How to crop 480i MPEG-2 video?

sawtaytoes · 10th September 2025, 06:38

Hello! First time posting

.

I have a native widescreen (not anamorphic: has black bars) DVD set for an anime I imported from Japan (Betterman). From what I understand, since it was 1999, this show was natively rendered this way (with the black bars) rather than being anamorphic like later digital-native shows.

I originally purchased the Blu-ray, but it's a horrible, blurry upscale, so I refuse to use it on principle. I then paid a bunch of money again and got the DVD set only to find out the quality is awful (tons of MPEG artifacts) and it's got black bars.

I also acquired the US DVD, and it's even worse quality. Visible pixels everywhere!

I'd like to remove these black bars and make it a more native resolution; even if I have to cleanly upscale to 1080p24 as losslessly as I can, but because it's telecined, that's difficult to do.

Actually, I'm not even certain it's telecined. If I go frame-by-frame in MPC-HC, each frame has a new image. Typically, I have to press the "step" button 2-3 times to progress to the next frame of animation. Either they did digital compositing or something else is up.

My first thought was to at least losslessly crop the original MPEG-2 stream in the MKV container.
Then I was thinking I could try my hand at performing an inverse telecine to get it to 24p. This is more advanced, but at least doing the crop could let me see if it plays back in Plex.

I've never used anything outside of MkvToolNix and ffmpeg, and any *synth program seems daunting to me. Each time I've tried to use one, it's always way too complicated. Never "install this and run this command", more like "install 50 tools, copy directories around, convert to AVI, and do some magic".

Is it possible to do this in a simpler way or is it going to always be the most complex approach possible?

Emulgator · 10th September 2025, 07:22

Rip all sources. For all 3 sources cut 10s worth of the same part with motion. Upload the samples to wetransfer or what you prefer. Post the links.
With damaged sources it is going to always be the most complex approach possible, otherwise you get damage-on-top-of-damage.

VideoMilk78 · 26th September 2025, 03:57

Honestly, I'd have to see the blu ray (I've actually been looking for rips of it online to no avail, maybe you could help me out and hook me up) however a studio upscale is usually gonna be better than one can achieve especially being so new to avisynth although since it's animated you have better chances.

RetsimLegin · 26th September 2025, 19:01

I'm going to guess, without seeing it, that the BluRay is already 24p (more likely 23.976) frame rate and therefore that would probably be the best place to start. Trying to recover 24p from an NTSC source (USA and Japan DVDs will be NTSC) can be anything from dead easy and lossless to practically impossible.

You may be able to do some fake enhancement of whichever source (inc. that BluRay) using an AI based tool, but the output will be the object of much subjective opinion. Of course, yours is the only one that counts. You might give this a go https://www.winxdvd.com/giveaway/convert-video-free.htm as a start and see what you think of the output. Expect it to take a very very long time to process (at best a few frames per second) - possibly not at all if you don't have a fair to good GPU. So do a short segment for evaluation, and leave it overnight if necessary.

huhn · 9th October 2025, 15:28

you can just crop by mod of 4.
telecine doesn't care field order doesn't care and just keep the meta data as is...

BTW. all DVD mpeg-2 streams are anamorphic if they are latter boxed or have black bars is something completely different.
mpeg 2 has a resolution of 720/704x480 or 720/704x576 so "always" anamorphic.

hello_hello · 12th October 2025, 01:51

While I wouldn't argue about all DVD mpeg-2 streams being anamorphic, they weren't labelled that way by the "DVD industry".
4:3 DVDs were either labelled "full screen", or not labelled, as far as I know, while 16:9 DVDs were labelled "widescreen" or "anamorphic widescreen" etc.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anamor...reen#DVD_Video

