[korschek]

Windows XP, Media Player 10 - when I burn my family's old VHS videos using a standalone Panasonic DVD burner (DMR-E20), the resulting discs play great on any standlone DVD player and TV. However, when I use my Sony desktop to play them back using Windows Media Player, I get a thin video distortion line along the bottom of the screen. This occurs on any computer I use, not just the Sony (also happens on a Gateway and Dell). Thus, the problem does not appear to be with my computer or my burner since the DVD discs play great in standalone players, i.e. there is no distortion line. By the way, when I play a regular movie, not a home made burned one, on my computer using Windows Media Player there is no distoriton line. Help!!!! Is there any way to fix this problem. Panasonic tech support has been useless, saying the problem cannot be with their burner, it has to be with my computers.

[fairnooks]

Is it thin, like less than 10 pixels thick all across the bottom that has all the colors of the image on the screen just above but they seem tilted and they swirl just a little bit? If so, that's a property of some old VHS tapes where the magnetic edge is not perfect and distorts. Sometimes in video there is also an additional data stream of info sent along the edges so most DVD players compenste for that and overscan (zoom) slightly so that it doesn't show.

Its still there, just not showing like it is on your computer playback display. Its a normal artifact, I edit some old VHS videos on the computer and I very often have to zoom 3 or 4% to get rid of that squiggly edge.

If that's not it, I dunno.

[korschek]

Yes, I think you accurately described the situation, a very thin distortion line along the bottom of the computer screen that contains part of the image on the screen but just a little off center and distorted. Any ideas on how to mitigate the situation using Windows Media Player or Real Player options? Either to zooma little or to cover it up somehow? Thanks.

[DerekC]

I've gotten the "line" on a few videos. But these videos were never VHS converts. They were animations that I have made in "poser 7". Personaly I've given up trying to solve it on my computer. I found that the lines I experience don't appear in the VLC player.