Why won't a video are recorded on a DVD recorder from my DVR show full screen on Windows Media Player?

Question

I recorded a show from my DVR to a DVD recorder but when I tried to watch it on my computer it only showed about 1/4 of the screen. Is there a certain file type it should be to play on both the DVD player and Windows Media Player?

Answer 1

Not really enough info to be sure.

1.  You may have recorded the video at a very poor quality setting.  You may want to adjust the settings on the DVR.  WMP is a decent player, but I seldom use it.  You should be able to just double click anywhere in the video while it's playing to switch to full screen, and it should switch even if the video it's playing is really low quality.  If it doesn't:

2.  You may want to consider any of a number of other media players out there.  Several of them are free and will play just about anything.  Personally, I use the videolan VLC player most of the time.  It's free and will play almost anything.

http://www.videolan.org/

3.   Apple Quicktime is also a useful player, but it only plays a few types of files.

4.  If you want a really good high-end video player, there is a great player out there that gives you a 30 day free trial.  Unfortunately, after that, you have to buy it if you want to keep it.  It's called powerDVD.  

http://www.cyberlink.com/multi/download/...

I sometimes use it because I got a free copy of it when I bought a Sony DVD burner for my computer; I think it comes bundled with lots of different hardware.  The VLC player is great for just watching a movie but powerDVD does have more features.  Unfortunately, I don't use most of them, and don't even know what some of them do.