WideScreen 16:9 DVD author looks a bit squished...help me!

[dell400sc]

Alright gang,

I have a regular old 4:3 Manavox Tube TV (we will upgrade to nice widescreen soon). Our 3rd boy is about to arrive so I bought a Canon Elura 80 MiniDV cam which can record in 16:9 format. I've decided to record in that format because it's becoming more and more common.

For some reason when we watch a rental widescreen dvd movies the objects and cast look normal (not stretched or squished) although it still has the black borders top/bottom because of viewing on regular TV.

Now when I capture (via Sony Vegas 5 as DV-AVI, source 720X480 16:9), encode with TMPGEnc Plus or Express (setting as source 16:9 and encode-to as 16:9), and then convert wav to AC3, and then author with no menus with TMPGEnc DVD Author, my resultant footage doesn't seem correct with regards to the objects and subjects. I still have a widescreen frame with black top/bottom borders but everything looks a bit squished (fatter), not terrible, but noticable.

It's driving me nuts! Any pointers/reasons for this?

Thanks,
Lex

[Sillyname]

You have your camera set for 16:9?
You have VEGAS set for 16:9?
I think your DVD output is correct, otherwise your DVD player wouldn't be letterboxing your video for 4:3 displays.

Take out anything having to do with 4:3 between what your camera is set for and what you output to DVD. Fine-toothed comb time!