NTSC -> PAL Aspect Ratio

[AWingfield]

Ok, I'm converting my DV tapes to PAL format and putting them on DVD for my friend who lives in Spain. I don't have a settop PAL DVD player, so I can't test them here. However, when I test it on the computer, the image looks stretched. Is this because I'm playing it on the computer or is this how it will look on his TV? Is there a way to maintain the original aspect ration by adding black bars or the like? I've tried playing with the settings on TMPGEnc under Video Arrange Method, but it doesn't seem to have any effect, at least when viewed on the computer.

Thanks!
-Andrew

[geek rock]

don't worry about how it looks on the computer.. the set-top DVD player will stretch the picture to full size and it will appear correctly. (how do you think 480 x 480 = square SVCDs appear correctly on a TV screen?)

the only reason it would look "stretched" on the TV screen is if you stretch widescreen 16:9 video to fill a 4:3 screen.

you're not working with widescreen (as far as i know) so you should be ok..