Avi to DVD, picture width stretched past screen

[liverkick]

Im encoding 16:9 source avis to 720x480 16:9 DVD. The vertical dimensions looks ok but its about 2 centimeters stretched past the screen on the sides. Ive had this happen on both tmpgenc and mainconcept. When I play the encoded m2v or mpv files on PowerDVD or WMP full screen it looks perfectly fine, but on three different DVD players its always a bit stretched past the sides.

I see there's a crop and scale option for Mainconcept but I have no idea what values to put in, and I cant test it until its authored and burned obviously. Any ideas what I should do here?

Also Ive switched to Mainconcept for my encoding foibles, if anyone can tell me whats the recommended settings for GOP structure Id appreciate it. Especially the Auto GOP setting.

[jimmalenko]

I've got a funny feeling that you're experiencing a thing called overscan - that would certainly explain why you can see the sides on your PC but not on your TV. Basically, CRT TVs automatically crop off the outer edges of everything - it's generally between about 5 and 10% of the picture, and it does the top and bottom as well.

More Info:
https://www.videohelp.com/glossary?O#Overscan

The general consensus is that you need to add black borders, that will appear in this "cut-off" section. The only problem comes when different TVs overscan by different amounts, so your next TV might overscan more or less, or if you get an LCD TV, you will then see the black borders in all their glory.

Here's a quite useful post:
https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=1350407#1350407