I've been running into a few AVI movies that come in letterbox format, bot sometimes the letterbox, in my opinion, is a little too skinny. So I've been looking for a way to at least "stretch them out" a bit vertically (top and bottom). I tried using AVI ReComp and either I did not use it right or some other variable came up, because it did not change the AVI at all. Incidentally, I currently do not have a DVD authoring program. I was using Ulead DVD MovieFactory but it crashed and won't allow me to re-install.
use the free avidemux. Open your file, next change the video from "copy" to "mpeg4 asp (xvid)" , next open the filters and choose the crop filter, make sure when you do the crop that the finished numbers on top/bottom boxes are "even numbers". Next just save the file, on the name you need to add .avi, example video.avi. The program won't add the type of file automatically. You can do more with the configure box, 2-pass mode etc. But the default settings work fine for me. 2-pass mode is usually not needed since the file is already in avi format to begin with. On the default setting my amd 4800 dual core can crop a normal movie in 35 minutes without losing too much quality. http://fixounet.free.fr/avidemux/screenshots.html
