How to crop videos?

[Señor Rossi]

Hi there!

I have recorded* a video from myvideo.de which shows the play control bar in the lowest 40 px of the video. I would like to use ConvertXtoVideo to convert the recorded file and to remove the control bar. However, I cannot find out how to cut off the lowest 40 px without having the video stretched to its original format instead of reducing the height by 40 px. Could someone explain me what to do?

* Unfortunately, VSO Downloader seems to have issues with myvideo.de, so I had to record the video instead.
13 Mar 20:59:54 | No data has been downloaded
13 Mar 20:59:54 | File downloaded in 00:00:00
13 Mar 20:59:50 | Waiting to start the download manually as selected in the settings...
13 Mar 20:59:50 | rtmp (8 event(s))
13 Mar 20:59:54 | Process finished
13 Mar 20:59:54 | download in error...
13 Mar 20:59:54 | Unable to initialise the connection
13 Mar 20:59:54 | Unable to setup URL
13 Mar 20:59:53 | RTMP initialisation:
13 Mar 20:59:53 | DLL (1 event(s))
13 Mar 20:59:54 | RTMP URL: No :// in url!

[ckhouston]

There are two possibilities.

1. Use a custom profile with a custom resolution where the vertical resolution is reduced by 40 pixels.

2. Compensate for the cropped 40 pixels using padding or additional cropping as described in http://forums.vso-software.fr/post79531.html#p79531

[Señor Rossi]

Thank you, ckhouston. Both methods seem a little more complicated than I had hoped, but I will try them. Your help is very much appreciated!

[ckhouston]

The method you use will depend on the format you are converting to.

Method 1 will work with formats that allow custom resolutions while 2 works for all formats including DVD and Blu-ray that offer limited resolution choices that can't be changed, but it changes the screen's appearance.

I might be able to give you some tips if you will post a screenshot of the preview in the editor window before you crop the bottom 40 pixels and say which format you want to convert to.

[Señor Rossi]

Hi ckhouston! The resolution of the recorded video is 708x440, and I'd like to convert to DivX/XviD-AVI so it can be played on a TV set from a thumb drive. To my knowledge, the TV set doesn't require any particular resolution (it plays the original 708x440 nicely), so I want to try 708x400 (original resolution minus the bottom 40 px). A screenshot of the advanced editing window is attached. Thanks a lot!

[ckhouston]

You don't need to worry about the resolution.

1. Choose AVI-Mpeg4 for your output profile since that is the format of your original file, not AVI-Xvid.
2. Crop the player control bar from the bottom and save -- make sure Symmetric values is unchecked.
3. Convert.

That should convert to a 16:9 aspect which the original was. The player control bar was added to the original 16:9 video which decreased the aspect of your recording to 117:110 as shown in the file information bar of your image of the editor window, so removing it returns the aspect to 16:9 which is what you want.

Post back if you have a problem.

[ckhouston]

That procedure may not work right, I didn't actually try it.

Here is one I did try:
1. Add the file, crop it and save the change.
2. Choose to Add a custom profile for the format to convert to.
3. Change File format to MP4 in Step 1.
4. Change Video aspect ratio to 16:9 in Step 2.
5. Click the Step 5 tab and click Save and close.
6. Convert.

Hope that works for you.

[Señor Rossi]

Thank you, ckhouston! Setting the video aspect ratio to 16/9 as you suggested did the trick. "Fit on destination" gave me removed playback controls, but the video still looked somewhat distorted. Thanks again!

[ckhouston]

Glad it worked and sorry about the earlier suggestion, you have to try the different options to find what they do and I didn't.