clipped area

[BurnHavoc]

I've burned a bunch of funnies onto a DVD, some of which have subtitles near or at the bottom. When I play them on my TV though, the bottom is clipped off to the point where either none of the (smaller) subs show, or only the upper 1/2 or 3/4 are visable. this makes it a strain to read accuratly what is being written (Can't have a joke without the punchline undrestood...).

Is it just my DVD player? Or my TV?
what area is safe around the top/bottom?
Is there an easy way around this or do I have to re-encode everything with extra space at the top/bottom?

FYI, I've used TMPeg to convert the files to m2v/mp2 files and put it togeather with IFOEdit.

EDIT: They are 16:9 (though the menu is 4:3)

[Kedirekin]

I think you're seeing the results of TV overscan. It's one of the reasons subtitles on profession DVDs are always located approximately 90 pixels above the bottom of the frame (the tops of the subtitles, that is).

If you absolutely can't have any part of your image go into the overscan area, I'd put a 48 pixel border (3 macroblocks) all the way around. If you're okay with a little bit going into the overscan on some TVs, a 32 pixel border (2 macroblocks) is probably enough.

FYI: I did a little overscan testing back when I was making SVCDs. I found that the overscan on the particular TV I was testing with was about 22 pixels on the sides. I don't remember what the top/bottom overscan was, but I vaguely recall it was a bit less.

SVCDs are 480 wide while DVDs are 720 pixels wide, so the same size border on a DVD is more pixels; by my math (which I think is correct) the same border would be 33 pixels on a DVD.

Note that was just one TV. Some TVs will have more overscan (but hopefully not too much more) and some will have less. Some TVs (LCD and plasma for example) have no overscan.

[Kedirekin]

Strike that - you said your funnies are 16x9.

Are these subtitles put on the DVD as overlay graphics, or are they encoded into the video/frames?

If they're overlay graphics, you need to reauthor the DVD and move the graphics up.

If they're encoded into the video, you need to move them up and encode the video again.

[BurnHavoc]

The subs are encoded and I have no control over where they are (for example, one of the videos I'm putting on is the RvB Trailer (http://www.redvsblue.com))

I found a good solution. in IFOEdit, I set it to force letterbox, insted of automatic letterbox. Works fine now :D

Thanks for the border pixel numbers though, thoes will probally come in handy for my home movie stuff.