Okay, so some other threads have been confusing me a little. So I have to ask this widescreen question again.

Background Info:
I'm taking my GL-1 on a trip and plan to shoot a lot of footage over the next week. I'm still trying to figure out how I'm going to shoot it. Either in regular mode or 16x9 stretch mode. I have a widescreen TV so the 16x9 stretch mode is appealing. I know that you lose some resolution but it's still decent. Or maybe I haven't tested it enough. Anybody have a widescreen TV and have shot in 16x9 stretch mode and can comment on the quality of the image? Again, I know you lose some resolution but the real test of quality is just looking at it and how it appeals to you.

Okay, but here's the real question I need answered. Say I do shoot in 16x9 stretch mode...but I want to pass on my finished footage to other people who only have 4:3 TVs. In Adobe Premiere, i've discovered that you can just create a standard DV NTSC project and when you import your 16x9 stretched footage, you can just set the clip to maintain it's aspect ratio. Now whenever I import that clip into the current project it wont look stretched...and black bars will automatically be placed on top and bottom. So i'm good when I export this project as DV Standard. I have letterboxed widescreen footage that can be played on a 4:3 TV. It doesn't seem like I would lose any resolution at all here when played back on a 4:3 TV. that's the question I need answered. Because if no resolution is lost then I won't lose with shooting in 16x9 stretch mode.

Can you please give me the step-by-step instructions on how you are importing to Premiere like this for exporting with bars? I haven't had a lot of spare time to play around with Premiere to figure this out and any tips would be appreciated.

Sure.

1) Record footage on your camcorder in 16x9 stretch mode
2) Open up Adobe Premiere and create the project you want. For example, DV NTSC Standard
3) Goto menu: File, Capture, Movie Capture to capture your footage from your camcorder into premiere.
4) The captured footage will appear as a clip in the project window
5) Select the clip in the project window then go to menu: Clip, Video Options and select Maintain Aspect Ratio. That's it. Now anytime you add this clip into the timeline it will not be stretched. It will be the correct aspect ratio, centered with black bars on top and bottom.
6) To change the colors of the bars...with the clip in the project window still selected, goto menu: Clip, Video Options and select Aspect Fill Color.

You can also do a search on Aspect Ratios through the documentation and there is a section entitled maintaining the aspect ratio or something like that which explains it.