I also got that Red Planet DVD too

Here is version 0.13b where I did some corrections on the pixelparser and also I corrected the second crop value info that it outputs a crop() variant without negative values. Also it should be a bit faster now as I do parse the sides using 1/6 of the total width from each direction and the height 1/4 from each direction as I dont think that Movies using Top/Bottom Border with more than 144px each will be used as source.

This is getting a very interesting thread .
Will try autocrop as soon as possible.
Thanks for sharing it with us Andrej .
Cheers

__________________
Rui

Hi Andrej,

Thanks for the update.

I don't what you did but it seems to have done the trick with regard to Red Planet. It is good that you also have this DVD to test.


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If you look now at the above picture the cropping on Alien3 looks perfect.

I had to hit the Autocrop button twice because when I first loaded Alien3 and let it play for a bit and hit the Autocrop it messed up slightly in the left hand side on the first go, see picture below:


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The first picture is after I hit the Autocrop button twice. You will notice on the first picture the first value is 0 and the the left hand side on the crop is undershot.

The first picture after hitting the Autocrop for a second time it correct this and add a left value of 10.

I hope these tests of mine help you out in some way Andrej, for me this workaround of hitting the autocrop twice is o.k.

Thanks for updating and the changes that you have made to this excellent tool.

EDIT: Btw I love the fact that your tool give two different ways of adding crop values to your AviSynth script. In my case this is:

Crop(10,76,0,-76) or use
Crop(10,76,720,424)

Thanks again Andrej this is excelent work.

__________________
Regards.

Michael.

Do remember that you should not use directly any of that lines but put the values from the first one (ie 10 for left border, 76 for top, 0 for right and 76 for bottom) into FitCD and let it compute the correct Crop/Resize values.
Or wait to see if Inc decides to merge Mencalc and Autocrop as he planed to do

Thanks for the info Phil, I shall bear that in mind and do it via FitCD.

Entering those values into FitCD I get:

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Should the AddBorders line be used to replace the LetterBox command?

In DVD-RB I use as per your suggestion LetterBox(16,16,16,16), do the LetterBox and AddBorders work completely different?

Or could I use LetterBox(8,80,8,80)? Sorry for the dumb question but I still need to learn the differences between these two filters.

I take it if I use AddBorders that I don't need to add a LetterBox to my script is this true?

Also I agree I hope Inc does merge the MenCalc tool with this it will be awesome when that happens.

@Incredible

Btw my tests in my previous post was done using the latest version of your tool, I think I forgot to mention that.

__________________
Regards.

Michael.

Yes they are. Letterbox put the border ON the picture, Addborder put it ARROUND the picture.
We have to use letterbox in DVD-RB because we can't resize. So the picture is the size of the source, that is 720*576. Then we "paint" the 16 pixels on each side in black, to gain some compressibility.

When you can use a resizer, it's a better idea to resize to something smaller than the targetted size (here your target 704*576) and add a border all arround to picture to reach the correct size.
That is exactly what FitCD does for you : it resizes to 688*416 than add 8+8 pixels on left/right (688 + 8 + 8 = 704) and 80+80 on top/bottom (416 + 160 = 576).

Yes it is. It either resize to target size + letterbox OR resize to a smaller res and addborder.

Did you notice that your last picture shows diffrent values than what you exposed ?
You said :
But your snapshot http://img291.imageshack.us/my.php?image=alien350hv.jpg shows that the values are Crop(10,72,-4,-74)

Yeah sorry Phil I think I made a mistake when I inputted the values into FitCD, I don't know where my brains were at when I did that.

The correct values should have been: Crop(10,72,-4,-74)

Again thank you so much Phil for helping me understand how and when to use AddBorders and when to use LetterBox and for explaining why we use them a certain way. I now have a better understanding of how to go about manual encoding with these cropping values.

So thanks again.

__________________
Regards.

Michael.

You're welcome.

@Dialhot

Sorry Phil to bother you again, on one final note.

I was also doing some tests with Karl's MA optimal script, I know this uses GripFit and I thought if you enter these values in via MS then it would crop automatically for you.

However I notice near the end of the MA Script is the LetterBox command but with a # in front. I knows this turns it into a remark line and it will not be executed, it says depends on situation use MS.

Does this mean then if you choose not to use GripFit and do a manual resize via say FitCD or MS then you need to the values MS gives you for AddBorders and input that into the LetterBox params in the script?

I will use the FitCD method of resizing and do my script that way but I would appreciate some clarification with regard to matter please.

Thanks in advance.

__________________
Regards.

Michael.

Moviestacker let you choose between using addborders (resized overscan) OR using Letterbox (overlap overscan). You have to use exactly what is given by Moviestacker according to how you set it. FitCD manages only Addborders method.

Thanks for the added info Phil.

__________________
Regards.

Michael.

Which is a big pain in the a**.
That's one of the big reasons why I always liked MS better than FitCD.
I hope Andrej can go for a similar project as FitCD.
And since I know Andrej love's using overlaped resizing on his anamorphic KDVD encodes...
That means that he would add that feature to his project for sure.
I guess we'll have to wait and see where it all goes down to.
Cheers

__________________
Rui

Letterbox just masks existing pixels so you loose them for ever ! Addborders is a lot better as you do not loose anything, but resize the frame to a lower res then add a border arround it. I really don't find letterbox better than addborders.

Well it depends actually I do prefer an overlapping Overscan.
Cause I want to maintain the size of the visible borders in case of 1.78 or 2.35:1 movies on my 16:9 Tv.

Does that mean that you don't mind to lose pixels on right/left side ?
(pixels that you don't see on the original DVD BTW, but as we are doing a resize, why not having all the pixels on the screen ?).

Right Phil, I see your taste as you want to "compensate" the TV's overscan for watching all the movietreatment of the original DVD Moviedata.

In case of 4:3 Sources I totally agree (btw. Im just talking about my taste not a suggestion or recommendation ) But as said I like for my taste the compromise that I gonna loose Pixels on the side, but on the other hand I dont have larger top/bottom-borders when watching 1.78:1 or 2.35:1 stuff on my 16:9 tv. So the 16px Overlayed Overscan in this case is just a compression advantage for me.

I understood. Some times ago I prefered to use letterbox that to introduce artifacts in the source by resizing it. And I changed my mind finally. Nothing is for ever

Note: on a Philipps plasma screen I saw recently a "zoomed 16:9" mode that stretches vertically a 2.35 into a 2.21 (and probably a 2.21 into a 1.85). This is perfect for people that don't like when bars are too big
(the distortion in A/R, even if noticiable, is not too strong).

These zooming modes on displaydevices are nice.

I got 2 options: One on my DVD player where the Image can be zoomed continuously by keeping the PAR. And the Other is the Panasonic 16:9 itself. But there the zooms are fixed, means I can see 4:3 as 14:9 (top/bottom are a little cropped) and zooming for example a 2.35:1 to 1.788:1 (16:9 Full screen pan-scan).
What I dont like is the autoZoom mode on the Panasonic 16:9 in 4:3 input. There the TV keeps the middle as unstretched as possible and stretches only the sides. So a tall Man in the Middle becomes a fat boy if he moves to a side

Well this is it how it "should" look. But dont expect me to release it the next days as I gotta lot of work.


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Andrej,

....shhhh...

looks GrEaT

I'll be sitting in front of PC monitor, waiting for the release...