Video Cropping with VirtualDub Tutorial

This is a tutorial on how to crop specific areas of a video.

Video cropping is used to eliminate unwanted areas of the video. Whether you are trying to center the main object of the video or remove annoying border graphics, video cropping is the way to go.

First thing first is to download the powerful and, more importantly, free video editor VirtualDub. Download the excellent program at the following link:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/virtualdub/
Now take the following steps to crop your video in no time!

Step One: Import the video into VirtualDub
There are two ways to import videos
1) Drag and drop the video in the program
or
2) Go to File > Open video file… (or use the hotkey Ctrl+O) and find the video

Important note: Although VirtualDub can read most video formats (.avi and .mpg), you have to convert incompatible formats like .mov, .mp4, and .wmv. There are a lot of free programs that can convert video formats.

If you don’t know how to do this, here is a brief tutorial.
1) download the free eRightSoft Super video conversion program (http://www.erightsoft.com/SUPER.html)
2) Import the video you want to convert
3) Select the output container to either .avi or .mpg
4) Set the destination for the new converted video
5) Click Encode (Active File)

Step Two: Add a Video Filter
1) Go to Video > Filters… (or use the hotkey Ctrl+F)
2) You will see the Cropping… button near the bottom but you can’t select it for now. To make it selectable, you must add a filter. To do this click the Add… button. A list of filters will show up. If you don’t want to change the look of the video just add the brightness/contrast filter and change nothing (keep brightness at normal and contrast at 100%). When you return to the filters menu, the cropping button can now be selected.

Step Three: Cropping
1) Now click on the Cropping… button near the bottom of the filters menu (it is the second to last button on the bottom).
2) The Filter input cropping window will appear with four offsets: X1 (the left side of the video from your perspective), X2 (the right side), Y1 (the top), (Y2 the bottom). To crop simply increase the value of the offsets; doing so will eliminate a portion of the video from the directions of the offsets. VirtualDub will show the preview of the video in the same window.

Step Four: Saving
Once you are satisfied, it is time to save the video. By default the video will be uncompressed; meaning the size of the video will be huge. To shrink the size, you will need to compress the video.
1) Go to Video > Compression (or use the hot key Ctrl+P)
2) Select the video compression you want. Mess around with the options if you want. When you are done, click OK.
3) Now it’s time to save the video. Go to File > Save as AVI… (or use the hotkey F7). Name your video, choose the destination and click Save.

Congratulations, you manage to crop your own video!