[MEncoder-users] DVD creation problem, settop player cuts off boarder

[Phil Ehrens]

karl-heinz-1950 at web.de wrote:
> 
> I have an DVD compatibale mpg2 File created with mencoder.
> Playing this file (or the DVD) on the computer works fine
> with mplayer or kaffeine. When I use the DVD in my settop
> DVD player on the left and right side the picture is cut
> off. Even if I set the TV to 4:3 I have black bars left
> and right so I doubt it is a scaling problem. Anyone an idea?

The cutoff that you are seeing is actually being caused by
your television. It's called "overscan", and it's part of
both the NTSC and PAL television standards.

The solution is to scale down your image and add black bars
to correspond to the overscan... I can't tell you what
numbers to use for PAL, but for NTSC I scale to 656x448 and
add 32 pixel bars on the sides and 16 pixel bars top and
bottom. The bars are not visible when viewed using a settop
player and TV.