Aspect ratio problem- AVI to DVD-MPEG1

[natrap]

I've got a bunch of video files in AVI format (XviD) that I wish to burn to DVD to be playable in a standard DVD player. I wish to put around 400 minutes of video on each disc and I've found that MPEG1/VCD is the best for that quality/size, plus encoding to MPEG2 takes substantially longer than encoding to MPEG1 - I've also read somewhere that MPEG2 is better than MPEG1 only at higher bitrates than VCD.

Anyway, so what I do is convert the AVI (624x352 res, 23.976 fps) to VCD standard MPEG1 files (352x240 res, 29.97 fps, 1150kbps) except with 48khz audio instead of 44.1khz audio so that it will meet the DVD standard and then use TMPGEnc DVD Author.

The source videos are widescreen - typically 624x352 resolution being an aspect ratio of about 1.77. Using TMPGEnc Plus I used to select Full Screen (keep aspect ratio) as the Video arrange Method and this would create a 4:3 ratio video with horizontal lines at the top and bottom so that the actual video appears in its correct ratio. This worked fine for a 4:3 TV but when watching it on a 16:9 TV it displays vertical lines on the sides as well (to be expected since the DVD is 4:3).

What I would like is to create a DVD that uses the full span of a 16:9 TV and will have horizontal lines on a 4:3 TV - the behaviour of a proper commercial DVD I believe - so that the video is always displayed fully (I hate when the sides are cut off or when there is vacant space on the sides) and in its original proportion (I hate when the video looks stretched vertically).

I've switched to TMPGEnc 3.0 Xpress (partly because it accepts VBR audio which the AVIs have so I don't need to save the audio as WAV first using Virtualdub like I do when using TMPGEnc Plus). I'm guessing that the answer lies in the proper combination setting of the Aspect Ratio within Advanced Clip Settings on the Clip Info tab on the Set Source tab, and the Aspect Ratio on the Video tab using MPEG output on the Set Output tab. I've tried it a few times but so far I've not got the right result.

Frankly I'm starting to wonder if it is possible.

I'd very much appreciate any assistance/advice that anyone can give.

Thanks in advance.

P.S. I know having a AVI/XviD capable DVD player would remove this whole problem - I do have one, but I'm creating this DVD for people who only have a standard DVD player.

[Cornucopia]

(Going from memory here)

IIRC, you'll not be able to use 16:9/Anamorphic setting when encoding to MPEG1 (though it can be done--"FullScreen", not "FullScreen w/maintain aspect ratio", and 16:9 in AR settings) MAINLY because the DVD spec doesn't support 16:9 AR for anything that isn't full D1 (aka 720x480/576 or 704x480/576).

So you're going to be STUCK with hard-coded letterboxing (AND with pillarboxing also when shown on a 16:9TV).

Scott

[guns1inger]

If your TV supports manual vertical compression, as many 4:3 with 16:9 switching TVs do, then you could encode them as anamorphic without the AR flag, and then switch and zoom for playback. However not all TV support this, and frankly, using VCD resolution for playback on a large screen TV is just ludicrous as the quality will be appalling - doubly so if you have to zzom in to hide the pillarboxing.