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Forum: Video Discussion

Topic: Black bars - Options?
Other than setting Letter Boxing to "Zoom", what can I do about older video files (4:3 aspect ratio?) that have the black bars on the sides of the screen? I read up on this a bit but, unless I'm misunderstanding, the ideal option of blurring the bars isn't available on x64? I'm using Win11 btw.

 
Posted Thu 01 May 25 @ 12:30 pm
Blur black bars is available from extensions
 
I have Blur Black Bars here on Windows with VDJ 64 bit (b8553) but try as I might, I can't get BBB to have any affect on the output. I load a 4:3 video, enable BBB and there's no visible difference.

I've tried BBB on each deck and on the master, and the single 'strength' knob is at 100%

[edit] I've just found a six year old video on YT from Klaus, and that shows the effect being used the other way around - showing a 16:9 video on a 4:3 screen, so the bars are top and bottom.

Does it only work for top/bottom bars, not side bars?
 
Should work for both
 
As I said before, it doesnt work for everybody :(
 
It doesn't work for any video, or just some? If only some, perhaps post a screenshot of the tag editor details of the video when loaded on a deck
 
Adion wrote :
Blur black bars is available from extensions


have you gotten it to work?
 
Just tried again:
-Select and activate Blur Black Bars as master video fx.
-Load a video on deck 1
-Resize the video output to show difference when video output is too tall or too wide

One thing that comes to mind, make sure you have letterBoxing set to bars. If there are no bars there's nothing to fill with blur either of course.
 
I think the issue here is that the videos I have (at least the ones I tried) are 16:9 files with a 4:3 video inside.

Yes, to confirm I just downloaded a test file at 640x480 and the blurring works.

I didn't realise that basically the bars are recorded into my videos.

Guys, you need to check that your videos really are 4:3 and not a 16:9 file.

(it would seem my task ahead is to crop them down to 4:3 then maybe sharpen them & resave)
 
That's why I run 4:3 videos through Handbrake as it compresses and also removes empty parts of the video for example black bars.
 
HypeNot1q wrote :
Other than setting Letter Boxing to "Zoom", what can I do about older video files (4:3 aspect ratio?) that have the black bars on the sides of the screen? I read up on this a bit but, unless I'm misunderstanding, the ideal option of blurring the bars isn't available on x64? I'm using Win11 btw.



Leave the black bars, it gives it a vintage look...a product of the era!