Nothing like trying to author a DVD humble myself.

I've done lots of research and following many of the step by step instructions and I am still having some very frustrating issues.

I'm working with Prospect/CS3 and TMPGEnc.

I'll start at the end... I continually end up with DVDs that playback on 16:9 sets (one via a desktop player, and the second is a portable widescreen unit) with Letterboxing.

My only solution has been to take my CFHD file into TMPGEnc and output an MPEG file in a 4:3, effectively squishing the 16:9 source. On playback, the 16:9 display stretches out the video. Obviously this isn't the correct way to do things, because if viewed on a 4:3 monitor, the squished image is what you will get.

To complicate matters, Encore is not enjoying any flavor of Cineform, whether HDV, full raster HD, or even Widescreen SD. I get an "Adobe Encore Debug Event [..\..\Src\Time.ccp-105]

I've read some of the prescriptions for getting clips into Encore via Virtual Dub, etc... but nowhere are the details of selected aspect ratios. TMPGEnc offers 4:3 and 16:9 in a display option, or the actual pixel ratios.

I thought I knew this stuff.... but here I am, begging for wisdom.

Try this first : CineForm Insider: Mastering 24p DVDs from HD using Premiere Pro. (http://cineform.blogspot.com/2008/12/mastering-24p-dvds-from-hd-using.html)

Hi David.... thanks for the support as usual.

Does your article apply if I output my CFHD @ 1920 x 1080 60i ?

And when you rescale... what pixel aspect do you select? In my case, with TMPGEnc.... I can choose between 4:3 or 16:9. The obvious choice to me is 16:9.... but that seems to be where my problems get started.

No it doesn't, so just ignore the 24p bits. The point is this workflow doesn't have aspect ratio issues. Nor does it require TMPGEnc.

Thanks David.... I'm following the guidelines as we speak.