Why is DV aspect ratio not 4:3 ???

[EricM]

I have a Sony PC120 DV Camcorder
The software it supplies captures to an AVI file in DV format of resolution 720x576
When i play this file in windows media player it shows a black bar to the left and right of the picture

Is it actually missing a bit of the picture or is it a squashed/streched image?

Using the DV software that came with the camera Ulead VideoStudio 5.0 DV it allows me to further compress the DV in AVI and MPEG (and probably other formats)

What i want to do is convert the DV formatted AVI file onto a DVD disc to play in a dvd player
Using NeroVision express if i use the DV format AVI file i get poor picture quality on the dvd, far worse then if i had just recorded it onto VHS
If i compress the DV using videostudio to an avi file compressed with divx first (and set the resolution to 640:480 which is 4:3) i get far better quality

But converting DV to divx and then from divx onto dvd is and incredibly slow process

On a 1min 30sec clip it takes about 5 mins to compress to divx and then 10 mins to transcode the divx file onto a dvd, imagine me trying to do this with a 2 hour recording, i would have to leave it all day!!!

Is there some good software that will convert the AVI file from DV format to MPEG2 DVD, it doesnt matter if its expensive, i want good quality

[Bondiablo]

TMPGEnc Plus $48

http://www.tmpgenc.net/e_main.html

[The village idiot]

Sometimes media player makes DV video look "odd". You may not have a problem. As far as software for converting, you could use 2 products from http://www.puremotion.com. Download the demo version of EditStudio, and mpegXS and give those a try. The editor has an easy to learn interface, and the mpegXS is based on the Main Concept mpeg encoder, which is quick and better quality than a lot of the other in-expensive encoders.