Cropping black bars from letterboxed broadcasts - Is it a good idea?

[DanielG]

I recently recorded a concert from MTV Classics which is a 4:3 channel. The concert was shot in 16:9 so they letterboxed the footage.

On a 16:9 television there are black bars on the top, bottom, left and right of the picture.

I'm considering cropping out the black bars when encoding to DVD so that it fills the entire screen. Is this an accepted practice?
Also, the MTV watermark is partially outside the 16:9 area (about a third of the watermark) so the top of the "M" is cut.

Would this be okay to seed here? Or should I just leave the video as is?

Looking forward to your opinions.

Here's he cropped result: http://i45.tinypic.com/1043r4o.jpg

[DanielG]

Does anybody have any comments?

[peaktime]

I think it depends on what format it was recorded as. If it was recorded to a standalone DVD burner, then it's already been compressed once. Importing it into Vegas (or similar) and then cropping it, and then rendering it again would be two stages of video compression, which isn't allowed. If it was recorded on miniDV (DV-avi is not lossless but it is allowed to be rendered again) or to uncompressed avi, and then rendered in Vegas, that would be allowed.

But I think most DVD players have a zoom function, wherein you can just magnify the letterboxed 4:3 so that it plays without any black bars on a 16:9 display.

[peaktime]

I'm not sure what the policy is on re-rendering h.264 (mpeg4) if your recorder/capture device records in that compressed format.

[DanielG]

Thanks for your comments. I captured the broadcast using the DV-AVI codec, imported it into Vegas, cropped the borders and then encoded to MPEG-2.

[Limulus]

but technical you loose some quality.....like a digital zoom in. i would leave it in the resolution you're recorded it.
grabbing high quality DVB-S streams 1:1 is the best for tv broadcasts.

[peaktime]

the station degraded it in the first place, so losing a little bit more quality in order to enjoy it full screen on a 16:9 tv is fine IMO. If they ever want to air the 16:9, then that will be an upgrade.

[AAR.oner]

Originally Posted by DanielG

Thanks for your comments. I captured the broadcast using the DV-AVI codec, imported it into Vegas, cropped the borders and then encoded to MPEG-2.

yes that's acceptable

[Limulus]

Originally Posted by peaktime

the station degraded it in the first place, so losing a little bit more quality in order to enjoy it full screen on a 16:9 tv is fine IMO. If they ever want to air the 16:9, then that will be an upgrade.

but if they dont and that broadcast remains the only source then you degraded quality yourself a 2nd time.

[peaktime]

people with a 16:9 (most people these days) tv are not gonna watch a small box surrounded by black bars, some zoom is gonna take place on letterboxed 4:3. question is, for the best quality should it happen using good software, or real time hardware (dvd player)?

[AAR.oner]

lets face it, most folks in this hobby, whether authorers or collectors, aren't gonna have professional quality video scalers

that said, and assuming yer using a halfway decent NLE and compressor, the amount of zoom used to correct something like this is not gonna produce a very noticeable amount of image quality degradation...i personally see no problem with Daniel zooming in a bit to correct the bars

remember, there is a difference between theory and reality

[Limulus]

good solution would be:
- 1 trading version as original as the tv broadcast
- 1 version zoomed in for personal use