Ok I just ripped a VHS video into MPG format and I need help finding software that will allow me to crop the black parts out (was recorded in wide screen). And that allows me to take out the commercials.

Thanks!

2 completely separate jobs there. Any editing tool will allow you to take out sections (commercials).

I assume that it was a letterboxed format video. There's no sensible way to eliminate that without ending up with really crappy quality. Very few tools will allow you to crop that much of the image, and for good reason.

Well basically I'm trying to edit them so that I can play the video on my PSP. There must be some way to crop the black on the top and bottom of the video...

I've done it with images just seems like it wouldn't be much trouble doing it to a video as well : /

EDIT: The video wasn't actually converted to letterbox "format". The video was in letterbox format when I recorded it on my TV.

Pinnacle Studio will do that type of encoding.

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Awesome! Thanks BONJOPI thats even the exact same software I'm using lol.

Ok one last question what program do you guys suggest I use to take out the commercials? I tried windows movie maker but loads WAY to slow : [

Just keep in mind that after cropping a letterboxed image, the finished image will look worse than the original VHS did. You're taking out about 30% of the horizontal lines of image and then stretching the image back to 480. Results are universally disappointing. On any screen larger than 25", it will look pretty bad.

If you want to demonstrate this, take a screen shot of any part of the video, save in JPG, then crop and resize to 720x480.

You could take the commercials out at the same time you encode the video with pinnacle. See the pics.
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Screenshot after processing with pinnacle.
Video clip extracted with Nero Recode. Changed to mpeg with Main Concept encoder. Video encoded with Pinnacle Studio. Screen capture with ATI.
File size 31.5kbs. Even after all that noise the video looks good.
[IMG]

I would use the free program "VirtualDub" to both edit out the commercials and remove the letterbox lines with the crop filter. I might even throw in the sharpen or contrast filter to improve the picture quality. That whole process would take about 5 minutes. Then it would take a couple hours to re-encode and save the movie with the Xvid codec in AVI format.

VirtualDub, nandub or any clone is a good idea.

WHAT He is doing is shrinking it to play on his PSP,
would the quality Degrade not be so bad because
of him shrinking it from 720x480 to 3xx x 288
and it being small would not notice it that much?

also Nero v 7 or greater had video editing
and there is Magix and AVS video Editing software

what about Freeware know of any Good Freeware
Video Editing software ?

WindowsMovie Maker is the free and best video editor.

where does one get that free movie maker
snow90 ?

You might also want to look at this: AVS Toolkit
If you don't mind spending $70 they have a massive suite of software. You can buy them individually as well, but for the money what's the point. You can download trial versions to check out, but until you register it leaves a watermark on the finished product.

the bad thing also about that software you have to be linked to the
insternet each time you run it our it unregisters.
I know this because i purchased it and cant use it as my
computers are not hooked to the internet i have to it
it the hard way and hook up each time. nothing was said
about haveing to be hooked 24 / 7 for the software to run.
beware about AVSTools.

If you purchased the software you're entitled to free updates, that's why it looks for the internet connection. You may be able to disable that function.

Best software barnone is Ulead Video Studio 11 Plus. I love it, I create anime music videos on youtube and am able to do all kinds of cool effects and master edits. It is reasonably priced and easy to navigate.

WMM is a free Microsoft Program and it does the job, but it is SLOWER than a seven year itch. And that is with a video no more than 5 minutes, can you imagine what hours would be like? lol.

Good luck
Guardianofthemoon

If you know how please share it. As I have been working with the Writers and we can not get it to work with out connecting to the internet. But why why would they write the software to go to unregistered if its been already Registered. Thats evil in my book
as i paid good money to use it and now i can not. unless i hook it to the internet.

I think you have another problem. I unplugged my modem and AVS works fine. Have you tried uninstalling and re-installing the software? More importantly, can you even open the AVS video editing software?