Overscan issue

[ShiggityX2]

Like many other people on these forums, I am trying to burn divx/avi anime episodes to dvd to view on a normal tv. So far
I have been successful in using ffmpegx to convert my avis to mpeg2 files, and then I authored them in sizzle and burned in toast on a dvd-rw. The dvd worked great in my player except my tv cut off part of the image all the way around the edges.

Some people on these forums suggested changing the video size dimensions in ffmpegx before converting to mpeg2. Instead of 640x480 I have tried 688x464, 656x448, 672x464, and 672x448. 688x464 and 672x464 gave the best results, raising the subtitles off the bottom of the screen but still cropping the sides, particularly the left side.

So, is there any reason why the left side of the screen is getting more cut off than the right, and is this whole dimesion change thing even the best way to get rid of tv overscan? Any suggestions would be appreciated.

BTW, i have tried messing with my tv settings and there doesnt seem to be a way to zoom out or shift the image, all i can do is zoom in. My television is a toshiba.

[galactica]

wow, i wish i had something to say...
all that tme doing those different resolutions....

just for kicks have you gone way down in the right-left lengths? something smaller than what you have before such that you can at least verify that you can make it :too: small for the tv?

[ShiggityX2]

just for kicks have you gone way down in the right-left lengths? something smaller than what you have before such that you can at least verify that you can make it :too: small for the tv?

I'll give it a shot, when i tried 656x448 the bottom and right sides had pretty thick black bars, so at least those sides were too small, but the left and top where still cut off. I found the off-centeredness to be very strange. I'll test out some others to make sure I can get all of it within the screen though and get back to you.

[ShiggityX2]

Okay so I tried a few more dimensions that are significantly smaller than the previous ones, but I still can't get the entire image on the screen. For some reason the image is just being "squished" from the corner, so the smaller the picture gets the larger the black bars on the bottom and right sides get. The picture is still cut off on the top and left sides. If this sounds like a problem with ffmpegx please let me know, I've read in the pc forums that some other programs have a "center" option, which sounds useful right about now. Are there any mac programs that can center the image, or will I have to resort to using virtual pc(ugh)?

[mhar4]

Another way to deal with overscan is to actually add black borders to the movie with Quicktime Pro. You can create pict files of black rectangles and paste them onto the edges of movie, adjusting their position with the 'size' menu option under Movie Properties to form a new border around the original movie (i.e. increasing its total dimensions). Save the whole thing as a reference movie then encode that at a compliant DVD resolution.

Another option, anyhow.

[ShiggityX2]

Another way to deal with overscan is to actually add black borders to the movie with Quicktime Pro. You can create pict files of black rectangles and paste them onto the edges of movie, adjusting their position with the 'size' menu option under Movie Properties to form a new border around the original movie (i.e. increasing its total dimensions). Save the whole thing as a reference movie then encode that at a compliant DVD resolution.

Another option, anyhow.

I'll give it a shot, but that sounds much more complicated since ffmpegx and mpeg2works both dont center the image when they encode them. That means I'll probably have to add a thicker border on the left and top sides of the image. That sounds like alot more trial and error to see which border thickness will work the best. If anybody knows how I can simply center the image when encoding(or maybe its sizzle thats throwing it off center?) please let me know.

[mhar4]

It is a lot of effort, but I didn't have the problem you describe of an uncentred image. I used ffmpegX's preset PAL DVD compliant resolution (720x576) and it scaled and aligned everything correctly. I was using a DV source, not avi container, and I did have a problem with interlacing - to the extent that I stopped using ffmpegX for encoding altogether and bought a hardware encoder. I had some noisy recordings on VHS captured to DV which were interlaced, and the deinterlacing function of ffmpegX really highlighted the noise in the source. Before I got the hardware encoder, I just transcoded to MPEG-4 using OpenShiiva, which deinterlaces very nicely, and didn't worry about making DVDs.

[ShiggityX2]

Well I just burned a dvd-r so I could check out how the overscan varies on the different tvs in my house, and I was surprised at how different they were. The tv I was originally viewing on was a toshiba cn36g90, and the tv in my room is a smaller toshiba(ce19g10). The disc I burned had several different dimensions of the same clip, but they all looked exactly the same on my smaller toshiba. I was also running it on a playstation if that makes a difference. Then I tried the disc in our other tv, a panasonic that has a built in dvd player. The overscan was MUCH less, and I could actually see all of the image except for a little bit on the top. The image was still off centered though, having a black bar at the bottom and nothing at the top.

So I realize there is no set dimension while encoding that will "solve" the overscan issue, as each tv is different , but would the most universal dimension be 688x464? I was reading about how to change my tv settings through its hidden service menu, but that also seems like alot of work just to watch a dvd. I almost feel like giving up since even if I do figure out how to watch it on my own tv, if I take my dvds to a friend's house they might look bad there.

So shrinking the image hasn't helped me because it has been off-centered or done nothing at all, and my dvd players cant zoom out. Is there a cheap dvd player that can zoom out or shift the image's position? Oh ya, and I didn't get to try adding borders with quicktime pro because I don't have QTpro. Is it really worth 30 bucks? If I could be certain it will solve my problem then I'll definitely consider buying it.

[ShiggityX2]

Update:

I went ahead and changed my tv settings on both toshiba's, oddly enough on my smaller toshiba the image width setting didnt do anything when I changed the value. I was able to get rid of the vertical overscan and reposition it horizontally so it looks somewhat better. My larger toshiba on the other hand looks much better, barely any overscan at all anymore, you really notice it when watching news stations and their logo isn't wedged in the corner anymore.

I think the problem was simply that anime fansub groups(even though I love them) should really learn to place their subtitles not so close to the edges of the frame.

Now that I can at least see the subtitles I'm off to burn me some dvds, all that patience paid off in the end.

688x464 mpeg2 conversion + tv adjustment = overscan issue mostly fixed(for me at least)

[deadsierra]

I think the problem was simply that anime fansub groups(even though I love them) should really learn to place their subtitles not so close to the edges of the frame.

They really shouldn't burn the subtitles into the video at all. I've watched a couple anime fansubs and I've really had to wonder where these people learned english. Probably in a country that outlaws spellcheckers.