cropping/clipping without re-encoding?

[J-Wo]

I have a 4.32gb dvd-rip of an anamorphic dvd that I want to crop 60 pixels off the top and bottom (using either a crop() command or let dgindex do it with its clipping option) and then add them back with an addborder() command. The reason for this is that the black bars of this particular encode contain a lot of blotchy artifacts that I find distracting and I just want to clean it up.

My question is though can this be done without having to re-encode my video? In other words, can avisynth be used to crop the frame but still output the same quality image just with a cleaned up border? I'm thinking that re-encoding will degrade the quality of my source.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[Richard Berg]

Not in avisynth, no.

[J-Wo]

Any other programs that might be able to do this? I know I can use dvd-shrink to trim the beginning or end off a movie and that doesn't do any re-encoding if choose 100% quality. But I can't think of nay programs that can clip the frame like I want...

[Pookie]

You can crop and add a border back, but you'll still need to encode.

Only other option is to play back with FFDshow and use the built in cropping functions. Still, that'll only work if you play your file on a PC.

[Mug Funky]

if the blotchyness is just regular MPEG blocking in dark areas, you can get away with turning the brightness down on your TV until it disappears (TVs aren't actually meant to show a distinction between 16 black level and 0 black level, so a lot of low-level blocking shows up simply because TVs aren't calibrated the way the encoder assumed they would be).

of course, doing it this way means you could lose some real detail in dark areas. hopefully it wont be missed.

[J-Wo]

well if i do re-encode using cce 2.70, are there recommended matrices/settings I could use to lose as little quality as possible? Basically I need 0 compression and no change in the output video except I'm changing the black bars. So there should be no file size change..

[Pookie]

Impossible to speculate without seeing it. It might look better, it might look worse. Hopefully, better.

[piguligu]

I have a 4.32gb dvd-rip of an anamorphic dvd that I want to crop 60 pixels off the top and bottom (using either a crop() command or let dgindex do it with its clipping option) and then add them back with an addborder() command. The reason for this is that the black bars of this particular encode contain a lot of blotchy artifacts that I find distracting and I just want to clean it up.

My question is though can this be done without having to re-encode my video? In other words, can avisynth be used to crop the frame but still output the same quality image just with a cleaned up border? I'm thinking that re-encoding will degrade the quality of my source.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Look at my sugestion (I haven't try it so I can't tell you if it realy work - maybe If I had time and I try it I will came back with a post).
This is a weird " half solution " to your problem : You can add subtitles ! ( with no text and black total opac background ) - but this is the solution only for one part (or top , or bottom) if you know any good soft for DVD subtitles which can add simultaniously subtitles in 2 positions top and bottom maybe you can solve the problem !