Question

Can I automatically crop/pan the video?

Answer 1

The pan feature is not available in Freemake Video Converter. The crop feature can be used automatically and it is available only for Gold Pack owners. If you want to install the Gold Pack, you should already have installed Freemake Video Converter. If you don't have it you can download it by clicking the link:

http://download.freemake.net/FreemakeOriginals2/FreemakeVideoConverterSetup.exe

After the installation finishes you can get the Gold Pack by selecting Help -> Get Gold Pack from the top menu. Add a video where you'd like to remove black bars (crop). The software will ask you if you'd like to auto-crop black bars from the file. Choose Delete black bars. If you chose Keep black bars by mistake or closed this form, go to Options ->Black bars and change your choice.
Black bars will be removed automatically, or the movie will be cropped as you selected. If you want to save the changes you should convert the video. Choose a format, then preset Same as source, and hit Convert.

Answer 2

I think no one can deny that the black bars around the video are annoying. To remove them, I like to use a video cutter that's installed on my computer. It can crop to your desired area and size. Meanwhile, it helps me change the aspect ratio to Original Display, Original Resolution, Full Screen, Pan Scan, 16:9 or 4:3. Just what you are looking for.