Well, I edited a project that I shot 16:9 in FCP and all clips were checked to be captured anamorphic. I dragged and dropped it in idvd and my dvd is not displaying 16:9 on the tv. what am I missing here I wonder? Thanks

You have to put it on a 4/3 timeline to see it 16/9 on your tv.

In DVD Studio Pro you have to check the Inspector and change the options for your track to be 16:9 instead of 4:3 when you are dealing with anamorphic video. You might look for a similar option in iDVD.

Thanks guys. I was looking at another thread and it seemed that this this could also be a quicktime issue. someone said this could possibly be tweeked in a setting option there?

What version of iDVD are you using? One of the earlier versions had a bug where you couldn't import 16:9 footage. There was a work around, but it was very messy and involved HEX editors...

Avoid iDVD, and just go straight to DVD Studio Pro. It's just as fast to get your project set up and exported to DVD.

Export out of Final Cut Pro as a "Quicktime Movie", then import that file into DVD Studio Pro, ensuring that you have "16:9 Letterbox" selected.

You should be able to create a 16x9 DVD project. I did this with episodes of "24" I purchased from iTunes, and it played perfectly on both my 4x3 TV, and Widescreen TV.

simple.
open the video in quicktime.
type "command"+"j" or "Window", then "show movie properties"
select "video track"
the select "Visual Settings"
uncheck "preserve aspect ratio"
then change the scaled size to "853 X 480" (this will not effect video quality one bit)
You're DONE!!!!

sometimes you need to go to the main clip then "presentation" and un check the "conform aperature to:" box.

That's It!

http://capital2.capital.edu/admin-staff/dalthoff/widescreen.html

Note that iDVD 6 has a bug such that the menus on a 16:9 project aren't flagged to appear as letterboxed on a 4:3 TV, but the movies will play as properly letterboxed. iDVD '08 has fixed that bug, but it seems a bit less stable (like every new iLife release). I mostly work with 4:3 anyway, so I'm going to revert back to iDVD '06 until all the bugs are sorted out.

-Terence