Windows Media Player Stretching Video?

[awally]

I have converted avi video files to mpg, so I can burn them on a DVD and watch on my DVD player. When I use windows media player to open the mpg video, it appears short and stretched, like it's using a widescreen ratio. When I use PowerDVD to open it, it looks as it should.
In EOVideo (when converting), I am setting the output to match the size of the input video, so it should be right...right?

Thanks

[monzie]

I could be wrong, but I think that WMP only 'understands' 1:1 pixel ratios (pc based, eg. avi's) whilst mpeg1 (and mpeg2) has a pixel ratio of approx 0.91 :1 (for ntsc) or 1.1 :1 (for PAL), these values are usually written as fractions, ntsc = 10/11 and PAL = 59/54..

..a good software media player (ie something that will play DVD's 'correctly' on a pc) will correct the problem by 'shrinking' or 'stretching' the horizontal resolution by the required amount (though it is always a 'best fit' solution as you cant have split pixels). Therefore normal 4:3 mpeg encodings are 10% off true when displayed as 1:1 pixels....most notable on things like cars or close ups of faces.

Remember mpeg1 and mpeg2 ARE PRIMARILY DESIGNED FOR TV PLAYBACK and TV's do not use 1:1 pixel ratios.

The problem is far worse when dealing with 16:9 mpeg2 encodings.

To understand the problem better go here:

http://www.mir.com/DMG/aspect.html

HTH