Proper Widescreen Video

[phatslug]

Im a little unclear as how to do some proper widescreen video.
So my camcorder has a Widescreen option. Now with it enabled or not, capturing gets me a 720x480 DV. The Widescreen version is not letterboxed, just looks stretched vertically. Does this mean that my camcorder records w/ better vertical resolution using Widescreen?

So that out of the way. I use Vegas Video. What settings should I be using under File->Properties... Should it be NTSC Widescreen? If I plan to burn to DVD, should I not do letterboxing and let the DVD player do so on the fly? What settings should I use for that? And if I want to put on VHS, I need to letterbox on the computer, what settings should I use? Also, when rendering, theres the 'Stretch video to fit output frame size' In what cases should that be used?

Thanks for helping to shed any light on this...

[thxkid]

it actually sounds like your camcorder is doing 16x9 widescreen, which means it will look normal on a 16x9 TV, but might get stretched, unless you record it as a 16x9 with no bars, then the DVD player should have its own 16x9 encoder built inside which will add the bars when played back on a 4:3 TV, once you add a 16x9 TV those bars should be gone and a nice widescreen image on the 16x9 TV with no or very little bars if its a ratio of 1:85 to one, no bars on a 16x9. If2:35 to one yes you will still have bars, but I doubt very much if the camcorder does anything but a ratio of 1:85 to 1 for widescreen recording.