How to encode a 4:3 DVD to guarantee correct aspect ratio on HDTV?

[brassplyer]

I find with my LG Blu-Ray player when I make a 4:3 DVD, it always stretches it. No zoom setting on the TV or the player fixes this.

One solution is to encode the DVD as pillar-boxed 16:9 with a 4:3 image in the center but my understanding is this robs quality from the image to devote to the pillarboxing.

Is there some way to ensure that any player/TV will correctly size 4:3 video?

Thanks

[jagabo]

I find with my LG Blu-Ray player when I make a 4:3 DVD, it always stretches it.

That is a setup problem on the player or TV. All players and TVs know how to pillarbox 4:3 sources.

[newpball]

Nothing to do with the blu-ray player, but everything with the software settings. You need to make sure the aspect ratio is 4:3 / full screen / standard or whatever other terminology the burning software uses.

[smrpix]

If a commercial (store-bought) 4:3 movie plays incorrectly jagabo's answer is best -- check the setup on your hardware. If it does play correctly, use newpall's solution and check your software.

[DB83]

Have you tried playing a commercial 4:3 disk ?

I would concur with jagabo since there could well be a player setting, pretty much hidden, that controls the screen display since the natural default would be wider than 4:3

As an example, I have a upscaling dvd recorder/player and that defaults to full screen over hdmi. But there is an alternative setting for 4:3

[johns0]

I do a lot of service calls for setting up new lcd tvs including lg and they all have a zoom feature,best to read your manual on how to set it,most tv controls you can zoom right away,other sets you have to go into the setup to make sure that 4:3 is set to display properly.

[jman98]

I find with my LG Blu-Ray player when I make a 4:3 DVD, it always stretches it. No zoom setting on the TV or the player fixes this.

I have seen this with a Philips DVD (yes DVD and not BD) player I own that uses an HDMI connection to my TV. My TV (Vizio) lacks a button on the remote control to force 4:3 playback so I had to fix this on the DVD player. I tried a bunch of things and the only thing that works is to set the DVD player for 480p output. This somehow preserves 4:3 aspect ratios. If I have a widescreen DVD I'm watching, I leave the DVD player output at 1080p.

[jagabo]

We have an LG BD650 Blu-ray player set to upscale 4:3 DVD with pillarboxing. It works just fine.