Converting MJPEG (704x480) to MPEG2 (DVD) files

[geoff]

I'm converting my AVI files (captured via G400-RR MJPEG 740x480 30fps NTSC) to MPEG-2 files for archival until I get a DVD writer. I need to know if I should compress to 720x480 or 704x480. I tried the 720x480, but when I play the files using a software DVD player, there's a black strip (I assume 16 pixels wide) down the left side. Will compressing to 704x480 solve this ? Thanks for your help.

[Jeomite]

The reason why does 'black bars' were added after encoding was to 'Maintain Aspect Ratio' in TMPGEnc. You can encode to 720x480 *and* get Full Screen results by choosing Full Screen... *without the Aspect Ratio* in TMPGEnc. Try that. =)

[geoff]

Do you mean that I should use the "Fit to Frame" setting ? According to the rollover help, this will resize the image from 704x480 --> 720x480, which will make it just slightly wider.

Given the way that I currently have the files converted (as 704x480 aspect ratio), when I play them on an actual DVD, will it expand them to full screen automatically ?

-geoff