you'll get better quality if you zoom the picture with your TV than to convert and crop and resize the video with software.

Not to mention it'd be much faster and easier.

Just how much do you dislike those bars? On some movies it's amazing how much visual impact you lose by cropping the sides out. That's why I'll never buy a DVD or whatever of Avatar until they release a proper 2.35 version. It's much worse. I can't believe they released it in just 16:9 ... oh well, I guess I'll have to wait until the "special edition" comes out.

If they're still making DVD's and BR's by then, anyway.

[intracube]

Just how much do you dislike those bars? On some movies it's amazing how much visual impact you lose by cropping the sides out. That's why I'll never buy a DVD or whatever of Avatar until they release a proper 2.35 version. It's much worse. I can't believe they released it in just 16:9 ... oh well, I guess I'll have to wait until the "special edition" comes out.

Do you know that the 16:9 version has had the sides cut off (as opposed to the height being expanded), or are you assuming this?

[Hoser Rob]

Yes, it does. I've seen the cinemascope movie and the 16:9. The latter stinks by comparison.

You can't expand the height and keep the sides intact without screwing up the proportions.

[jagabo]

If I understood correctly, James Cameron said he shot in 16:9 and the 2.35 AR releases were made by cropping the the top and bottom of the frame.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqwCQQ4qIXw

And he prefers the 16:9 version. "the highest and best format for this movie is the 16:9..." So, if you want a 2.35:1 version just crop the frame yourself.

[intracube]

Jagabo beat me to it

I haven't see that video of Cameron before either, although I know from comments he's made in the past he's a director that's particularly concerned with how his movies look on the big and small screen - and shoots in a way which makes changing the ratio possible without butchering the frame. This is something that's becoming more common with film productions.

Some comparisons from the 2.39:1 trailer and a 16:9 promo video:





16:9 caps:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJKxcbcvxa4

2.39:1 caps:
first trailer here http://www.movie-list.com/trailers.php?id=avatar
- direct link http://playlist.yahoo.com/makeplaylist.dll?sid=96012717&sdm=web&pt=rd

[jagabo]

In the video he said that they didn't even pan-and-scan. Which those images confirm. So making your own 2.35 version is easy.

[intracube]

The 2.39:1 frame isn't centred vertically within the 16:9 frame. It's 94px from the top and ~802px high, and its position is consistent in all the frames I've compared so there's a good chance the frame position is fixed throughout the whole movie.

These pixel values are for a frame width of 1920px (not 1280px), just to be clear.