How to fix embedded black bars in video?
 

So I've got a couple of videos that I had edited with Windows Movie Maker a few years ago and for whatever reason it burned in black bars into the video. I didn't notice this throughout time because it seemed to blend in with my display but I've noticed it after putting it in software and looking at the thumbnail that its in there. I had made an edit to the original files with movie maker, but unfortunately the original files I do not have access to. I have tried multiple times in Shotcut and Virtualdub to fix it. The resolution is 720 x 480 and I tried to see what it would look like in a standard 4:3 aspect ratio output but it adds black bars on top and bottom which I don't want. I'm assuming cause they are already etched in there. I know the best solution would possibly be to reencode the original files again, but they are long gone so what I have is this. I don't know if its necessarily "normal" perse or if I'm losing anything from it.

I notice that playing files that I have originally done without editing have no black bars so it is definitely Movie Maker. Movie Maker is long gone and I realized its kind of not that great at doing things now, but I have used the old Windows Movie Maker way back when it was active (no longer is) which is apparently "decent" compared to Microsoft's new stuff. I outputted the edited files to 720 x 480 so Movie Maker made it into a 3:2 aspect ratio along with some black bars, I realize that I messed up with the resolution and/or aspect ratio there but its too late as I dont have the originals. I know both Shotcut and Virtualdub, i'm sure most know Virtualdub on here. Is there a way to address this in there or Shotcut? Is it forever etched with black bars till eternity? I've posted samples on here. Thank you. Video #1 is one of the ones I had edited back then so they all have that black bar etched in, Video #2 is one that was never edited. When playing both you can notice the black bar on the first video blends in, but the black area is bigger. The non-edited video is 720 x 480 with a 4:3 aspect ratio VHS to digital, the first one is as well but its edited.

If I crop 40 pixels from each side then it looks about right. 720-80=640 so it appears to be a 640x480 video with a 1:1 PAR inside of a 720x480 frame also with a 1:1 PAR to achieve a DAR=3:2.

To fix this without re-encoding, drag the video into MKVToolNix GUI, select the video stream in the lower left corner, and in the right pane set the cropping to: 40,0,40,0

Then multiplex. Unfortunately, few video players respect the cropping settings. PotPlayer does, but VLC does not, for example.

This. :smack:

What a mess. Just crop and re-encode proper, using quality software this time (WMM is junkware that came with Windows). Use selur's Hybrid, easy to crop, and quality encode.