Aspect ratio question

[dlian]

I'm relatively new to DVD authoring so if the following issues have been raised and answered before, please point me to the right place.

[1] I've successfully authored PAL format DVDs with 720x576 resolution using PowerDirector 3 and also MyDVD. The source files used to create the DVD are AVI format with 512x384 resolution.

[2] When watching the resulting DVD on a wide-screen HDTV, the aspect ratio has to be 4:3 to avoid distortion of the images. If the HDTV is switched to 16:9 mode, the horizontal dimension becomes too "wide."

[3] I assumed that neither PowerDirector nor MyDVD can produce DVDs with the 16:9 aspect ratio, so I tried TMPGEnc Express and TMPGEnc DVD Author 1.5 instead.

[4] After quite a bit of messing around, I'm still unable to produce DVD movies which have a dimensionally undistorted 16:9 aspect ratio. I think I must not be setting up TMPGEnc DVD Author correctly.

Can anyone please tell me what settings to use for a situation in which source video files are 512x384 AVI and the desired DVD aspect ratio is 16:9 viewed on a wide-screen HDTV?

Thanks for any advice!

[Baldrick]

512x384 is 4:3 so if you want to make it widescreen you must cut/crop it and that isn't worth it. do some reading about aspect ratio, https://www.videohelp.com/guides.php?guideid=209&howtoselect=1;3#209

[dlian]

OK - thanks!