mpg to dvd - subtitles are too low

A friend made a video in mpg format [352x240] and added subtitles.
It is fine played back on the computer.
then i burned it to vcd? with nero
when I play it on my TV via DVD player, the subtitles are off screen.
I know old TVs used to have horizontal position/size dials which would
allow raising the bottom so that all the text would be visible. As is
now all I can see is the top line of 2 line subtitles.

I am not at all familiar with video processing. Is it possible to
adjust the parameters so that the view would be smaller on the tv, not
full screen, so that the subtitles will appear in full?

NewB