DVD Looks Zoomed in When Played on DVD Player?!

[NOL]

Hi everyone, I'm pretty new to the whole world of making DVDs so I expect what my problem is is easily solvable and something that I'm simply forgetting to do, but here it is...

When I burn my converted VIDEO_TS and AUDIO_TS contents to a DVD and play back the DVD on a standard home use DVD player the picture appears zoomed in just a tiny bit, almost like the width of it is scrolling off the right and left sides of the screen. My best guess is that because 720x480 (3:2) isn't a 4:3 resolution that the extra 80 pixels (compared to 4:3 640x480) are being put off the sides of the TV screen, and that there's some .ifo setting I'm forgetting to choose to make the player play the video the way it should be instead of cutting off the edges.

So I can't figure this out, in my encoder I made sure to set it to Force 4:3 resolution and even afterwards using IfoEdit I made sure to select 4:3 as the aspect ratio, as well as turn off things like Automatic Pan&Scan, Automatic Letterboxed etc... although I've tried about 50 combinations of these and ended up with a party-sized pack of coasters!

I'm using an LG GSA4163B that came with Nero Express, and WinAVI Video Convertor (among several other converters and authoring programs -- but experiencing the same result) to turn my 640x480 (4:3) .avi's and .mpg's into their DVD counterparts.

So what could be the problem here? And how can a non-4:3 size like 720x480 work anyway on a 4:3 television?

Thanks for any and all of your help

[redfive19]

i've had this problem with TheFilmMachine when converting AVI to DVD. Your best bet (and what I do) is to take the elementary streams (mpv/m2v & ac3/mpa/mp2) and bring them into DVD Lab. It is definately the way these AVI to DVD apps author it (I think they use the open source DVD app dvdauthor). best of luck..


-redfive

[Stormin Norman]

Your prolly referring to "overscan" I suppose. All tv sets do it. Im sure someone here has a more resonable explaination about it, if thats the case.

I always make a Avisynth file with resizing and add borders to counter the overscan. (resize smaller and add black borders around picture). FitCD will do it for you with minimal script experience.

Its especially useful when you have a crappy file with small res. that you can keep the same res. but add a crap ton of borders to maintain most of the quality integrity.

[NOL]

Thanks guys, that makes sense I guess. But is this the way everyone does their DVDs, by adding black borders to the left and right? It seems like I'm alone here, so I guess this isn't quite going to the source of the problem, although it's a good workaround.

I've tried using the DVD-lab trial to make a DVD and I have the same problem, looks zoomed-in on my standalone player (and about 10 other players I tried it on). So it's definitely a problem with maybe mpeg settings, or something in the .ifo files. Hmmm

What are some of the methods you guys use to make DVDs from files with standard 4:3 resolutions and why don't you ever encounter these problems?

[Stormin Norman]

Whats your source file parameters and encoder you use? Ill write you a script. Just install avisynth. Its not that hard and im not the only person who uses it. Avisynth is a real good video editor for being free.

[manono]

My best guess is that because 720x480 (3:2) isn't a 4:3 resolution that the extra 80 pixels (compared to 4:3 640x480) are being put off the sides of the TV screen,

Bad guess.

But is this the way everyone does their DVDs, by adding black borders to the left and right?

No. Some do; most don't.

What are some of the methods you guys use to make DVDs from files with standard 4:3 resolutions and why don't you ever encounter these problems?

You've already been given the explanation and a possible workaround. It's the TV overscan. So you can either live with it, or you can add black borders. Watch the DVD on your computer. No lost video. If you have the computer near the TV, or have an HTPC, you can use the video out of your graphics card so the overscan doesn't kick in. If you can access the service menu of your TV set, you can lessen the overscan.

And 4:3 isn't a resolution. 640x480 is a resolution. 1.33:1 is an Aspect Ratio. 4:3 is a DAR (Display Aspect Ratio) which tells your player how it'll be resized. Your AVI is 1:1 (DAR), 1.33:1 (AR), 640x480 (resolution).

[guns1inger]

Use fitCD. Set borders to 2 blocks and use the avisynth script it provides to feed your encoder. I only bother to do this where this are fixed subs that would otherwise be covered. Most of the time it is not necessary, because you would not see these areas anyway.