Vertically Squashed Image On Stand Alone

[StopKickingMe]

Several days ago I got a Sony DVP-NS300, and had been experimenting with a 640 x 352 clip on a vcd. I noticed that a portion of the image was off-screen on the right side and that something else wasn't quite right. Today I got some idea of what has been happening. I converted a 512 x 384 avi to mpeg in TMPGEnc, without modifying anything, then wrote the vcd with VCDImager. I also checked the dat file in windows media player to make sure it was fine, and it was, still 512 x 384 and looking good. So when I played the disc on my stand alone, as usual about a ninth of it was gone on the right side (more than overscan could be responsible for) but also it was noticeably squashed. An inch wide black line was at the top and bottom (27 inch tv), and in between was the distorted video. The left edge seemed to be lined up correctly, but the right edge was being 'pushed' off screen, almost as if the width was being increased to make up for the decrease in height. I still wouldn't have even realized what was going on if I hadn't tried a 'boxier' clip that went to the top and bottom borders. This is my first player and it is all new to me. That being said, I can't imagine what is causing this. It doesn't seem to be a settings problem or the dat file would be messed up too. And as far as I can tell, all DVD movies i have watched on it are fine. Can anybody help?

BTW i have a full screen sony tv, that is set for regular full screen viewing, and my dvd player is set for 4:3 letterbox under tv settings.

[Truman]

http://www.vcdhelp.com/vcd.htm
source aspect ratio: 1:1(VGA)/ full screen(keep aspect ratio)
output aspect ratio: 4:3
Resolution: 352x240/288
You can also try XVCD, but the vertical resolution should be 240 or 480 (NTSC), resp. 288 or 576 (PAL).

[StopKickingMe]

Thanks. I'd spent an hour or two screwing with stuff and all I had to do was change two numbers. But it worked, hopefully it won't be long before I understand why it did.

[vitualis]

The VCD specs are quite strict on the specifications required for the mpeg. You can't just use any odd mpeg file on a VCD (read what is VCD on the left hand menu).

If you make an XVCD (i.e., a non-standard VCD), you should at least try to use more standard framesizes as stated by Truman. Otherwise, there is a good chance that it won't work properly if at all.

Regards.