Cropping Lines?

[Sakuya]

I downloaded this subtitled video file on Kazaa and it is in great quality! I'm not sure what the resolution was, 568x---. I think it was XviD. When I converted it to VCD format (352x240) and played it on my DVD Player, the sides went off the TV screen! And some of the subtitles went below the TV screen! Why is this? How can I correct it? I'm using TMPGEnc and Virtual Dub.

[sterno]

This is because of overscan. This has been discussed many times, search the forum for "overscan" to benefit from the experiences of others.

[Sakuya]

Thanks. I found this:

http://www.vcdhelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=386367&highlight=overscan#386367

But I still don't understand. My resolution is 352x240, instead of doing that size, what do I change the size to? And if you resize in Virtual Dub, wouldn't that lower the picture quality in the middle? My VCDs have a size of 352x240 and I use 4:3 525 lines(NTSC), on the Advanced menu though, it says VGA 1:1 (I think). Please help!

[sterno]

Well, resizing will affect your quality, but you don't have much choice. Since you're reducing the size and you won't be changing it by much it should look fine. Reducing the size doesn't usually make the picture worse (you're throwing away extra data), increasing the size is much more likely to cause problems (you need extra data and don't have it, so the resizer guesses).

You'll have to do a few tests to find out how much you need to reduce the size. TVs overscan by different amounts, so leave yourself a little extra space once you find out how much to change it in case your next TV has more overscan.

[Sakuya]

So do I use the normal settings when converting to an MPEG with a size of 352x240 and then resize it in Virtual Dub or do I convert with the special size?

[sterno]

Your VCD MPEG file needs to be 352x240. You would either tell tmpgenc to center the video (it will add letterboxing) or use the "expand frame" option in VirtualDub to add the letterboxing yourself.

[Sakuya]

I did a test. I used the basic VCD settings and in the "Video Arrange Method" under Advanced tab, I selected "Center". On the TV, it seems kind of squished horizontally. The subtitles could be seen! Now, can I make it normal, meaning non-squished? The faces are a little flat. Should I use "center (keep aspect ratio)"?

[sterno]

Probably, yes. tmpgenc needs to correct the aspect ratio to make it look right on your TV.

[Sakuya]

Actually, I forgot that I'm making an SVCD. I had it set at 480x480 and when I selected "center (keep aspect ratio)" as well as "center", the video on the TV was still...flat. I didn't know how to do "center (custom size)" because I didn't know what the size was. Help anyone?

[MOVIEGEEK]

In TMPGEnc select "Full Screen(keep aspect ratio)".

[Sakuya]

I know but I'm trying to get rid of overscanning. I used to use "full screen (keep aspect ratio)" but the sides of the video went off the TV screen and the English subtitles cannot be seen. So I'm trying to get them all viewable on the TV without cropping or clipping the video.

I used "center" and it worked but the characters' faces in the video was very flat and I can't correct it. When I used "center (keep aspect ratio)", it was the same. So...thanks for the help anyway!