Hi, this is my 1st post, so please be kind, I'm very new to this!!
One thing I hate about owning a DVD player(pioneer dv355) is the fact that many dvd's are coming out in 2.35:1, I know some people love it, but I paid for a whole TV(4:3) & would like to see at least most of the screen display something.The 16:9 setting stretches everything & the pan & scan setting does nothing, the book says the disk settings often over-ride this

I thought I would try ripping the dvd's & reformatting them to display in 16:9 or 4:3, but the result on my PC monitor is also stretched,is there a way to do this? I've been using DVD Decrypter & Main Concept.
Strange though WinDvd allows the pan & scan to work when playing disks, so I thought I might just play dvd's on the PC & use a TV-out card but then read that quality with these is lousy,before reading this I also tried converting to DivX, & got some good results using cropping & resolution changes, but thought I needed to play them on the PC also, I've just read some posts in another section & find there are some players that support DivX.
Whats the best solution for me, I don't own a DVD burner yet , but was thinking of a Pioneer a05 or a06, if DivX is best I found that I could fit about 2 hrs on a 80 min cd at good quality.
One last thing does anyone know if disks burnt with a a05 or a06 are playable on a dv355?

Any advice!!!
Thanx for any info!
Smut