I need a FREEWARE PROGRAM that can do the following. It seems like a
simple task, but I've exhausted my patience trying tens that didnt do
it right.

The problem: I have (non DRM protected) DVD videos that are 16:9 with
the black bars included in the picture so that the actual resolution
has 4:3 ratio. This works perfect for viewing letterboxed on a
standard screen but is a pain in the neck when viewing on a
widescreen: black bars are added to the sides, in addition to the
black bars that are part of the video. Half the screen is wasted.

What I need:
Something to crop the videos, with out comprimising too much quality,
so that only the coloured picture is part of the actual frame and no
"built-in" black bars on any side. The output file does not need to be
standard DVD video, infact, I prefer something that gives better
result per MB, such as DivX/Xvid that can be later burned to any disk
or saved on hard drive.

The only requirement for the answer is a link to a program that
matches the above feature atleast. Any additional information, tips,
or technical wisdom of any kind is also appreciated!

Hello adam_the_atom-ga,

Thank-you for your question.

The freeware solution to your problem is VirtualDub or VirtualDubMod. 
VirtualDubMod is a spin-off project to the open source VirtualDub
project that allows you to edit DVD .vob files without much fuss. 
There are also several other spin-off projects such as NanDub and
VirtualDub-Mpeg2.

The homepages for each program are here:

VirtualDub:       http://www.virtualdub.org/
VirtualDubMod:    http://virtualdubmod.sourceforge.net/
VirtualDub-MPEG2: http://fcchandler.home.comcast.net/stable/
NanDub:           http://ndub.sourceforge.net/

I usually use VirtualDubMod for the remove of letterboxing (the black
bars on the video).

There are many excellent tutorials that can be found with a quick
search on your favourite search engine but a quick beginners guide is
this:

1) Open your DVD video in VirtualDubMod
2) Press Ctrl-F to open the video filters options window (or go to Video->Filters)
3) Click Add and choose "Null transform" from the list
4) Click cropping and set the offsets for your video to remove the
black bars (you can scroll through your video to ensure you don't cut
off anything vital!)
5) Click OK and then save your video

This is the basic list of instructions you will wish to perform; you
may also want to set the compression of the video (to something like
DivX or XviD so that the final filesize is smaller) and possibly alter
the size of the video but instructions as to how to do this are beyond
the scope of a $2 Google Answers question and can be better answered
by researching one of the many VirtualDub online tutorials (that guide
you through the process with images - something we cannot do here).

Should you require any further assistance please ask for clarification
and I will try to assist as soon as possible.

Excellent. Gave more than one solution. Some clearer instructions on
how to use the software would have been great.

Free converters are very hard to get, I have searched for them in the
past and couldn?t find a proper one.

You can go and look at the following site:

<a href="http://www.free-codecs.com/download/WinAVI_Video_Converter.htm">http://www.free-codecs.com/download/WinAVI_Video_Converter.htm</a>

 or

<a href="http://www.winavi.com">http://www.winavi.com</a>


WinAVI should be able to do the job.

If you need some basic technical tips for home video, have a look at:

<a href="http://www.diyhomevideo.com">http://www.diyhomevideo.com</a>

I know this is not freeware, but maybe it can help.

Sorry for the html code, this looks better!

Free converters are very hard to get, I have searched for them in the
past and couldn?t find a proper one.

You can go and look at the following site:

http://www.free-codecs.com/download/WinAVI_Video_Converter.htm

or

http://www.winavi.com

WinAVI should be able to do the job.

If you need some basic technical tips for home video, have a look at:

http://www.diyhomevideo.com

I know this is not freeware, but maybe it can help.

Hey the guy that added the previous 2 comments, this is no place to
advertise to crappy software. I came hear specifically looking for a
GPL Free Software solution. Go home. PS> Rock the Free World :D