My footage is a mixture of 24pa and 60i. both anamorphic 16:9.

When I export using compressor DVD best quality...my MPEG-2 comes out stretched vertically! What am I doing wrong? I've been searching, but can't find an answer, any help is appreciated.

Best case scenario, the footage will have black bars when played on a 4:3 tv, and will play full screen when played on a 16:9 television.

I realized that I did not choose 16:9 for my aspect ration in converter. I changed that, and I'm currently converting..i'm just concerned because the "preview" in converter did not seem to show a correct output.

I have Final Cut Pro Studio 6

Thanks

[dan]

How are you viewing the MPEG2? If with Quicktime on a Mac, then it SHOULD be stretched vertically - that's what anamorphic means - anamorphic pixels are NOT supposed to be shown on a square pixel computer screen, hence the picture appears too narrow.

Put it on a DVD (specifying 16:9) and it should display from a DVD set-top player on a TV OK (provided that you've set the DVD player up correctly, to use a widescreen TV).

That's exactly the point of anamorphic 16:9. Note that a DVD player then takes this and unstretches it, for maximum resolution in that new (though oddly rectangular) image.
FCP does the same thing while editing.
In Quicktime Pro, if you wish, you can go into movie properties, video track, display, then set the width to 854 pixels (after unchecking the relative box), and you will be able to see it stretched for preview purposes.