what video size for a 16:9 widescreen tv???

[lime4x4]

I have a hitachi 57 inch 16:9 widescreen tv..I'm gonna start transfering my family movies from a digital camcorder to dvd.What video size should i use when converting the movie so that it fits my screen properly?? Meaning no black bars at the top or bottom..
Thanks

[andydd]

Wether a movie has black bars or not has nothing to do with the video size (or resolution). The standard DVD rez is 720 (or 702) x 576 for PAL and x 480 for NTSC.

I wont go into black bars/widescreen/anamorphic pictures coz it confuses the hell outta me, but im sure there is plenty of info available on the web.

[lime4x4]

Okay thanks...I was just wondering if there was a specific size for 16:9 i have a setting in my converting app for 16:9 just wasn't sure if i also had to change video size or not

[Dick White]

Hopefully, you shot them widescreen on your camcorder. If not, I wouldn't try to fit them on a 16:9 screen -- you'll either have to butcher them or stretch them out of shape (which your TV set will do without your having to put them on the DVD that way).

[Vejita-sama]

As others have mentioned you seem to be confusing resolution with DAR (display aspect ratio). There are three DARs you're likely to run into:

1:1 PC
4:3 standard TV
16:9 widescreen TV & film

Under the 16:9 flag there are several ratios:

1.77:1 widescreen TV
1.85:1 academy flat
2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen

Notice that resolution is not mentioned at all in the above. Now, on the PC (since it has a 1:1 DAR) resolution = DAR. But this is not true for TV (standard or widescreen).

720x480 is the standard DVD resolution. But doesn't that have a DAR of 1.5:1? Actually no, the DVD player takes the 720x480 MPEG-2 stream, multiplies the vertical resolution by the aspect ratio (480*16/9=853 =~850) which gives you the horizontal resolution for a properly stretched movie. So the 720x480 stream will be stretched horizontally to 850x480 during playback. (read more about anamoric DVDs for DAR flags)

http://www.doom9.org/aspectratios.htm

http://www.thedigitalbits.com/articles/anamorphic/aspectratios/widescreenorama.html

So the question becomes how can I perserce the aspect ratio of my source when I encode? If you source is 4:3 (which I assume it) your widescreen TV will HAVE to letterbox it to perserve the aspect ratio. It does this by adding black bars to the right/left of the screen.

All normal TV broadcast should appear this way on a widescreen TV? Read the above links (esp widescreen-o-rama) and see if that helps.