How can I "change" the format of standard video to look like Letterbox Format?

Discussion in 'Other video questions' started by creative5, Aug 10, 2010.

  1. creative5

    creative5 Member

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    I shot some regular video and downloaded it to my computer. I would like to change the format-look so it resembles a Letterbox movie - so it would look like a wide-screen film when played. How do I create a 'widescreen' type video image that has a different aspect ratio than the source files?

    Also - I need to be able to adjust & move the placement of the 'Letterbox format'....
    Because every shot in the original video is framed differently - I cannot use a 'crop' that 'always frames the middle of the image' - in the Same place all the time.
    Every shot in the video is composed differently and I will have to crop sometimes to the upper part of the frame and other times to the middle or lower parts. So whatever cropping software I use - it has to be adjustable.

    Thanks for all your help - you're the smartest people on the web here!
     
    Last edited: Aug 10, 2010
  2. attar

    attar Senior member

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    I'm not exactly sure what you are after, but I did something similar when I was playing with my still camera a couple of years ago.
    I took a few seconds of movie that was 320x240 4:3 aspect ratio and saved as an avi.
    Loaded it into VirtualDub and used a filter called 'Canvas Size' to make a new 'canvas' of 640x352 ~16:9
    Moved the video image to where I wanted on the canvas and saved a range of frames with a lossless codec.
    I moved the image again and saved the next range, etc.
    Then I appended all the saved segments and selected the DivX codec for the final output.

    The quality on this is low, but the source was low quality and I only did it as a test.

    http://tinypic.com/r/1zd7plz/4]View My Video

    Different, smaller clip; better quality.
    http://tinypic.com/r/wk358n/4]View
     
    Last edited: Aug 11, 2010
  3. creative5

    creative5 Member

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    Thanks, Attar. Works perfectly - just what I was looking for. That VirtualDub is incredible when it comes to reformating video.



     

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