Trying to do HDV -> DV with "edge crop"

[kiiy]

Hi everyone. I'm really stuck and hope someone can help me figure this out. I've searched and experimented for days now and still cannot find anything that works.

Basically, I need to convert HDV footage to DV so that I can mix it in with other DV footage from my brother's wedding. Through VirtualDubMod I've been trying to replicate the "edge crop" feature that is found on camcorders like the Sony HVR-Z1 or A1U... but still can't get it right. I keep running into what seem like interlacing problems.

These are some of the filter sets I've tried so far, without success:

1.
Deinterlace - Unfold fields side-by-side
Resize
Fold side-by-side fields together
Crop edges to get 4:3

2.
Crop edges to get 4:3
Deinterlace - Unfold fields side-by-side
Resize
Fold side-by-side fields together

3.
Resize with interlaced checkbox turned on
Crop edges to get 4:3

The process I'm using is:
1. CapDVHS to get the MPEG2 stream into the computer
2. VirtualDubMod to resize and output a DV avi file
3. CCE to re-encode the final to MPEG2
4. Burn to DVD

Does anyone see what I'm doing wrong?

Thanks in advance.

[scharfis_brain]

what is the edge-crop feature?

you cannot achieve a high quality interlaced conversion with VirtualDub you'll need AVIsynth to do so.

[kiiy]

Thanks for the reply. I'll give AVIsynth a try.

I believe "edge crop" is one of the HDV to DV down-conversion options offered on the Sony Z1 and A1U where it just chops off the sides of the picture to give you 4:3. The FX1 and HC1 only have the letterbox and anamorphic squeeze options.