DVD picture is in a box in the middle of the screen - Help

[JohnWB]

I have been given a copy of an 1990's film on dvd and when I play it the picture is in a box in the middle of the screen. The black borders are 2 to 3 inches all round. The TV is a 25 inch NOT wide screen which shows everything else fine. I also get the same problem if I play the DVD on my computer.
Is there a way I can convert/reauthor it to make it normal size on the screen

[garrisonkw]

Are the black bars steady? In other words, do they move around at all? If not, you could use something like virtualdubmod to crop the video and resize it. It'll be a relatively complicated procedure and will cause fair quality loss. Might be easier to just buy a new copy of the movie.

[guns1inger]

It could also be a 4:3 film that has been encoded as 16:9. Your DVD player will be playing it letterboxed, with the widescreen black bars above and below, and the pillarbox bars to the side. If this is the case, resizing becomes even more complex.

[JohnWB]

Thanks fro the replys. Sounds as though I will have my work cut out

[garrisonkw]

It's possible whoever originally encoded the DVD added the bars to compensate for bad overscan problems. Who knows? Does the video have burnt in subtitles? Some people add bars all the way around to make sure the subtitles show on the screen.