problem with subtitles and such

[l_stusek]

i'm trying to encode some anime i download, and each time for each different setting i use the top and bottom of the screen keep getting cut off. so each time i make a vcd the subtitles are getting mostly chopped off. i tried encoding (using tmpgenc) in 16:9 and i tried setting the resolution to 350x240, but it doesn't seem to change anything. i go 1:1 vga, ntsc video, and no special filters. does anyone know whats going on here?

[zilog_jones]

I assume you're trying to watch them on a normal CRT TV set.

If these are fansubs, they probably didn't take into account the overscan of a normal TV - the displayed picture actually goes off the visible area of the screen, unlike with a PC monitor where the picture is slightly underscanned (i.e. you can actually see the edges of the picture, depending on how you set the monitor).

From my experience with PAL TV (576 lines), around 15-20 lines at the top and bottom of the screen aren't visible - it'll be a bit less for for NTSC (480 lines).

I've had this problem too before with fansubs when making SVCDs - what I did was resize the video in VirtualDub while adding borders around the picture (it's done all with resize somehow). So make the "new size" of the video 352x240, but make the actual resized video about 8-10% smaller horizntally and vertically (to keep the aspect ratio right) - which will be about 317x216. I can't remember if the "8-10%" is right, but test it on you own TV and increase/decrease that percentage until you get it right. Though mind you it won't be exactly the same for all TVs, and there will be borders on LCD TVs or PC monitors.