Advice for cutting sides off an AVS4You video

[jackisted]

I've made a video using AVS4You Video Editor. It's for my Grandparent's 50th Wedding annivrsary so I wanted to burn it to a dvd for them.
I saved the project into an .AVI file and then burned it to a DVD. Itwouldn't play in my DVD player. I have now spent about 9/10 hours trying several different routes to get it to work including:
The AVS4You Video Editor burn to DVD function
AVS4you DVD Authoring
Saving it to .MPEG / .AVI / .QT
burning all of these files to a DVD RW disc using Roxio Burn (doesnt play on DVD player) AVS4you dvd author (either doesn't play or cuts off an inch from the sides)
Saving it as both 4:3 AND 16:9 then burning the DVD in both aspect ratios
Using Windows DVD maker (still cuts off the edges)
Dragging the file straight to the E Drive and right-click > burn to disc

The thing is, when I watch the original file that I then burn to the disc, it doesn't have its edges cut off. They're lost somewhere in the burning process.

Im not exactly a techno-[phobe (I have managed to make a long and complicated video) but I don't know anything about codecs or different file extensions when it comes to this sort of thing. I've always classed myself as being 'very computer literate'
I desperately need some help with this. My main problem now is that it always cuts off the sides from video when I try to play it on my TV. It's really starting to annoy me!

Please help, I genuinely don't know what to do anymore

[Baldrick]

How much does it cut? All tvs has some overscan and it will crop the video a bit.

[jackisted]

I didn't know that TV's had overscan. Why is this? It's been the bane of my weekend! I've since tested it on another tv and not as much is cut off. Not loads, possibly an inch(ish) on a 47(ish) " tele.

[Baldrick]

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overscan#Origins_of_overscan .

[guns1inger]

Pretty much every video, DVD or TV show you have ever watched has had the edges cut off. It is only when you watch the same program on a monitor that you notice it. When TV shows are made, they shoot and edit to allow for this, so you don't miss anything. Unfortunately, most people don't know this, so when they shoot home video they try to maximise the use of the frame, and fill it to the edges. Then they find out that things get cut off. All viewers in video cameras should have safe zones marked for this reason.

The only way to compensate for overscan at this late stage is is to resize your video down to make it smaller, then add black borders all the way around, then encode. This pushes the video further into the frame and away from the edges. This is not a perfect solution. Not only does it force a re-encode, risking reduced quality, but it also doesn't really fix the problem. The overscan on every TV is different, so even if you get it perfect for this TV, on the next TV you may still lose edges. Or you may see the borders.

For however long you have been watching TV this has never bothered you. Don't let it start bothering you now.