Problems cropping video..

[Skunk]

I am sort of new to this, but I have a few movie clips that have black bars down one side of them so I wanted to crop off that side and a bit from the top and bottom (just to keep the picture from looking stretched).
I figured out to open the file in Virtualdub and add the "null transform" filter so I could crop the picture. First I tried using the Huffyuv codec, but I ended up with a 30gb file from a 350mb source (is this normal with huffyuv?).
Then I tried using the FFDshow encoder set to every available setting and got the output the right size, but they won't play in my media player. Most of them look like a television with a messed up v-hold, but a few are just black screen with audio.
I have all the codecs I should need installed so I am getting a little frustrated here.

[setarip_old]

Hi!

I'd suggest you use the same video codec, with the same configuration, that you used to create the original .AVI...

[Skunk]

Sorry, but I am not the original encoder of these files and I do not own a legal copy of the codec they were encoded in. I guess that is out of the question.
Maybe someone knows and easier way to crop the video?

EDIT - OK nevermind. I ecoded the video with a fast recompress to a format I own and can freely work with and then had to do a re-encode again with the cropping applied. Sort of a pain, but the end result is so much better.