Problem converting widescreen AVI > 4:3 TV/DVD with Toast 7

[dbond]

Hello Video Helpers,

I'm having some trouble with a couple widescreen formatted AVI's.

With 4:3 AVI's and Toast, I'm able to just drop the file into the Video tab of Toast, select DVD-Video, burn and it plays fone on my DVD player/TV (which is a 4:3).

When I have a widescreen AVI, the same process leads to the picture being displayed at the full height of my TV with the sides of the picture being cut off, rather than having the black bars across the top and bottom. Like it's automatically formatting the AVI for Full Screen.

Is there a way I can burn it with Toast so that it doesn't reformat the picture and plays the full widescreen?

Any help or advice would be appreciated. Thanks!

[Case]

Are you sure that what you're experiencing isn't a preference setting of your DVD player? It seems like it is set to pan-and-scan rather than letterbox.

(There was a very similar thread on Roxio's Toast forum about this.)

[dbond]

Hi Case,

Thanks for the repy. Wow, I dumb. I was in fact the exact setting you mentioned.

Strange that widescreen formatted DVDs play fine... that's what threw me off I guess.

Thanks for the help!

[Case]

16:9 DVDs encoded by Toast are "Auto Pan and Scan" and "Auto Letterbox" on 4:3 screens. Maybe future versions will allow the user to select just one of these settings, making that the prefered way of playback?

[dbond]

Yes, I agree. It would make sense if under the Video tab when you select the file you're burning and click edit there was an option to choose.

However, it was in fact my DVD player that was the culprit. It's an NAD T514. Simple menu tweak and it was fine..

Maybe it escapes me, but I can't think of a good reason why I'd want to 'Pan & Scan' at all for a movie.