10th September 2025, 06:38	#1 \| Link
sawtaytoes Registered User Join Date: Sep 2025 Posts: 1	How to crop 480i MPEG-2 video? Hello! First time posting . I have a native widescreen (not anamorphic: has black bars) DVD set for an anime I imported from Japan (Betterman). From what I understand, since it was 1999, this show was natively rendered this way (with the black bars) rather than being anamorphic like later digital-native shows. I originally purchased the Blu-ray, but it's a horrible, blurry upscale, so I refuse to use it on principle. I then paid a bunch of money again and got the DVD set only to find out the quality is awful (tons of MPEG artifacts) and it's got black bars. I also acquired the US DVD, and it's even worse quality. Visible pixels everywhere! I'd like to remove these black bars and make it a more native resolution; even if I have to cleanly upscale to 1080p24 as losslessly as I can, but because it's telecined, that's difficult to do. Actually, I'm not even certain it's telecined. If I go frame-by-frame in MPC-HC, each frame has a new image. Typically, I have to press the "step" button 2-3 times to progress to the next frame of animation. Either they did digital compositing or something else is up. My first thought was to at least losslessly crop the original MPEG-2 stream in the MKV container. Then I was thinking I could try my hand at performing an inverse telecine to get it to 24p. This is more advanced, but at least doing the crop could let me see if it plays back in Plex. I've never used anything outside of MkvToolNix and ffmpeg, and any synth program seems daunting to me. Each time I've tried to use one, it's always way too complicated. Never "install this and run this command", more like "install 50 tools, copy directories around, convert to AVI, and do some magic". Is it possible to do this in a simpler way or is it going to always be the most complex approach possible? Last edited by sawtaytoes; 10th September 2025 at 06:44.*

10th September 2025, 07:22	#2 \| Link
Emulgator Big Bit Savings Now ! Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: close to the wall Posts: 2,037	Rip all sources. For all 3 sources cut 10s worth of the same part with motion. Upload the samples to wetransfer or what you prefer. Post the links. With damaged sources it is going to always be the most complex approach possible, otherwise you get damage-on-top-of-damage. __________________ "To bypass shortcuts and find suffering...is called QUALity" (Die toten Augen von Friedrichshain) "Data reduction ? Yep, Sir. We're that issue working on. Synce invntoin uf lingöage..."

26th September 2025, 19:01	#4 \| Link
RetsimLegin Registered User Join Date: Apr 2021 Posts: 80	I'm going to guess, without seeing it, that the BluRay is already 24p (more likely 23.976) frame rate and therefore that would probably be the best place to start. Trying to recover 24p from an NTSC source (USA and Japan DVDs will be NTSC) can be anything from dead easy and lossless to practically impossible. You may be able to do some fake enhancement of whichever source (inc. that BluRay) using an AI based tool, but the output will be the object of much subjective opinion. Of course, yours is the only one that counts. You might give this a go https://www.winxdvd.com/giveaway/convert-video-free.htm as a start and see what you think of the output. Expect it to take a very very long time to process (at best a few frames per second) - possibly not at all if you don't have a fair to good GPU. So do a short segment for evaluation, and leave it overnight if necessary. Last edited by RetsimLegin; 26th September 2025 at 19:04.

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26th September 2025, 03:57	#3 \| Link
VideoMilk78 Registered User Join Date: Oct 2024 Location: Nebula 71 Star Posts: 112	Honestly, I'd have to see the blu ray (I've actually been looking for rips of it online to no avail, maybe you could help me out and hook me up) however a studio upscale is usually gonna be better than one can achieve especially being so new to avisynth although since it's animated you have better chances.

9th October 2025, 15:28	#5 \| Link
huhn Registered User Join Date: Oct 2012 Posts: 8,623	you can just crop by mod of 4. telecine doesn't care field order doesn't care and just keep the meta data as is... BTW. all DVD mpeg-2 streams are anamorphic if they are latter boxed or have black bars is something completely different. mpeg 2 has a resolution of 720/704x480 or 720/704x576 so "always" anamorphic.

12th October 2025, 01:51	#6 \| Link
hello_hello Registered User Join Date: Mar 2011 Posts: 5,064	While I wouldn't argue about all DVD mpeg-2 streams being anamorphic, they weren't labelled that way by the "DVD industry". 4:3 DVDs were either labelled "full screen", or not labelled, as far as I know, while 16:9 DVDs were labelled "widescreen" or "anamorphic widescreen" etc. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anamor...reen#DVD_Video