Changing the resolution of MP4 video by adding black band to top and bottom

[Crea]

I have mp4 films that not exactly 16:9 format 1920*800, 1280*520. I want to add black band to video on top and bottom for making the video exact 16:9 format.

For example, I need add 280p black band, 140p will be on the top and 140p will be on the bottom.

So the video will be 1920*1080p. I want to do this process by re-encoding.

It could make by using meGUI but I could not find any document about how to do.

Please help

[LigH.de]

This is called "letterboxing". You may do that manually by using the AviSynth function

AddBorders(0,140,0,140)

for your FullHD 1080 example. Unfortunately, I don't know if MeGUI supports this without manually editing the script.

[Detmek]

No, it doesn't. You have to manually enter "AddBorders(0,140,0,140)", without quotes.

Although, what is the reason for adding black borders? Players usually add those during playback and re-encoding reduces quality (more or less noticible).

[LigH.de]

The only reason I could imagine is to recreate some standard compliant resolution for authoring e.g. a Blu-ray. Out of a video which had been cropped down from a previously standard compliant Blu-ray, possibly ... who knows.

[_Al_]

Start Megui, press Ctrl+F1 to get One click encoder window. Load clip and press Config at the bottom for Output. Find Avisynth profile and press config again. At the bottom add one line , for example for 1280x520 video you add:
AddBorders(0,100,0,100)
Hopefully it will keep 16:9 aspect ratio for output. If not you'd need to take a peek into advanced options there to try to fix that.

But I agree, to encode video just to letterbox it is not much productive, I'd rather stay away from Apple or Sony hardware if that is the reason.

[Crea]

Thank you all.
I do not want to see the subtitle on the movie. I want to add additional black band the add the subtitle to the black band.

Ok, how can hardsub I change the fonts advanced options on meGUI ?

Sorry my bad english.

[LigH.de]

It will depend in which format you got your subtitles. If they are text scripts, you'll be able to define styles when you use the ASS format (you may have to convert them when they are SRT). But there are also formats where subtitles are already rendered graphics.

[Detmek]

Thank you all.
I do not want to see the subtitle on the movie. I want to add additional black band the add the subtitle to the black band.

Ok, how can hardsub I change the fonts advanced options on meGUI ?

Sorry my bad english.

Well, I don't know how you watch your movies. My player on PC (MPC-BE) adds black borders and shows subtitles on black borders. Same thing does my HDTV and DVB-T2 STB. I can change font color and size easy in MPC-BE and I can choose green, blue, red and white font color on my STB but no yellow. And I like yellow subtitles.

My advice - if your player is a problem, change player or try to change its settings. If that is not the option, you can hardsub movie with MeGUI over black borders but, as LigH.de said, use ASS format for input subtitles to define font, size and color. You can edit subtitles with Subtite Edit. MeGUI does not have settings for subtitles.

Last week I made a video tutorial for a friend to show him how to add black bars and hardcode subtitles with MeGUI: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0us1mg36kA

[manono]

For example, I need add 280p black band, 140p will be on the top and 140p will be on the bottom.

If you're doing this only for hardcoding subtitles, you need only add black to the bottom (most of the time), and you might not need a full 140 rows of pixels. How much to add depends entirely on the size of the subs and their placement on the black band, which will mean only ASS or SSA subs.

So, the AddBorders command might be something like:

AddBorders(0,0,0,100)

[ndjamena]

I've had to deal with two devices so far that automatically stretch any mp4 you throw at it to fill the screen regardless of any anamorphic values that happen to be set...

Has no one else encountered that?

[Detmek]

I had that problem with previous DVB-T2 STB, but only for 4:3 videos. It always stretched those to 16:9. For 2,35:1 videos it added black bars.