Video Collector said:

Thanks Moth3r.

I am a complete noob with Avisynth, but I know my way round Google :-)

Wow, that is ugly. I think that the inpainting method is best suited for removing "line" feautures like text, scratches or hairs.

I ran the script with VirtualdubMod, and found the result too distracting in motion. The filter has to cover a square block, with very little image area to sample from, so I think a simple blur effect would be less distracting. What filter would you recommend for a simple blur?

To be honest I'd probably go with Ash's recommendation of overcropping - probably less distracting than a black box or blur. Other options are described here or here.

Here are the steps I need to cover in as few renders as possible.

1. Crop out the black bars.

2. Resize the remaining image to 720x480 (anamorphic)

3. Blur what's still visible of the counters.

4. Output to MPEG2 again

What would such a Avisynth script look like, and what programme do you recommend to run it?

MPEG2Source("yourfile.d2v")
Crop(..crop settings..)
Lanczos4resize(..to 16:9 anamorphic size..)
..logo removal filter here..

I would recommend AvsPmod for previewing the script output and adjusting the parameters. You can choose any MPEG-2 encoder you like - HCEnc is a good free one.

I just want to do this with as little generational loss as possible, without having to go through lossless AVI. (If at all possible? Noob, remember.)

Yes it is possible - just use the AviSynth script as the sourcce for your encoder. The main reasons for using lossless AVI are when the script is very slow and you want to run a multipass encode, or if you want to get the video into another editor like Vegas, etc.